What’s not to like about Week 16 if you’re a 44-year-old NFL quarterback in your second week back after five years off?
Yes, Philip Rivers and his Colts (8-6) do face the 49ers (10-4). But Indianapolis is back home on “Monday Night Football” and facing a defense whose 16 sacks are six fewer than any other team and 5½ fewer than Cleveland’s Myles Garrett has all by himself.
Perhaps the 49ers will follow this whole made-for-Hollywood script better than Seattle did Sunday when it stole Rivers’ lead with 29 seconds left in an 18-16 win.
If anyone can resurrect these slumbering Colts in the wake of Daniel Jones’ season-ending Achilles injury, it’s Rivers. Dad bod and all.
He’s not afraid of the big hit. He’s still crafty enough to limit his sacks (one last week). And he can still get rid of the ball, completing 16 of his 18 passes thrown within 9 yards of the line of scrimmage against Seattle.
Yes, Rivers was only 2-for-8 on the wobblers he threw 10-plus yards. But maybe the 49ers’ toothless pass rush will give him extra time to put a little more oomph into the deeper deliveries.
“I admire the hell out of him,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “What I admire the most is to be someone at that age and come in there and want to play the right way, which to me is hanging in that pocket and taking some of those hits. That’s something that gets very old fast to a lot of people.”
The Colts, who started 7-1, sit one game back of the last AFC playoff spot and are third in the AFC South behind Jacksonville (10-4) and Houston (9-5). Jacksonville is at Denver (12-2) this week, while Houston hosts the Raiders (2-12).
