Rivers leaves nothing to chance

Philip Rivers has never participated in an NFL postseason game, but the San Diego quarterback knows precisely what to expect Sunday from New England’s defense:

Anything.

“I’m going to expect everything you can put in a playbook,” Rivers said after practice Wednesday. “You study them and be ready for what they’ve shown and then you don’t get surprised by anything.”

Thanks to their 14-2 record, best in the AFC, the Chargers will not only play host to the divisional playoff game but have had an extra week to prepare for it. That’s a welcome advantage for a team facing the Patriots, who are 11-1 in the postseason with Tom Brady at quarterback. His team’s only playoff blemish was a divisional loss at Denver last season.

The last time the Chargers were in the playoffs was 2004, when they lost a home wild-card game to the New York Jets on a field goal in overtime. San Diego players were ultra-hyped for that game, with the first hint coming when running back LaDainian Tomlinson crawled out of the tunnel during introductions and did a somersault before sprinting to his waiting teammates.

“Guys were overly excited to be in the playoffs, and it was a situation where I think we shot our gun too early, being so emotional and playing off adrenaline,” Tomlinson said Wednesday. “And so when it came down to the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter, we were kind of out of gas already.”

Even from the sidelines, Rivers, then a rookie, could feel things coming to an emotional boil. That helped him better understand the poise required to win a postseason game, how every small mistake is amplified.

“Everybody’s going to be a little more excited ... but you have to make sure it works for you and you don’t get too carried away, have a silly penalty, have the false starts and all those little things that can creep up on you,” he said. “Be ready for a few wrinkles from them that you haven’t seen and just not try to get everything accomplished in the first 10 minutes of the game.”

Rivers plans to heed his own advice. He’s among the more animated quarterbacks in the league -- the antithesis of the sleepy-eyed Eli Manning -- and at times has tried to do too much this season.

The Chargers quarterback is hoping to pick up where he left off in the finale against Arizona, when he was sharp despite suffering a minor foot injury, one he now says has healed.

After a very stable start to the season, he weathered a turbulent December when he looked good against Denver, shaky against Kansas City and Seattle, then crisp against the Cardinals.

“I think some of those bumps in the road throughout the season were good for many reasons,” Rivers said. “One, I’m continuing to get better. And, two, we didn’t lose. So I think I can gain a lot from some of those different struggles throughout the parts of different games.”

Struggling is relative. The Chargers have won a league-best 10 consecutive games, and they led the NFL in scoring this season, averaging a franchise-record 30.8 points a game. Rivers, a No. 4 pick who stood by for two seasons before stepping in for Drew Brees, has 22 touchdowns with nine interceptions. The only quarterback with more touchdowns and fewer interceptions was St. Louis’ Marc Bulger, who had 24 and eight.

Still, these are the playoffs, and the finality of it all adds a layer of pressure. Since 2001, of the 21 quarterbacks making their first postseason start, only six walked away victorious.

That Rivers is a postseason neophyte means little to the Patriots, whose quarterback won a Super Bowl in the 2001 season after replacing injured Drew Bledsoe early in the year. The Patriots know what Rivers can do.

“Just because it’s his first playoff game, that doesn’t mean anything,” cornerback Asante Samuel said. “He can go out there and throw for 500 yards, and what are you going to say then? ‘It’s his first playoff game.’ Experience has nothing to do with it.”

Rivers wouldn’t go that far. He acknowledged Brady has a significant edge in that department. But he isn’t discouraged.

“Hey,” he said, “you’ve got to start somewhere. You can’t play 13 playoff games until you play the first one.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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Up-and-down Rivers

Philip Rivers’ passer rating slipped with each month of the season, but the first-year starter still had the best fourth-quarter passer rating among quarterbacks with a minimum of 50 pass attempts:

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Rivers’ passer rating by month:

September...107.4

October...94.9

November...89.0

December...85.7

Best fourth-quarter passer rating:

Rivers, San Diego...116.6

Donovan McNabb, Philadelphia...110.3

Carson Palmer, Cincinnati...105.2

David Carr, Houston...104.2

Damon Huard, Kansas City...101.2

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Source: STATS LLC