Rivers: Return was 'blast,' but loss stings most

SEATTLE — Philip Rivers had just pulled off the unthinkable, making an audacious NFL comeback that never had been attempted.

But in the aftermath of the Indianapolis Colts‘ 18-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Rivers — the 44-year-old quarterback who returned to the field five years after retirement — remained just as competitive as he was during any of his 17 previous seasons.

“I’m grateful that I was out there, and it was a blast,” Rivers said. “But, obviously, the emotions now are disappointment. This isn’t about me. We’ve got a team that was scrapping like crazy to try to stay alive and get in the postseason, so obviously, we’re all disappointed.

“We came up just short.”

Rivers silenced doubters when he helped the Colts take a 10-point lead in the first half after an 8-yard touchdown pass to Josh Downs. Then he nearly engineered the 36th come-from-behind victory of his career, driving the Colts down the field and positioning kicker Blake Grupe for a 60-yard go-ahead field goal with 47 seconds remaining.

Eardrum-piercing Lumen Field, perhaps the loudest stadium in the NFL, fell silent. Meanwhile, the Colts’ sideline erupted. It appeared the game might be heading for a conclusion worthy of a movie script.

But after a good return on the ensuing kickoff, quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seahawks moved the ball 25 yards with two completions, gaining enough yards to allow kicker Jason Myers to convert a game-winning 56-yard field goal with 18 seconds left.

The storybook ending was thwarted.

Rivers believes better things are still to come, but time is not on the Colts’ side.

“If I can stay healthy, I feel good, and it is going to get better as we go,” he said. “But the catch is that we’ve got to win. It doesn’t really matter if it’s getting better as we go if we don’t win because it’s going to be over in three weeks. So that’s the catch there. But it’s going to continue to get better. I mean, this is obviously the first one [and] we’re talking about three days of practice.”

Rivers held his own despite a frenetic week that saw him arrive in Indianapolis on Monday, one day after Daniel Jones’ season-ending Achilles injury made a quarterback move necessary. Rivers signed with the team’s practice squad on Tuesday and practiced for the first time on Wednesday. He completed 18 of 27 passes for 120 yards with a touchdown and one interception, which came on a desperation heave on his final attempt of the day.

Although his numbers were modest, Rivers played exactly the kind of game the Colts (8-6) were seeking: They wanted him to make smart decisions, to make savvy protection and blocking adjustments that gave his offensive line an advantage, and to protect the football.

The Colts were seeking to win the time of possession battle (they did), run the ball effectively and win with the kind of conversative passing game you’d anticipate from a quarterback who last played in 2020.

Coach Shane Steichen told Rivers during game preparation in recent days that he envisioned the Colts winning 20-17, and that vision nearly came to fruition.

“We didn’t manage enough points in the second half,” Steichen said.

As for how Rivers came through the game physically after not taking a hit in 1,800 days, he seemed unfazed.

“I’ve never minded that part of it,” Rivers said. “My wife always tells me I’m crazy because there’s been times in the last three or four years I said, ‘I wish I could just throw one and get hit hard.’ She’s like, ‘That’s not normal.'”

Rivers got sandwiched between two defenders on a play in the fourth quarter when he had difficulty with a bad shotgun snap and was forced to kill the play. Even then, he bounced up quickly.

“The bobbled snap deal didn’t feel great,” he said. “But the other ones kind of got me going in the game … It was crazy how normal it felt once we got going.”

The Colts have three remaining games, against the San Francisco 49ers, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans. Whether Rivers can lift Indianapolis to any victories remains to be seen, but he’s just daring enough to keep trying.

“As NFL players, we all play long enough to become an adrenaline junkie,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “So, it’s hard to get that high [of] playing in Seattle, two-minute [drill], the decibels are up. You ain’t going to find that too many places. So, I think he got what he was looking for. He came through for us.

“I think we’ve just got to play better.”