Philip Rivers: It Was A Blast Being Out There, But We've Got To Win

There was a storybook ending to Philip Rivers' return to the NFL on Sunday, but he and the Colts were on the wrong side of it.

Rivers completed a key third down pass to Alec Pierce to set up Blake Grupe's 60-yard field goal with 47 seconds left to play in Seattle and the kick put the Colts ahead on the road in a game they desperately needed to boost their chances of making the playoffs. The lead would not hold, however. Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold completed a pair of passes that set up a 56-yard field goal that Jason Myers hit to make the Colts 18-16 losers in Rivers' first game since 2020.

After the game, Rivers said it was "a blast" to be back on the field but a disappointment because the Colts are "scrapping like crazy to try to stay alive and get in the postseason." They didn't help that cause on Sunday and Rivers knows that time is running short for the team to rescue itself.

"If I can stay healthy, I feel good, and it is going to get better as we go," Rivers said. "But the catch is that we've got to win. It doesn't really matter if it's getting better as we go if we don't win because it's going to be over in three weeks. So that's the catch there. But it's going to continue to get better. I mean, this is obviously the first one. We're talking about three days of practice."

Rivers gets an extra day to prepare for Week 16 because the Colts will be at home against the 49ers next Monday night and the Colts will need to be at their best if they want to have a chance at being on the right side of a fairy tale in Week 18.