Chargers 38, Jaguars 14
Philip Rivers threw three touchdown passes as the visiting San Diego Chargers kept their flickering playoff hopes alive with a 38-14 rout of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night.
The Chargers (5-7) scored the final 28 points to snap a six-game losing streak and pull within two games of co-AFC West leaders Denver and San Diego.
Rivers finished 22 of 28 for 294 yards to spark a quick-strike offense that produced three touchdowns in a span of 4 minutes, 22 seconds bridging the halftime break to blow the game open.
He threw a pair of touchdown passes in the final 86 seconds of the first half, hooking up with Vincent Brown for 22 yards and finding Vincent Jackson for 35 yards to send the Chargers into the intermission with a 24-14 lead.
San Diego put the game away on its opening drive of the second half when Rivers connected with Malcom Floyd on a 52-yard scoring strike down the right sideline.
Even with plenty of time left, that was too much of a deficit to overcome for rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the Jaguars, who entered the weekend as the league's lowest-scoring team.
Ryan Mathews rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown and Mike Tolbert had a 13-yard scoring run as the Chargers won for the first time since a 29-24 victory at Denver on Oct. 9.
The loss capped a turbulent week for Jacksonville (3-9), which fired Jack Del Rio last Tuesday and announced the team was being sold on the same day.
The Jaguars did show flashes in the second quarter as Gabbert led two long scoring drives, tossing a pair of short TD passes to Maurice Jones-Drew and Cecil Shorts to give the Jaguars a 14-10 lead.
Jones-Drew accounted for the bulk of Jacksonville's offense by rushing for 97 yards and catching six passes for 91 more.
Gabbert wound up 19 of 33 for 195 yards with two TDs and one interception.