Tom Brady Praises Philip Rivers After Record-Breaking Night

Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to victory over the New York Jets on Sunday and on the way to win, he broke Peyton Manning’s record for total passing yards in regular and post-season playoffs.

The Patriots quarterback is arguably one of the greatest to play the game, but he reserved his own praise for another quarterback breaking records on the same night. It was Philip Rivers of the Los Angeles Chargers, who had a near perfect game as they beat the Arizona Cardinals 45-10.

Rivers is having a great season and on Sunday night at the StubHub Center, he eclipsed the NFL record for completing the most consecutive passes to open the game with 25. And then ended the night with the highest completion percentage in a game when he went 28-of-29 for 259 yards, which included three touchdown passes.

Brady revealed that he watched the game after hearing of Rivers’ amazing feat and also admitted that a number of his throws had a “high level of difficulty”. He also credited the receivers for making some good catches.

"It's nearly impossible, which is the reason why it has never been done before. Philip made incredible throws. I watched the game. Obviously, when someone has a record-breaking performance, I want to go figure out what the heck they're doing," Brady said Monday, as quoted on ESPN.

"And the reality is there is a high level of difficulty on a lot of those throws. He made great throws where the receivers could get their hands on the ball and make the catch. The receivers made some good catches. Really, the incompletion came where he got a little hit as he was getting ready to pass; that probably would have been a completion. That's just remarkable,” the five-time Super Bowl winner added.

Rivers has thrown 26 touchdown passes so far this season and has led the Chargers to an 8-3 record. They are currently sitting in second place in the AFC West standings, behind one of the season’s favorites — the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chargers quarterback has a completion rate of 69.5 percent, having completed 239 of his 334 throws for 3,119 yards this season. And it was also his 11th straight game with multiple touchdown passes.

Brady had nothing but praise for Rivers and made it clear he was very happy for his fellow quarterback. The Chargers star, however, credited his receivers for helping him have such a high completion rate on the night.

"It feels pretty good; you can have a high level of confidence when great things like that are happening. The Chargers are having a great season, Philip is having a helluva year," Brady added. "I'm very happy for him. That's an incredible record to have."

“There were some catches that could easily fall incomplete. There were a lot of guys involved in it,” Rivers said, crediting the rest of his offensive team, as quoted on Japan Times.