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Rivers, Tomlinson help Chargers light up Jets

Sep 23, 2008 - 5:43 AM By Tim Powers PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- The San Diego Chargers finally got the better of Brett Favre.

Having lost all five previous meetings with the future Hall of Fame quarterback, the Chargers intercepted Favre twice en route to a 48-29 triumph over the New York Jets on Monday night.

Favre's counterpart, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers, turned in another impressive performance, going 19-for-25 with three touchdowns and one interception.

Rivers tossed scoring passes to Mike Tolbert, Chris Chambers and Antonio Gates to pace the Chargers (1-2), who lost on the final play of the game against the Carolina Panthers in their season opener. San Diego then was beaten by the rival Denver Broncos on a two-point conversion after a controversial call with 24 seconds left in Week Two.

"It was a fun night," Rivers said. "For one, any time you're playing against a Brett Favre-led team, the game is never over. It was never too comfortable there until the end. Obviously, (Favre is) a Hall of Famer, and it was fun to be out there on the field with him."

LaDainian Tomlinson picked up his first rushing touchdown of the season for the Chargers, who opened the third quarter with a scoring drive to push the lead to 38-14.

"It was a great night for us," Tomlinson said. "It seemed like we were picking up third downs and keeping drives alive, and that was the whole gameplan. It didn't matter how any of us felt tonight, we were going to do what it takes to win. We needed this one bad, and we got it."

Rivers, who threw for a career-high 377 yards one week ago in Denver, got off to a slow start in this one, throwing an interception on his first pass attempt that David Barrett returned for a touchdown and an early 7-0 lead for New York.

After Rivers threw the first of three first-half touchdown passes, San Diego answered with an interception return for a touchdown of their own, when Antonio Cromartie picked off Favre's pass and scampered 52 yards for the score and a 17-7 bulge.

Rivers tossed two more scores, the second of which was set up by Eric Weddle's interception, as San Diego built a 31-14 halftime advantage and 24-point lead after Tomlinson's early second-half score.

"Favre tried to force it in on a little pivot route to Laveranues Coles, and I had to just make a play on the ball," Cromartie said. "Then I just had to turn around and go. This past week, we emphasized on getting to the ball, and when you get to the ball, good things happen."

Favre threw a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns as the Jets (1-2) attempted an ill-fated late rally. The 38-year-old, nine-time Pro Bowler finished the game 30-of-42 with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

"We made too many mistakes," Favre said. "Against a football team like that, they're going to score points regardless, and we just made too many mistakes. I made numerous, numerous mistakes and it hurt us."

Tomlinson added a second score in the fourth quarter and rushed for 67 yards in the contest.

"I thought the key to the game was our defense set a tempo early in the first half," Chargers head coach Norv Turner said. "I thought we got back to playing the way we play. We did a lot of good things today, but there are a lot of things we have to work to get better at."

Coles had six receptions for 75 yards and one touchdown and Thomas Jones ran for 37 yards on 10 attempts for the Jets, who lost for the second straight week.

"You can't play this way, you can't have the turnovers," New York coach Eric Mangini said. "We can't do that and expect to win games, especially to win games on the road. What we collectively have to do is come back and work consistently and make sure that we don't do this again."

Kellen Clemens replaced Favre on the final possession of the game, going 3-for-5 for 26 yards before tossing an interception to Cromartie with 44 ticks remaining in the game.