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How far can Philip Rivers take the San Diego Chargers?

By Dan Salem

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Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Philip Rivers has his San Diego Chargers poised for a monster season. But their regular season performance rarely dictates post season success. With the playoffs a solid lock, how far can Philip Rivers take the San Diego Chargers? Dan Salem and Todd Salem debate in part two of this week’s TD Sports Debate. Two brothers from New York yell, scream and debate the NFL and sports.

[Part one – Was that the real New England Patriots]

TODD:

Can things be working out any better for the San Diego Chargers right now?

There was tons of sleeper buzz surrounding this team entering the season. Last year, they were frisky but atrocious on defense. That was sure to improve, and it has. The schedule was also always going to be somewhat in their favor since Kansas City was going to slip back to the pack, even if just slightly, and Oakland was going to be one of the worst collection of athletes in the history of American sport. So that helped.

However, with this season having some weeks under its belt, things look even better than anticipated. The Chargers are the only four-win team in the entire conference. To boot, as I mentioned prior to the Arizona – Denver game last week, SD’s week one loss to Arizona was somewhat fluky, and if the two teams played again, San Diego would win easily.

After that, the impressive Seattle win (albeit at home) was followed up by the biggest parting of the schedule seas imaginable. Buffalo, Jacksonville, the Jets in the midst of a QB crisis, now Oakland and then Kansas City.

Besides two upcoming games against the Broncos, there are at most two or three tough contests remaining for the Chargers all year. They play against New England and at both San Francisco and Kansas City to finish out the year. Those won’t all be easy. The rest of the games though?

12 wins are in the bank. 13 wins are possible.

Philip Rivers is a front-runner for league MVP right now, mainly because Quarterbacks! but he has been stellar to the tune of 70.3 completion percentage and a 12:2 touchdown to interception ratio.

The defense has also completely flipped the switch. San Diego currently ranks in the top 10 in both pass defense and rush defense. Now that is in large part thanks to the schedule once again. The defense isn’t this good, but it is also not a liability like last season. Once the running game contributors get healthy, this team is pretty well-rounded.

San Diego is going to make the playoffs. What should we expect out of it once it gets there though?

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DAN:

The Chargers are certainly making the playoffs, baring unforeseen circumstances, and they look down right dominating after five games. But if history is any indication, and it usually is, I’m avoiding San Diego’s bandwagon entirely.

The San Diego Chargers have been to the Super Bowl only once. I’ll set that stat aside, as it has little bearing on the Philip Rivers era. Under Rivers the Chargers have only had a losing record one season and have made the playoffs in five on eight years with him at the helm. That’s the positive history.

The negative history shows that San Diego’s playoff performance has little to do with its regular season win totals. Only three times has a Rivers led team put up double digit wins in the regular season, and only one of those years did the team get out of the first round.

Long story short, I don’t have faith in the Chargers in the playoffs.

San Diego seems to get into matchup trouble once its win or go home. If the running game comes around then this issue will be somewhat alleviated. However, I’m not ready to give them a single playoff victory. Don’t get me wrong, I think this team is very good. But a matchup against Manning, Brady, or Luck in round one spells big trouble.

I like what I’m seeing down in San Diego, but strength of schedule has falsely boosted the teams image. The weather is warm around the country and the Chargers are a warm weather team. It’s not surprising they have shined in the early months of the season. But I expect things to level off once temperatures begin to drop. Momentum will be key to any postseason success.

Enough blustering; here’s my prediction. The Chargers win a playoff game, but will not be representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. A great regular season ends with a similar finish to last year.

[If you missed Part one – Was that the real New England Patriots]

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