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Rivers leads Chargers to rout of Chiefs

Dec 13, 2010 - 1:52 AM San Diego, CA (Sports Network) - Philip Rivers had two touchdown passes as the San Diego Chargers notched a 31-0 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC West battle.

With the win, San Diego (7-6) moved to one game back of Kansas City (8-5) for the top spot in the division. San Diego's final three games are against San Francisco, Cincinnati and Denver, all sub-.500 teams, while the Chiefs face St. Louis, Tennessee and Oakland, three teams also with losing records.

"We knew coming in what's ahead of us, but I said it last Monday that we had to win this one first," said Rivers."

Rivers finished the contest 18-for-24 with 226 yards, one interception and a lost fumble, while Matt Tolbert and Ryan Mathews each had a rushing touchdown as the Chargers won for the fifth time in the last six games. Malcolm Floyd caught both touchdown passes and finished the game with four catches for 51 yards.

"Any time you can run the ball for 200 yards and hold the other team is held to under 50 yards you're usually going to win ," said San Diego head coach Norv Turner. "We played a really solid game out there and I'm proud of all the guys, but there's still a lot of work to do."

Brodie Croyle started in place of Matt Cassel, who underwent an appendectomy on Wednesday and was ruled out on Saturday. Croyle was just 7-for-17 with 40 yards to fall to 0-10 as a starter as the Chiefs had a three-game winning streak snapped.

"It got out of reach there pretty fast and we didn't execute at all," said Croyle. "We just did not play well out there and have to put this behind us."

Kansas City's offense was stymied all day as it managed just 67 yards and five first downs. The only time the Chiefs were in San Diego territory was when Tamba Hali recovered a Rivers fumble at the San Diego 37 in the third quarter.

"We have to see this game for what it is," said Kansas City head coach Todd Haley. "We have to understand that San Diego clearly played better than us, it wasn't even close. We didn't do enough to win in too many areas today."

The Chargers took the lead on their first touch of the game. The 10-play, 67- yard march was capped on a leaping grab at the right side of the end zone from Floyd for a 17-yard score with 5:33 left in the first. San Diego converted three third downs on the march.

Kansas City was held to three-and-outs on its next two series, and San Diego took a 14-0 lead on its first possession of the second quarter. Facing a 3rd- and-9 at his own 44, Rivers found Vincent Jackson for 19 yards. Four plays later, Tolbert went around the left end and into the end zone for an eight- yard score with 6:47 left in the first half.

The Chiefs got the ball near midfield, but were forced to punt, and San Diego took a 21-0 lead with 40 seconds left when Floyd made a diving catch in the left corner of the end zone from nine yards out.

San Diego started the second half with the ball and got into Kansas City territory, but Rivers was picked off by Eric Berry. However, the Chiefs were unable to move the ball and had to punt.

Rivers fumbled as he was sacked on a 3rd-and-4 and Kansas City recovered at the San Diego 37, but again the team was unable to take advantage of the turnover and had to punt.

After another exchange of punts, the Chargers went on a 10-play, 42-yard drive and sealed the win on a 48-yard field goal from Nate Kaeding for a 24-0 lead with 8:25 to play.

Mathews capped the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown run with just over three minutes to play.

Game Notes

It was the first time that the Chargers blanked the Chiefs in the regular season. San Diego did post a 17-0 win over Kansas City in a wild-card playoff game in the 1992 season...The Chargers totaled 426 yards of offense with 25 first downs and controlled the ball for over 40 minutes...It was San Diego's first shutout of an opponent since a blanking of the Raiders in Oakland on September 11, 2006...The Chargers have won six of the last seven against the Chiefs...Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles, who reportedly agreed to a six-year deal worth $32.5 million on Friday, had 10 carries for 40 yards...Tolbert finished with 16 carries for 66 yards while Mathews had 16 touches for 65 yards...San Diego had four sacks in the game...It was the first time Kansas City had been blanked since a 34-0 loss at Carolina on October 5, 2008.