And The Worst Performance of the Preseason Award Goes To...

...San Diego backup QB Billy Volek. After the 'Bolts pulled Rivers in the 3rd quarter, Volek came out, and following a first down, immediately lobbed a long pass straight into the Saints' larcenous secondary, putting the brakes on hopes for a retaliatory score. Then, in the fourth, with about a buck-fifty on the clock, the Chargers needed six plus a deuce conversion to tie. Things appeared to be going their way as Volek maneuvered the ball down to the Saints' 26. The next play, Volek threw another errant pass, which I don't really know how to describe beyond that it wasn't really into coverage - it was to the coverage, and cornerback Leigh Torrence caught the football at the 13.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Saints, mortal, for ye shall be the worse off for it. Source: palmbeachpost.com

At this point, with about thirty seconds left, my better half turned from his chair to yell at the TV, "Just fall on it, jackass!" - but that would be too easy. Torrence, in true Saints fashion, ran the thing 87 yards the other way to totally ice the game. The Chargers then muffed the ensuing squibby kickoff to give the ball back to the Saints with a few ticks left, and everyone got to see Philip Rivers pouting epically on the sidelines. Insult, meet Injury. Billy Volek: for channeling the spirit of Brett Favre and Peyton Manning, choking in the clutch, and giving the rest of us ninety seconds of incredibly amusing Schadenfreude, you get Second and One's Worst Performance of the Preseason Award...well, so far, anyway.