In his first NFL game in five years, Philip Rivers completed 18-of-27 passes for 120 yards and a touchdown. While the Colts weren't quite able to get a win, falling to the Seattle Seahawks 18-16, the Colts remain steadfast in their decision to have Rivers continue as their starting quarterback.
"Philip is the starting quarterback," head coach Shane Steichen said Monday. "Getting us into the right plays, managing the game, I thought he was phenomenal in that regard. On the sidelines, his leadership, all those things that he brings to our team will be beneficial for all of us.
"We didn't bring him in here to sit on the bench."
Steichen said the game plan for the Colts' Week 15 game against the Seahawks was centered around running the ball, controlling the clock and taking advantage of easy completions – something he and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter both said Rivers executed very well. Rivers' 17 years of NFL experience also affords him the ability to recognize just about any defense he sees, and his leadership skills and infectious personality brought a noticeable increase in energy to the rest of the team.
"Every week comes with a different plan of attack to win each game," Cooter said Wednesday. "I thought our guys battled like crazy in that Seattle game versus a really, really good opponent. Philip has done some nice things in practice, in the workouts and all the stuff that we see behind the scenes that gives us a lot of confidence that as we're putting together game plans, we have various tools at our disposal to go try to win these games."
Rivers' longest throw on Sunday was a 16-yard pass to wide receiver Alec Pierce, but the Colts aren't worried about finding ways to create explosive plays and score points going forward.
"There's ways to attack all these defense, and shoot, making a big old chunk of yards is always going to help," Cooter said. "Sometimes that's throwing it way down the field, sometimes that's an underneath or intermediate pass where you catch it and run versus just the right defense. Or maybe the quarterback gets you into the right check and you attack the heck out of a defense that you've been waiting to attack all day, and sometimes you pop runs. There's a lot of ways to do it, explosives are very valuable in this league but you can score points moving the ball consistently as well."
Cooter also said Rivers has been involved in conversations about the Colts' offense and game plan, giving his insight and thoughts on how to approach opponents and what could work best in certain situations, which has also bolstered the team's confidence in the veteran quarterback.
"To be able to converse with Philip Rivers about this offense, who goes obviously so far back with Shane and has had such an integral role in how the offense was shaped even from the early years, it was really fun to talk about different concepts with him and different ways to attack a defense, different ways he saw and how we could sort of build that into the weekly game plan as we got going with our weekly planning," Cooter said. "Real fun to be able to talk ball with him and see how he sees things and try to ultimately build the plan as best we could."
