AFC Championship Game: Can Billy Volek Carry a Charge?

Numbers only mean so much.

The San Diego Chargers have eight players on their injury report for Sunday afternoon's game, the most notable of whom are LaDainian Tomlinson (knee), Antonio Gates (toe), and Philip Rivers (knee).

While both Gates and Tomlinson have proved themselves to be key components to this San Diego offense, Rivers is still a question mark in a lot of people's minds.

But what if the Chargers are better off with Billy Volek starting on Sunday?

Before anyone even asks, this is not what you think it's going to be: I'm not going to sit here, point out Rivers' 19-30 for 179 yards, two TDs, and two picks in Week Two against New England, and claim that therein lies the reason to sit the hotheaded quarterback.

Besides, one set of results from Week Two, no matter how compelling or lopsided, isn't much of a resource in January, is it?

But consider this: Since Week 10 of the regular season, the Pats have faced three backup QBs (for the sake of this article, Chad Pennington is considered a backup). Those three backups produced the following stats...

AJ Feeley: 27-42, 345 yards, 3 TDs, 3 INT (Week 12)

Kyle Boller: 15-23, 210 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT (Week 13)

Chad Pennington: 25-38, 184 yards (Week 15)

Those numbers aren't that impressive, but the Pats only won those three games by 16 points (including two games by three points versus Philly and Baltimore), for an average margin of victory of five points.

By contrast, the Pats' three lowest margins of victory (M.o.V) against starting QBs included a three-point M.o.V over the Giants when Eli Manning became inexplicably amazing, a four-point M.o.V in a 24-20 win over Peyton Manning and the Colts, and a 17-point M.o.V in a 34-17 disarmament of Cleveland.

If you do the math, that's a total M.o.V of 24 points in three games, or an average of eight points per game.

When you look a little close at those numbers for backup QBs against New England, it's actually scary:

* Their combined completion percentage for those three games is 65 percent, while the Magnificent Manning Brothers and Derek Anderson combined for a 59.5 percent mark.

* The three backup QBs tossed for 739 yards, only 24 yards fewer than the three starters.

* Despite the fact that Pennington didn't throw a TD pass against the Pats, the backups only trailed the starters by two TD passes (7-5)—and that's because of Eli's four TD passes, as Anderson and Peyton combined only had three TDs.

* The three backups tossed four INTs against the Pats (Feeley had three) while the starters tossed four too.

(Side note: The more I look at these stats, the more obvious Eli's superiority over Peyton seems. If you look at their lines from when each brother faced the Patriots, Eli absolutely dominates his brother:

Eli Manning, Week 17: 24-32, 251 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT

Peyton Manning, Week Nine: 16-27, 225 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

Should we have put more confidence in Eli during the first two weeks of the playoffs instead of writing off his accomplishments against the Pats? Should he be spewing ads for Master Card from now on instead of his brother? Is now the time to panic?

Okay, back to the topic at hand.)

The trend doesn't stop at backups that face New England. In fact, the all-around results from backups who saw significant playing time this year speaks volumes (all stats are from the regular season):

Todd Collins: 52-85, 664 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT 3-0 as a starter

Sage Rosenfels: 87-136, 1684 yards, 8 TDs, 6 INTs, 4-1 as a starter

Chris Redman: 72-124, 898 yards, 8 TDs, 4 INTs, 1-4 as a starter

Shaun Hill: 32-52, 320 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT, 2-0 as a starter

That's a 10-5 record there, along with 23 TDs to 11 INTs—and for some of the guys on this list, those numbers from this year are better than those from their entire careers up until this point.

All told, Sunday could be a big day. Billy Volek could start. He could prove the numbers right and have an outstanding day. He could do what no backup or starting quarterback has done this year.

Or we could watch as Bill Belichick and Co. allow Volek to merely pad his personal stats as the Pats march their way to an even bigger goal.

As I said, numbers only mean so much.

On Sunday, it's up to them to prove their worth.