Updated

Philip Rivers has been hard to beat down the stretch during his career, amassing a 33-6 record in regular-season games in December and January.

Rivers and the rest of the San Diego Chargers (8-4) will be tested this month, starting with Sunday night's home game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots (9-3).

Rivers is 1-5 against the Patriots, with the lone victory coming in 2008 when Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the opener.

As he often does, Rivers is looking at the present.

Says Rivers: "We've never played this Patriot team. We're 0-0 against this group. There's a lot of guys in that locker room that have never played the Patriots in their life. You can't really say this team is 1-5 against them."

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