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| Philip Rivers only threw 16 passes in Sunday's wild card win in Cincy, but he completed 12 of them for 128 yards, a touchdown and a 118.8 rating. |
Cory Puffett
Cincinnati lived up to their second-quarter hype. They
outscored opponents 62-0 in the second quarter of their final four home games
of the regular season. Then they outscored San Diego 10-0 in that quarter of
their wild card game.
Unfortunately, nothing went right for the Bengals outside of
those 15 minutes. After a very successful regular season, especially at Paul
Brown Stadium, Andy Dalton threw his first postseason touchdown of his career.
But he backed that up with two second-half interceptions, the fifth and sixth
of his playoff career.
Dalton isn’t the only player at fault, though. The tide of
the game certainly changed after Giovani Bernard fumbled in the red zone in the
second quarter. The Bengals still added a field goal on their next drive to
take a 10-7 lead into halftime, but the damage could have been much worse.
Dalton also fumbled in the third quarter, so in some ways it
does come back to the third-year quarterback out of TCU.
But don’t forget to give San Diego a lot of credit. Their
offense did a great job all game long. Ronnie Brown led the backs with 77 yards
and a touchdown on eight carries, including a 58-yard run at the end of the
game to put the nail in Cincy’s coffin.
Combined with Woodhead and Mathews, the three Chargers
running backs had a total of 183 yards and two touchdowns on 36 carries. They
tore up the third-best run defense in this year’s playoffs, behind only
Carolina and San Francisco.
Now San Diego will meet with the Denver Broncos for the
third time this season. They split the regular season series but won when they
played in Denver, where they will play next Sunday.
And before I sign off, I have to acknowledge the superb job
John Pagano’s defense did against one of the best home offenses. They held
Cincy to their second-lowest point total of the season and lowest at home. Only
the Patriots were also able to keep the Bengals under 20 points in Cincinnati
this year.
Final Score:
San Diego Chargers – 27
Cincinnati Bengals – 10
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