Houston, You Have A Problem: His Name is Rivers

Source: YardBarker.com

In a crazy game (is this new, they seem to be always crazy these days) our San Diego Chargers were able to pick up our first road victory of the season. Here is the breakdown of the game:

First Quarter:

San Diego win the opening kickoff and Jacob Hester fields a ball that either could have wound up out of bounds or through the end zone. It was another clueless play that our Special Teams made and this is how we started it out. After a 3 and out deep in our own territory, we had to settle for a punt out of the end zone. HERE WE GO!!! If you didn’t watch it, I am sure you can guess what happened… A BLOCKED PUNT AGAIN!!! Scifres punt was blocked and this time the ball ended up traveling a yard, so it may not be officially a BLOCK. On the next play, the Texans run the ball with Arian Foster and he goes in untouched for a TD.

Philip Rivers takes over on the next drive and finds undrafted rookie Seyi Ajirotutu on a 55 yard play action pass for a touchdown to tie up the ballgame. Houston counters with a FG and San Diego takes another possession. The Chargers then take the ball and Rivers finds fill-in Randy McMichael for a TD with two players draped all over him. He looked a little like Antonio Gates on the play.

San Diego 14 Houston 10

Second Quarter

The Chargers started out the quarter with the ball and looked to get Ryan Mathews some work. He carried the ball to the right side and was stood up and he FUMBLED (yea… again) the ball and allowed Houston to recover. Then Arian Foster just started taking over the half. He finished the game with 127 yards rushing and 2 TDs. In the first half, Foster had both of his TDs and 90+ yards on the ground.  On Houston’s next possession, Foster ran in a 2 yard touchdown.

Houston then got the ball back and we were saved by the “Megatron” rule. Early in the season, Calvin Johnson, of the Detroit Lions, looked to have caught a game winning TD against the Chicago Bears in which he lost the ball when he touched the ground. Both feet were down and even his butt was down before he “lost the ball.” The call was reviewed and the play was ruled in incompletion. In this game, Matt Schaub found Arian Foster in the end zone in which he caught, both feet down, and then went down and lost possession when he went to the ground. Initial ruling was a TD, but instant replay called it an incompletion. They settled for the field goal.

Houston 20 San Diego 14

Time for the second half San Diego Chargers to step their game up. Houston opened up the half with possession and just moved it down the Chargers throat. Arian Foster looked like he was just going to be unstoppable ALL DAY long! The Coach Gary Kubiak helped us out! With the ball at our 11 yard line, he pulled Arian Foster for Derrick Ward to see if he could get the score. We were able to stop him from scoring and held them to the FG.

Now give Rivers the ball and watch what he does with it!! We start with a run and then a short pass over to Patrick Crayton. Crayton was able to turn the short pass into a 47 yard gain while stiff arming the defender down the field. A few plays later, Antonio Gates Randy McMichael makes a onhe handed catch in the end zone for the TD.

Houston 23 – San Diego 21

Fourth Quarter

The Texans drove the ball all the way to the Charger 17 and were left with a 4th down and 1 to go to start the quarter. Simple play call, Arian Foster has been running wild all day long, give the ball to Foster. They give the ball to Foster and Shaun Phillips slips by the defenders and makes the play in the backfield to cause the turnover on downs. Bend, but don’t break Defense.

The Chargers looked to get the defense some rest and started running the ball a little bit. On a play action pass deep, Rivers missed Crayton on what would have been a 67 yard TD. The next play, Philip Rivers was hit below the knees and threw the interception. SIGH!

The defense held with a key sack by Eric Strickland and got the ball in Philip’s hands AGAIN. You can only give Rivers so many opportunities before he BURNS you. On this possession, Rivers found Tutu again for a deep touchdown pass. It was one on one coverage on the left side, and Rivers beat the coverage with a 28 yard TD.

Now it was up to our defense to finish off the game. Houston takes possession and decides to run the hurry up offense. Passing the ball all over the field and then were left to a 4th and 1 play. They hurry up and call for the QB sneak. The Chargers stuffed them and took over possession on downs. The Chargers were not able to do anything with their possession and had to give Houston the ball one more time. Arian Foster (oh yea, remember him!!) had a long 33 yard gain on the possession and started moving the ball down the field again. Then, Matt Schaub goes over the middle to Andre Johnson which Johnson then knees up into the air for Paul Oliver to intercept the pass!!! SIGH of RELIEF!!

San Diego 29 – Houston 23

The Chargers played this game without a number of starters on their offense. Vincent Jackson, Malcom Floyd, Legedu Naanee, Antonio Gates, and Kris Dielman all were unable to contribute to the offense that finished with 290 passing yards. King Rivers was able to use all his weapons and bring the team back to a 4-5 record headed into the mush needed BYE week. The Chargers will be able to get a lot of rest to all the injuries and should be able to have a lot of key players back for the late run. Now we have to root for the Raiders and Chiefs to just beat each other up with the Raiders hopefully winning (I hope to never say that statement again).