With game on line, Chargers go away from Rivers

SAN DIEGO -- The Chargers are paying $92 million to Philip Rivers to play quarterback.

So, let him play quarterback.

Philip Rivers' number isn't called with 37 ticks left despite throwing for 436 yards. (AP)

Rivers did a pretty good job of it on Sunday, when the Chargers let him.

Throwing for 436 yards, he made a purple haze of Baltimore's pass defense, despite getting beaten black-and-blue behind a besieged offensive line.

What Rivers couldn't do was stop his coach, Norv Turner, from taking the ball from him when it mattered most.

Turner, with his offense at Baltimore's 5, denied Rivers a shot at the end zone 10 seconds before halftime, instead opting for a field goal that would've made Jim Tressel proud.

With 37 seconds left in the game, Turner opted for a run play on fourth-and-2 at Baltimore's 15. Linebacker Ray Lewis ran through unblocked and tackled Darren Sproles for a 5-yard loss, and the Ravens walked away with a 31-26 victory at Qualcomm Stadium.

Turner deemed it too risky to have Rivers attempt a pass late in the first half with no timeouts. He noted that on the same series, a Ravens blitzer nailed Rivers despite coaches' attempts to align the blockers.

"I was going to make sure we got points there," Turner said.

Rivers had thrown for 255 yards without an interception when Turner pulled him so that kicker Nate Kaeding could draw the Chargers to 21-16.

Realizing that scared money doesn't win, the San Diego crowd booed as the football sailed between the uprights.

Turner's decision to hand off to Sproles came after the Chargers, trailing 31-26, drove from their 27 to Baltimore's 15.

On third-and-2, Rivers threw incomplete to Sproles in the right flat, and Turner noticed that the Ravens were playing "very soft" against the run.

So, with the game on the line, he had Rivers give the ball to Sproles.

"If you look at the play," Turner said, "we got great movement on the outside."

In came Lewis.

Down went Sproles, a 5-foot-6 racecar who'd amassed 283 yards.

"The greatest football play I've ever seen," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

Rivers called it a thrill to compete against Lewis. He spoke cheerfully of the "banter" between him and the linebacker, calling it "something you dream about" because "he's such a great linebacker." Chatty Phil had even teased Lewis for his blitz technique, saying in the first half, "Can't you disguise it better than that?"

Famous last words.

Rivers threw two interceptions, one of them an inexcusable, no-look toss after Lewis flushed him from the pocket. He incurred two delay-of-game penalties, also unacceptable from a 27-year-old quarterback. The first of those came at Baltimore's one-foot line, a factor in five trips to the red zone that didn't yield a TD.

But the next time the Chargers need their $92 million quarterback to win or lose the game, they should find out if he can. Rivers had exploited a pass defense too short to cover 6-foot-5 Vincent Jackson (six catches, 141 yards, 1 TD) and 6-4 Antonio Gates (5-78) and not fast enough to guard Sproles (7-124-1).

Turner should know by now, the Chargers' motto needs to be, In Philip We Trust.