Philip Rivers might be without his top receiver and starting running back, but that didn’t stop him from putting up some impressive numbers last week.
Rivers will be looking to lead the San Diego Chargers (1-1) to another win when they visit the Seattle Seahawks (1-1) on Sunday.
Vincent Jackson has not played yet this season due to a three-game league suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy and a holdout that kept him out of training camp and has still not yet been resolved.
The Chargers had until Wednesday to trade him so that he would be eligible to play for another team by Week 5, but no deal could be worked out.
Now Jackson will have to serve another three-game suspension on the roster exempt list if he signs or gets traded.
But Rivers doesn’t seem to have missed beat without his top target, throwing for 298 yards a pair of touchdowns in a rain-soaked Week 1 loss at Kansas City and playing even better last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars, connecting for 334 yards and three scores in a 38-13 victory.
Antonio Gates has been the main beneficiary of Jackson’s absence from the receiving corps thus far, catching one touchdown pass against the Chiefs and adding two more against the Jaguars.
San Diego spent its first-round pick last April on running back Ryan Mathews, but has not gotten a whole lot of production out of the Fresno State product and likely won’t be again this week. Mathews has rushed for 101 yards in two games but has fumbled twice and was knocked out of the Jacksonville game with a high ankle sprain.
He has been getting treatment all week but did not practice on Wednesday and will likely see limited or no action on Sunday.
Mike Tolbert, who rushed for 82 yards and two touchdowns after Mathews left the game last week, is expected to get the bulk of the carries on Sunday.
The Seahawks had no problem limiting the run last week against Denver but could not find a way to stop the passing game, allowing 307 yards and two touchdowns to Kyle Orton in a 31-14 loss.
The biggest problem in the loss was turnovers, especially from the quarterback position. Matt Hasselbeck, who had thrown for two touchdowns in a Week 1 win against San Francisco, threw three interceptions against one touchdown in the Denver game. Seattle turned it over a total of four times in the contest.
The Chargers and Seahawks have not faced each other since 2006, when San Diego grabbed a 20-17 win. The Chargers have won five straight games against NFC opponents.