In Philip Rivers' first game as the Colts quarterback in 2025, his longest completion was 17 yards. In his second game, Rivers had completions of 18, 19 and 20 yards in the Colts' first drive alone.
Then, to show it wasn't just a fluke, on the following drive Rivers executed completions of 17 yards, 12 yards and 16 yards.
This trend continued throughout the Colts' Monday night matchup against the San Francisco 49ers: a 15-yard gain here, a 20-yard gain there, a 30-yard gain way down there. Even Rivers' shorter completions of 10 yards or less were darts, decisive and accurately placed in gaps left by 49ers defenders.
Rivers finished Monday night's game 23-of-35 for 277 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, a 49ers pick-six in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. His longest completion was a 33-yard completion to wide receiver Alec Pierce; it was technically only 17 air yards, but it was still a clean and confident throw that netted significant yardage for the Colts late in the game when they needed it the most.
And it showed Philip Rivers, at 44 years old, could still sling the football.
"It felt good out there," River said. "I mean, I felt early we were seeing it good. We were going and I felt like we could have a good night offensively. And in a lot of ways, we did, but certainly left some things out there."
"I thought he played really good," head coach Shane Steichen said. "I think he just had the one play at the end. But I thought he was on fire all game. He managed the offense at the line of scrimmage, did some no huddle stuff with them, getting us down to the right plays, threw it to the right spots every time. Obviously, just had the one play there at the end. But overall, I thought he was really solid."
Ultimately, the Colts were not able to pull out a win over the 49ers, falling 48-27 and losing their fifth consecutive game.
"There's no consolation, right?" Rivers said. "There's no prize for losing. But again – it was better this week from a standpoint of offensively and to put points on the board, but you got to win with it, like we said. Right now, we're not getting that done and I know this locker room is hurting."
"It's very difficult, especially because it's probably our best offensive game in a long time, and just fell short," tight end Mo Alie-Cox said.
Monday marked the first game the Colts scored more than 25 points since Week 8 (38-14 win over the Tennessee Titans). Rivers was 10th in passing yards among starting quarterbacks for Week 16, and his average of 7.9 yards per attempt was also among the top averages of the week.
Rivers was operating with confidence in the pocket, and it showed both in his own numbers and the attitude of the rest of the Colts offense.
"At a point, we felt unstoppable," Alie-Cox said. "We have a lot of confidence when (Rivers is) back there checking you into the right look or getting chunk plays in the passing game and different things like that. So definitely exciting being able to put up some points today."
Take Pierce, for example. Rivers' longest air pass of the day was a 20-yard touchdown to Pierce in the first quarter, and he later hit Pierce again for a 16-yard touchdown pass, marking the wide receiver's first career game with two touchdowns. Pierce had a signature game with four receptions on four targets for 86 yards and two touchdowns, with an average of 21.5 yards per catch.
It was only the second time Pierce and Rivers played together, of course, but Monday's game was the first time Pierce recorded more than 80 receiving yards in a game since Week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons.
"We still haven't had much opportunities to get a ton of reps just with him being here two weeks, but he's played so much football I don't think he needs reps," Pierce said. "I think he just recognizes the coverage and knows where the ball should go, and then he knows what throw to make. It's just our job to be there, get open and make the catch."
Tyler Warren also had a milestone game with Rivers at the helm; he had three receptions for 30 yards to set a new record for most receiving yards by a Colts rookie tight end with 748. Monday was the first time Warren eclipsed 25 receiving yards in a game since Week 12.
"He's almost like playing OC (offensive coordinator) out there himself," Pierce said. "He's calm. We had a lot of plays where we would get to the line and just motion, he'd figure out the coverage and just call a play there. So, that's pretty, pretty impressive, pretty cool to see him do that."
So yes, the Colts fell short of a win on Monday – and they take full responsibility for that. But two things can be true: the Colts lost, and Philip Rivers still looked like he belonged.
