Rivers looked awful last night. Gates was awful last night - the last INT was his fault, not Rivers'. Norv was awful last night. Michael Turner was awful. The offensive line was awful.
Norv and Rivers are getting all the blame, because the coach and the QB always do, but outside of Gates, not a single player on offense is playing as well as last year. Now I think Norv
should get a lot of the blame for that. When one player regresses, it's probably the player's fault.
When the whole team does, there's something else going on.Rivers has been terrible lately. He's not stepping into his throws consistently. He is not making his reads as confidently as he did last year. But a lot of that is due to the pass rush, as well. There are a lot of QBs who look great when they have time in the pocket, but look bad when they are facing constant pressure. I think it also hurts that McCardell and Parker are both unavailable this year. They don't have the big-play ability of Jackson or Chambers or Davis, but they were always in the right place at the right time and had reliable hands (except against the Patriots). The short passing game has fallen apart, and I think the mix of WRs has something to do with that.
Rivers has been bad, but he is still the future. If this team wins a few playoff games in the near future, it will be with Rivers. The team has to get him playing better, and letting him play his way out of it is probably the right tactic. That said, while Volek is no great shakes, he is better than Rivers has been playing. So if the team needs a temporary spark, Volek may be able to fit that role. I wouldn't completely rule it out.
Anyway, I mostly just wanted to agree with tommyGunZ in spreading the blame around. There's plenty for everyone.