Star outside linebacker Shawne Merriman will miss San Diego's home game against Detroit because of a sprained ligament in his left knee that knocked him out of Sunday's game at Tennessee, which the Chargers won in overtime.

Quarterback Philip Rivers is in a little better shape, saying he expects to play against the Lions even though he, too, has a sprained left knee.

"It will be at least one game," Merriman said in an e-mail to The Associated Press today. "I'll be back to dominating in no time."

Coach Norv Turner said Merriman's injury isn't season-ending.

"I'm not going to speculate, but it could be a couple of weeks," Turner said.

Both Merriman and Rivers were hurt in the second quarter of San Diego's 23-17 overtime win at Tennessee, a hard-hitting game in which several players were hurt.

The team refused to give more details about the injuries.

Rivers either didn't want to be specific about his injury or was told not to discuss it with the media.

"I'll leave that up to the coach and the trainer as far as giving you the information," he said. "I don't try to get caught up in all the scientific words that are used."

Rivers wore a knee brace to his news conference today.

"It was pretty sore this morning, but it shouldn't be anything I can't manage and get better during the week," Rivers said.

With three games to go, the Chargers (8-5) lead the AFC West by two games over Denver. The Chargers can win the division for the second straight season if they beat the Lions and the Broncos lose to the Houston Texans on Thursday night.

Merriman had two sacks yesterday before he was hurt, pushing his season total to 11 1/2. Nicknamed "Lights Out" for his punishing hits, Merriman is the sixth player in NFL history to get 10 or more sacks in his first three seasons. His career total is 38 1/2.

He had an NFL-high 17 sacks last season in 12 games. He was suspended four games after testing positive for steroids.

Some Chargers thought Merriman was hurt on a dirty play.

Asked if he thought it was a dirty game, running back LaDainian Tomlinson said: "I don't know what you classify 'dirty' as. I don't know. I think it was a competitive game. I think sometimes throughout a competitive game things happen. Guys go to extra distance to make a play, make things happen.

"But understand something — that's the way the game was played a long time ago, when guys like Deacon Jones played," Tomlinson said. "I think sometimes we forget it's football and guys before us played the game harder than the way we play it now. There's so many rules; you can't do this, you can't do that. And so when things like yesterday happen, people always say, 'Well it was a dirty game, dirty play.' I don't know. It's behind us now. This ain't the only time we're going to get played like that. We're going to have to face it again."

Rivers limped off the field after taking a blow from defensive end Antwan Odom in the second quarter.

Rivers handed the ball to Tomlinson, rolled out and was clipped to the ground. He tried to walk off the field, nearly falling on his way to the sideline.

Rivers headed to the locker room, and was replaced by Billy Volek. But he was back for San Diego's opening series of the third quarter.

"I think it was one of those freak accidents, really," Rivers said. "It was as physical of a game I've been involved with."

Rivers returned for the start of the second half and played well down the stretch. He threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Gates with 9 seconds left to send the game into overtime, when Tomlinson won it with a 16-yard run.