Even Philip Rivers Laughs at Missed Tackle

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback’s stumbling missed tackle that failed to prevent a TD fumble return on Sunday led to some teammates having a few laughs at his expense.

INDIANAPOLIS — After falling down and flailing his arms and legs in a missed tackle Sunday, credit Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers for having some humility about the embarrassing play.

Teammates gave the immobile 38-year-old quarterback some good-natured needling about the flop. And Rivers couldn’t help but chuckle, too, although he was ticked off about not preventing Chuck Clark to return a fumble recovery 65 yards for a tying touchdown in the second quarter of a 24-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Clark was speeding down the sideline with only Rivers to beat. As the quarterback cut toward the safety near the 30-yard line, he stumbled and fell flat on his back. Clark was looking to cut inside of Rivers, but instead just leaped over him. Rivers threw up the legs and arms in hopes of getting a lucky stop.

“We had a couple good laughs,” Rivers said on Monday. “Shoot, I can laugh at it as well.”

It immediately became a trending video share on social media, many dubbing the misfortune, “The worst tackling attempt of all time.”

Rivers conceded that could have laughed harder about it with teammates had the Colts won.

“Probably not as (much) had we won the game, it would have been a little funnier, I guess,” he said. “It makes it a little harder sell to tell you that 20 years ago I was a heck of a free safety after you watch that clip. That’s for sure.”

Ravens safety Chuck Clark leaps over Colts quarterback Philip Rivers on a second-quarter TD fumble return.

Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports

As the Colts (5-3) quickly turned their attention to an important Thursday night AFC South Division road game against the first-place Tennessee Titans (6-2), the good news is that there isn’t much time to dwell on the Ravens loss, or the sure-to-be-remembered Rivers missed tackle.

At least Rivers, in his 17th NFL season, understood and could appreciate why the play amused his teammates.

“It’s funny, but not funny because I’m still aggravated I didn’t find a way to get him down and make them snap it again,” he said, “but it is – you can find a way to laugh at it a little bit just because of the lack of athletic display shown in that particular play.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)