A scorching 5-1 start has been followed by a three-game losing streak for the San Diego Chargers. It's not the optimal way to reach a bye week, but Philip Rivers believes his team has the experience to deal with this type of adversity.
"We'll find out what we are made of," he said, according to ESPN.com. "We've been in these situations over the last eight years plenty of times and we always fought with the character and toughness and the desire and heart that we thought we had.
"It's no time to panic at all. We're 5-4, and we're right there in the pack of a lot of teams. And although we're not at the top of that pack, I know we're in a big pack. And we've got seven to go, and we'll play them one at a time. It's starts with Oakland, and that's the only one we can control."
The Chargers likely kissed their chances of a division title goodbye with this slump -- such is life playing in the same division as Peyton Manning -- but they remain on the upper end of the spectrum when compared to the five other AFC teams with five wins.
Their immediate post-bye schedule is favorable as well. The Chargers have home dates against the 0-8 Oakland Raiders and 3-5 St. Louis Rams in the next two weeks. If they take care of business there, the Chargers should be in good shape when the schedule tightens up again in the home-stretch run.
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