CBS Sports' Jim Nantz and Phil Simms joined this week's Wild Card edition of Chargers Weekly – the official podcast of the team – to preview Sunday's road rematch against the Baltimore Ravens.
Nantz will be on the call from M&T Bank Stadium alongside Tony Romo, while Simms can be seen on CBS' pre-game show, "The NFL Today". NFL Network's Steve Wyche, ESPN's Eric Williams and the Chargers' radio voice Matt "Money" Smith also joined this week's episode. Highlights from the conversation are below.
Nantz on Philip Rivers (7:40):
"There's a lot there to admire to be honest. It starts with just the man that he is outside of football. He is a tremendous guy in his community. He's a great family man. I admire Philip Rivers an awful lot, and yeah, I've had a lot of occasions to broadcast his games. Wouldn't it be something to see him be able to play in Atlanta in the big game? The way he's played his whole career, he deserves to have that chance."
Simms on L.A. and Baltimore facing each other twice in 15 days (32:05):
"I think it helps you the second time around. Both sides are going to learn from what they could and couldn't do. You could study all you want and watch guys on tape, then you line up against them and all of a sudden you go, 'Wow, they're a lot better' or 'maybe not as good as I thought they would be from what I saw studying during the week.' But, just one thing I think the Chargers learned in that game – just my first thought would be when you run the football, don't try to run it up the middle against the Baltimore Ravens. They got like 700 pounds of pretty good athletes right there in front of them – the two guys Brandon Williams and Michael Pierce and even other starters. So, if you want to run on (them), I think you got to run on the edges where they're smaller … and make a really, really big front seven – especially the front defensive linemen and outside linebackers – make them move around more and just don't run straight ahead at them."
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