Fair enough, don't remember the details of the timing myself, but I would have thought we could work him out during same timeframe as Saints. No matter now. For the record, I think the Bolts are right on track for the VL if the defense keeps improving and Rivers returns to 2010 form.
I can see why people want to wish it away, but the fact remains that it will be discussed long after these QB's careers are over that the Bolts kept one over the other. And the "other" won a SB and reinvigorated and entire franchise... while the "one" became a great QB without a ring and faded away with a mediocre team. So yeah... in order to avoid this dead horse in the future... Rivers has to beat Brees... and then win a SB. Rivers knows this... however deep in the back of his mind it resides... he knows. And AJ definitely knows it.
BTW... you can blame Marty for all of it. Because had he played Rivers in that meaningless game vs Denver... perhaps the Chargers would have at least had some leverage in negotiating a deal for one of their QBs... and gotten something in return for his departure.
Marty "the quarterback killer" wanted to upgrade so that alone tells me a lot of what he thought of Brees, he didn't.
Partially agree. Put it this way, if the Chargers beat the Saints but never win a Super Bowl then the issue won't go away. If the Chargers never beat the Saints, but Rivers wins a Super Bowl, the issue will go way. So whether or not the Chargers beat the Saints really doesn't matter. ****, they play each other once every 4 years, so it registers as a big 'so what' in terms of Rivers vs Brees.
So instead of last night being a big "so what" in terms of Rivers vs. Brees... it ends up being a big F**K YOU from Brees to the Chargers. That was a monumental collapse.
But won't add anything to the Brees vs Rivers myth. In the end it was Brees toasting a sleeping Chargers D, the Saints front 7 getting the best of the Chargers OL, and Norv getting outcoached by a temp.
That's your reality. Cool. I see it differently. (and that wasn't a sleeping chargers D. That was the Chargers D trying to do whatever it could to stop the bleeding - everything else you said tho'... I agree with)
It was always going to be a shootout and we came up on the wrong side. Blame Norv, blame the refs, blame our D, blame giving Brees away blah blah blah. Bottom line is, nobody knows what would have happened if we kept Brees, we may have never won a super bowl, we may have won 3. Nobody knows that if Rivers played for New Orleans if they would hoist a Lombardi or even make the post season. The biggest disgraces were the Saints brass being allowed to watch the game and Jenkins treatment of a former teammate...you didn't see anyone hit Sproles after the play did you? The fact is both QBs have a lot of respect for each other and that showed after the game. Rivers bears no ill will towards the refs at least according to press conferences and Norv could not have had anything to do with several dropped passes, non calls, and bad calls. Drew Brees does not bear any ill will against the Chargers for releasing him, he knows he probably would have done the same thing. Rivers doesn't have to do anything to 'get the monkey off his back'...what he needed was that DB off Floyds back or else a flag. Or how about letting Gates just catch a ball instead of calling him on a hand slap (remember last years hand slap TD taken away from Gates?) Rivers was so frothing for a comeback win you could see it in his eyes, he's a gamer, but in no way was that loss or last drive on him. That's football, it sucks to lose. The fact is we are one game up in our division with the chance to make it 2 and make it right on Natl. TV. The rest of the country saw that poor officiating and I doubt the refs will be quick to flag the Chargers again. I'd take 4-2 going into the bye....I'd probably have taken 3-3 and tied at the start of the season as well.
The Rivers vs Brees thing is played, especially once we get down to 'that's your/my/Rivers/Brees reality' type of stuff. The Chargers D looked like crap from the Ingram call on. NO's 3rd down conversion rate was 2/3 from that point on. Only 3 3rd downs? Yep cause they getting their 10 yds on either 1st or 2nd down. That's not stopping the bleeding, that's dumping glass on the wound. At some point you've gotta hold the players accountable for that kind of 'defense.'
I hold the players accountable. Of course. I'm just saying... this is the Chargers defense and they're not as good as everyone thought. So if by "sleeping" you mean "giving up big plays, not being able to get off the field on 3rd down" etc. Then ok... they were sleeping. But I just say this is what they are and good QBs will continue to kill us by exploiting a crappy secondary. (BTW, I'm sick of the Brees v Rivers talk, too. But it's there and will always be a thorn in our side when discussing the two and how the one we kept didn't win a ring)
Yeah, could be I'm overrating the Chargers D. Just been waiting for a pass rush for years and we finally seem to have a decent front 7.
Interesting that before last week's game Rivers admitted that it's him vs. Peyton. Dude knows what the perception is and he's cracking before our very eyes. Oh the horror!! Next up: Brandon Weedon
