(1) For many years, the so-called experts have spent countless hours extolling the ability of Peyton Manning to win football games despite injuries to key offensive players like Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai. As a result of Manning’s competitiveness and commitment to excellence, he has made obscure players like Brandon Stokely, Pierre Garcon, Austin Collie and Jacob Tamme into household names and fantasy football sensations. Manning’s unique ability to incorporate new players without missing a beat is going to be as big a part of his legacy as his numerous records, Iron Man streak and Super Bowl ring. However, I believe it is time for the experts to direct some of the same high praise in the direction of Philip Rivers. Rivers may not have Manning’s track record, but he is doing more with less better than Manning has ever done it. Rivers entered the season without the services of Pro Bowl wide receiver Vincent Jackson and things have gotten progressively worse. Over the last couple of weeks, he has seen injuries take down Malcom Floyd, Legedu Naanee and Antonio Gates. As a result, he entered Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans without his top four targets. Nevertheless, Rivers threw for over 290 yards and four touchdowns and led the Chargers to a huge road victory. He connected twice for touchdowns with back-up tight end Randy McMichael and twice for touchdowns with practice squad rookie Seyi Ajirotutu, who had just been promoted to the active roster within the last two weeks. This type of performance has become commonplace for Rivers this season. He has five 300-yard games to his credit and has thrown for more yards than any other quarterback in NFL history through the first nine games of the season. He has succeeded despite the fact that the Chargers have fumbled the ball away an astonishing 16 times through nine games. He has carried the load despite the fact that every opponent focuses on stopping San Diego’s passing game because they have no running game to speak of. He has shined despite the fact that the Chargers have one of the worst, if not the single worst, special teams in the NFL. If you didn’t notice, the Chargers suffered their fifth blocked or tipped punt of the season, which is the second highest total for a single season in NFL history. For the most part, they have been unable to overcome their mistakes, which explain why they are 4-5 despite having the number one ranked offense and defense in the league. However, they were able to win despite themselves for the second week in a row thanks in large part to the heroics of Philip Rivers. He has rolled with every punch and demonstrated great maturity and leadership despite being faced with the absence of nearly all his established offensive weapons. As a result, Rivers should be at the top of every mid-season MVP list. He is at the top of mine.
(2) I’m a little despondent at the news that Wade Phillips has been fired as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Over his tenure in Big D, Phillips had become one of my favorite whipping boys as result of his dopey appearance, grandfatherly mannerisms and poor coaching decisions. I’m going to miss Phillips’ folksy ways, but at least I still have the putrid Oakland Raiders to ridicule. You know, the same Raiders that haven’t won more than five games since their Super Bowl appearance in 2002. The same Raiders that blew millions of dollars and three seasons on the JaMarcus Russell experiment. The same Raiders that have hired and fired the boy wonder, Lane Kiffin, and Art Shell’s corpse since making their Super Bowl run. The same Raiders that are owned by whatever remains of Al Davis’ body. Those Raiders will never let me down. They are going to continue to suck as long as I need material for my weekly observations. Hold on a minute, what is that you say? The Raiders just won their third consecutive game for the first time since 2002 and head into their bye week just a half-game behind division-leading Kansas City. You are kidding me, right? No really, Oakland has a winning record for the first time since being 2-1 in 2004 and hasn’t had a winning record this late in the season since the Bill Callahan days. Well, they can’t possibly keep this going. For God’s sake, we are talking about the Oakland Raiders here! They have never been able to overcome the deadly trio of penalties, turnovers and terrible quarterback play. Well, I’m here to tell you that something is changing in the Bay Area. The Raiders won a tough division game despite committing 13 penalties, turning the ball over three times and going long stretches offensively where they wouldn’t have been able to move the football against the Kansas Jayhawks much less the Chiefs. These Oakland Raiders are starting to show signs that they are once again contenders in the AFC West. Their defense has dominated three consecutive opponents and kept the Raiders close in a game they had no business winning against Kansas City. They swallowed up the Chiefs’ running game that had produced three straight games with more than 200 yards rushing and generated enough pressure on Matt Cassel to keep the Kansas City offense off balance. In addition, they finally are getting some competent play from their starting quarterback, which is something that we all thought would happen when Jason Campbell was traded to Oakland. Most importantly, they are developing an identity that had defined the organization for most of its existence, but had gone missing over the last eight years. They are starting to be the big, bad Oakland Raiders once again. Their defense is kicking ass and taking names led by Tommy Kelly and Richard Seymour up front, rookie Rolando McClain in the middle and shut down corner Nnamdi Asomugha on the outside. On the flip side, their offense has decided to play a smashmouth style of football led by a running game that is conjuring up memories of the good old days with Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson. I’m not ready to anoint them the division winner because it takes more than three weeks to turn around a losing culture, but I will admit that they are going to make things very interesting down the stretch.
(3) Heading into their bye week, the Green Bay Packers are finally starting to look like the team that I believed would make it to the Super Bowl. They had struggled through the first six weeks of the season, losing three games by a combined nine points, while many people wondered if too much had been put on them too soon. In reality, the preseason expectations were not weighing them down, but they were being impacted greatly by the onslaught of injuries that have hit them this season. They played Sunday night without their leading rusher (Ryan Grant), starting tight end (JerMichael Finley), leading tackler (Nick Barnett) and starting cornerback (Al Harris). As a result of the injuries, I think it has taken them time to adjust to playing with the guys they have available. Fortunately for cheese heads everywhere, it appears that the adjustment period is complete. In the last three weeks, they have shaken the Brett Favre gorilla off their back, shut out an AFC powerhouse on the road and dominated America’s Team on national television. The common thread through the current winning streak has been that their defense has started to play at the level that made them one of the top five defenses in the NFL in 2009. In their week seven victory over Minnesota, the Packers defense intercepted Favre three times, which included Desmond Bishop’s interception return for a touchdown that sealed the victory. They took a huge step forward the following week with a dominating performance over the New York Jets. They forced three additional turnovers and held Mark Sanchez to an abominable 43.3 passer rating. In light of the horrible performance by the Packers offense, the defense won the game pretty much singlehandedly. In fact, it was just the fourth time since 1935 that the Packers have scored fewer than 10 points in a shut out victory. The coup de grace for Green Bay came this week against the Dallas Cowboys when both their offense and defense put on clinics for the nation to see. The Packers held Dallas to a mere 205 total yards and forced four turnovers including a Clay Matthews’ interception return for a touchdown and Nick Collins’ fumble return for a touchdown. Green Bay confused the Dallas offense all night long and it resulted in four quarterback sacks, numerous hurries and even a couple tipped balls at the line of scrimmage. The Cowboys were under siege all game. If the Packers can continue this high level of play after the bye week, then I fully expect them to run away with the NFC North and secure one of the top two seeds in the playoffs. If they make this happen, then they will be well on their way to fulfilling the promise that the 2010 season held for them.
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