"Rivers' off-the-couch performance against Seattle last Sunday felt less like watching a professional NFL quarterback and more like witnessing what would happen if a rich guy bought his way into an NFL starting quarterback job. We are talking about a quarterback who quite literally looked like he was throwing a weighted ball on every single down. The velocity? Gone. The mechanics? Imagine a glitchy Madden animation."
"He couldn't move much, and the little he did appeared agonizing. You can count the times he looked past his first progression on one hand. The Colts had to abandon their entire offense to facilitate him. The best under-center team in the NFL couldn't run any plays from under center because, well, Rivers had a hard time with handoffs out of a shotgun formation he was never reaching the mesh point all the way back there."
"The folks with money on the line see it. On Dec. 2, the Colts were -300, per FanDuel, to make the playoffs. Today? They are -1600 to miss them. If the 49ers cannot handle this a team running a prep scheme led by a high school football coach at quarterback then we need to have a very different conversation about this season. Because if the Niners play a serious brand of football, this should be a 15-to-20-point blowout, even with the gam"
Philip Rivers, at 44, produced a performance that only looks impressive compared to non-professional peers but was woeful by NFL quarterback standards. Arm velocity and throwing mechanics were markedly degraded, with throws resembling a weighted ball and glitchy motion. Mobility and the ability to work through progressions were severely limited, prompting the Colts to simplify their game plan extensively. Hand-off timing and mesh-point issues eliminated under-center plays and forced a prep-style offense. Betting markets reacted sharply, and the upcoming matchup with the 49ers projects as a likely blowout unless the Niners fail to execute a serious game plan.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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