National Football League
San Diego 31, Jacksonville 25
When: 1:00 PM ET, Sunday, November 29, 2015
Where: EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Florida
Temperature: 75°
Head Official: Jerome Boger
Attendance: 59477

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., - The losing streak in San Diego is over. The San Diego Chargers used a sterling performance by Philip Rivers, who carved up the Jacksonville Jaguars' secondary for 300 yards and four touchdowns in a 31-25 win over the Jaguars on Sunday afternoon.

The win ends a six-game losing streak for the Chargers, who have lost several games on their opponent's final possession. It almost happened again Sunday after the Jaguars scored a touchdown in the final 90 seconds of play, but the Chargers recovered the onside kick.

The win was a welcome relief for San Diego coach Mike McCoy.

"What a great team win that was today," a smiling McCoy said afterwards. "The attitude, the effort, the want-to, it's a phenomenal group of guys that we have. When you do things like that, you're going to be able to fight through some adversity and we've faced a lot of it this year. It's nice to smile again, it's been a long time."

No one was more responsible for the Chargers ending their losing ways than Rivers. He picked apart the Jaguars, completing 29 of 43 passes for a passer rating of 118 in sending the Chargers to a fifth consecutive win over the Jaguars in the last six years.

Three of Rivers' scoring tosses came in the second quarter. But the most important was his fourth and final scoring pass that secured the win for the Chargers (3-8). That pass completed a 14-play march that covered 80 yards and took over six minutes off the clock late in the fourth quarter.

Rivers completed 6 of 9 passes for 61 yards in the drive, the last 5 yards coming on a pass to wide receiver Stevie Johnson in the end zone.

Rivers' biggest play may have come with his feet. He scrambled for eight yards on a fourth-and-seven play, diving for the first-down marker to keep the drive going.

Rivers' passing total enabled him to become the 17th quarterback in NFL history to surpass the 40,000 mark for career passing yards.

"Not that I'm chasing it, but my first thought in hearing it is you're a long way from the guy that leads the whole thing," Rivers said. "You think about all the guys that protected you over the years, all the guys that made catches. It's definitely a collective kind of milestone. Every pass has to go to someone who has a hand in making it a completion. It's a lot of yards. I'm just glad that I've been able to be out there for 155 in a row games to reach something like that."

His first scoring toss was a 2-yard completion to wide receiver Dontrelle Inman to erase the Jaguars' 6-0 lead. It came on the fourth play of the second quarter.

The Jaguars retook the lead on a third field goal from Jason Meyers at 9-7, but Rivers directed a 13-play, 84-yard march. This time he connected with tight end Antonio Gates in the corner of the end zone for a 9-yard scoring play.

After the Chargers intercepted a Blake Bortles pass deep in Jaguars' territory, it was the same combination of Rivers to Gates, this time from 12 yards out, to give the Chargers a 21-9 halftime advantage.

Jacksonville pulled to within five points at 24-19 when Bortles connected with tight end Julius Thomas from 21 yards out with just under 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter. But that's when Rivers put together his best drive of the day, taking 14 plays to eat up 6:13 on the clock and giving the Chargers an insurmountable 12-point lead.

Bortles connected on 30 of 49 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns, but also had the costly interception that led to a Chargers score and twice crossed the line of scrimmage while attempting a pass.

"You have a sense of it," Bortles said when talking about his passes beyond the line of scrimmage. "You never say you go up to the line of scrimmage, 'the ball is on the six. If I take off running, I've got to throw it before I get to the six.' You kind of have a feeling for it and obviously I ran past it twice and lost where I was."

The Jaguars then made a late push to pull out a win, blocking a San Diego punt with 1:30 left in the game. The Jaguars scored in two plays, Bortles connecting with wide receiver Allen Robinson for an 8-yard score. But San Diego recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Jaguars coach Gus Bradley found it frustrating to be on the short end of a losing score.

"For us, we're creating a standard of what's acceptable," Bradley said. "We have a high standard and the players want to be held accountable to that and we didn't make enough plays today. There were plays out there and we left them out there and I think that's the challenge."

NOTES: The Jaguars scored on their opening drive for the just the third time this year when Jason Meyers converted a 22-yard field goal. The Jaguars have two field goals and one touchdown on their 10 opening drives this season. ... San Diego was without starting offensive linemen D. J. Fluker and King Dunlap due to injuries. ... Jaguars WR Allen Hurns was taken off the field on a stretcher late in the game after suffering a concussion. He waved to the crowd and gave a thumbs-up sign as he was taken off. He was taken to a local hospital but was released soon thereafter. ... Rivers became the 40th player with 40,000 passing yards and did it Sunday in his 159th game, the fourth fewest games it's taken a player to reach the 40,000-yard plateau. ... The 21 points were the most allowed by the Jaguars in the first half this season.
Top Game Performances
Rushing
San Diego   Jacksonville
Melvin Gordon Player T.J. Yeldon
14 Attempts 9
60 Yards 36
4.3 Avg Yards 4.0
0 Touchdowns 0
14 Long 21
Receiving
San Diego   Jacksonville
Stevie Johnson Player Julius Thomas
7 Receptions 9
92 Yards 116
13.1 Avg Yards 12.9
1 Touchdowns 1
25 Long 34
Team Stats Summary
 
  Yards Scoring Defense
Team Tot Rus Pas TD FG INT Sck FF
San Diego 369 79 290 4 1 1 2.0 0
Jacksonville 420 102 318 2 4 0 2.0 0
Upcoming Games
  • Jacksonville will play their next game on the road against Tennessee. The Jaguars have a W/L % of .200 after a win and .500 after a loss.
  • San Diego will play their next game at home against Denver. The Chargers have a W/L % of .000 after a win and .333 after a loss.