On Christmas Day, the San Diego Chargers (12-3) played the role of Santa Claus by easily beating the Tennessee Titans (7-8), 42-17. This gave Chargers fans the present that they wanted: the second seed in the playoffs and, with it, a first-round bye and at least one home playoff game.

Chargers QB Philip Rivers had gaudy

132.1 passer rating on Christmas.

Chargers.com

Titans fans, on the other hand, view the Chargers as the Grinch that stole the playoffs. The loss knocked the Titans out of playoff contention and the chance to be the only NFL team in history to start 0-6 and still make the post-season.

With the win, the Chargers are, once again, perfect in the month of December. Under Philip Rivers, the Chargers have not lost a December game since he became the starting quarterback in 2006. The Chargers winning streak in December is now 18 in a row, tying a Miami Dolphins mark in 1970-74 with November wins.

Rivers looked as good as he ever has. Using nine receivers, he completed 21 of 26 passes for 264 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions while posting a gaudy 132.1 passer rating.

For the second season in a row, Rivers has surpassed 4,000 yards passing, putting him in the elite rank of current NFL quarterbacks, and making him a viable MVP candidate. It’s reminiscent of Chargers great Dan Fouts, who had three seasons in excess of 4,000 yards, with his highest being 4,802 in 1981.

The Chargers were also solid on the ground with 167 yards rushing and four touchdowns, two each by LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles. Sproles completed the hat trick with a third receiving touchdown for the Chargers final score of the game.

Combined, the Chargers outgained the Titans 425-270 in total offensive yards and controlled the ball for more than 39 minutes of the game.

However, the Titans were able to execute their game plan of running the ball with their league-leading rusher Chris Johnson. He ran for 142 yards and a touchdown, bringing his season rushing total to 1,872 yards.

If Johnson were to run for 138 more yards next week against the Seattle Seahawks, he would become only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. He even has an outside shot of breaking Eric Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105 yards if he could rush for 235 or more yards in that game.

The real difference in the game was Titans quarterback Vince Young, who turned the ball over three times with two interceptions and a fumble. “We just couldn’t get in a rhythm tonight,” said Young. “Too many turnovers on my behalf.”

Each of the turnovers was in Chargers territory, and Rivers converted all into touchdowns.

As Young dove for a first down near mid-field, Shaun Phillips stripped the ball, causing Young’s fumble and Stephen Cooper to recover the ball. It was Phillips seventh forced fumble of the season, extending his Chargers franchise record.

Also contributing to the Chargers success was the Titans defensive line, which committed three neutral-zone infractions in the Chargers first touchdown drive. Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher said after the game: “Rivers does a nice job on the snap count, but there is no need for that. That is borderline selfish. We need to play football and move when the brown thing moves and not guess.”

Penalties led to another touchdown when Tennessee was called for two 15-yard penalties on the same play. The first was for unnecessary roughness when William Hayes pushed Rivers to the ground after Rivers had already thrown the ball. This caused the Titans defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil to lose his cool. Cecil began yelling profusely, drawing an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

After taking a 42-10 lead early in the fourth quarter, Norv Turner elected to sit many of his starters, including Rivers and Tomlinson, to protect their health for a playoff run. Resting key starters is very likely to happen again during next week’s home game against the Washington Redskins. With the second seed secured and no opportunity to improve, the Redskins game now takes the form of a meaningless preseason game. The only statistic that will really matter will be the injury report.

Turner likely will have his key role players healthy going into the playoffs for the first time since he has been the Chargers head coach. Players will also get some additional time to heal following the Redskins game, with the bye in the first round of the playoffs.

Just two playoff victories away from the Super Bowl, for the fourth year in a row, the Chargers have a strong shot at making it to the big game. Mathematically speaking, it seem the Chargers are due.

But past performance has no impact on future results. “Through history, going the bye route gives you an advantage, but it does not guarantee you anything," said Turner.

A major key for the Chargers to be successful in the playoffs will be for them to simply maintain the same focus that turned their season around from a 2-3 start and has now carried them through a 10-game winning streak.