"Philip Rivers is putting up MVP numbers, but his team is not.

As the NFL season has moved into its second half and the Chargers are finally at their bye week, the only piece of the puzzle that must be different for Rivers to be considered the league's top player for 2010 is that the Chargers need to win more between now and January.

"Well, when you are in the position we are from a record standpoint, I think it's hard," Norv Turner said yesterday when asked to pontificate on why Rivers isn't getting more national recognition for MVP consideration despite leading the league with 2,944 passing yards (second-most ever through the first nine games of an NFL season) and 19 touchdowns.

For Rivers to be named the league's MVP, the Chargers (4-5) might even need to run the table. No MVP winner since Kurt Warner's 2001 St. Louis Rams were 10-6 has been on a team with fewer than 11 victories. Rich Gannon's 2002 Oakland Raiders (11-5) were the only other team with an MVP in that span to have fewer than 12 wins.

Forget that the Chargers wouldn't even have four victories if they didn't have Rivers.

"Think about where we would be without him," safety Eric Weddle said after Rivers matched a career high with four touchdown passes Sunday at Houston and fell five yards short of having a career-high sixth 300-yard game this season."