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Philip Rivers is coming off his worst game as a pro.  Throwing four picks and fumbling twice is almost inconceivable for a quarterback of his caliber. However, as Rivers’ teammates pointed out immediately following Monday night’s loss, he has the physical tools and mental makeup to rebound from the performance and return to form as soon as the Chargers return from the bye and visit Cleveland in Week 8.

“He’s a great quarterback,” said Robert Meachem. “There’s no one else I’d rather have throwing me the ball.  He’s a warrior.  He’ll come back and put this behind him.  There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Games like this happen to every great player at some point in their career, and it becomes especially magnified when you play the quarterback position and occurs on primetime television in front of a nationwide audience. 

But Rivers has proven  he is capable of moving on and can have a resurgent  game following some of his worst performances. To reflect back, in his first season as a starter, he followed up a poor game vs. Cleveland , where he threw for just over  200 yards and zero touchdowns, by putting together a masterful performance the following weekend to beat the Bengals, amassing 338 passing yards and the most touchdowns in his career to date (three) . The next year he followed up a disastrous performance against the Raiders with a magnificent one vs. the Texans, throwing three touchdowns and  passer rating of 143.9. Last season, Rivers struggled in their game vs. the Lions , tossing two picks and recording a passer rating of 60.2.. Seven days later  against the Raiders, he tossed three scores and more than doubled his quarterback rating to 135.1.

We know Rivers has the ability to bounce back from poor performances. A major reason for this is the inherent ability he has to rally his troops.

“Philip’s a passionate guy,” said Le’Ron McClain. “We all feed off that.  You can’t help but feed off that. And that’s why I’m still confident in this team.  We’ve got what it takes to win.  But that’s just words.  Everyone is looking at themselves in the mirror to see what they can do better to help this team win, including myself.  And I know that (Rivers) is doing that.” 

Rivers’ teammates aren’t the only ones who expect a bounce back performance from their quarterback.  In his address to the media on Monday, head coach Norv Turner affirmed his support of Rivers and his faith that he will put this game in the past and come back strong.

“Philip is one of the great competitors,” he said. “It hurts all of us more than you can describe when you go out and have that type of performance. Talk about determined, Philip will be the most determined in terms of what he has to do to get back to playing as consistently as he’s capable of.”