San Diego Chargers Charge into First Through Denver Bronco Blunders

The Chargers week six dropped below .500 for the first time in the ’09 season at 2-3 after their heartbreaking loss to the Broncos. The Chargers had three months and 11 games to make up a 3 ½ game deficit but they achieved the feat in less than half that time.

In their first encounter at Qualcomm Stadium, the Broncos beat the Chargers in every aspect of the game. The Chargers took their four-game winning streak into Invesco Field and repaid the Broncos by controlling the tempo of the game and routing them 32-3.

The Broncos had very few things going for them when facing the Chargers week 10. The run game and home field advantage.

In the first drive of the game the Broncos ran the ball on the first seven plays for 42 yards and then on the eighth play Simms fumbled on his first drop back. The Chargers capitalize on a touchdown; the Broncos get the ball back and go three-and-out on three straight passes.

The Broncos only ran the ball 10 more times after running it on the first seven plays and kept the crowd out of the game all day.

In the hole down 13 points after two Nate Kaeding field goals, still with the game in reach, the Broncos make their biggest mistake of the game by bringing back Kyle Orton.

Yes Orton moved the ball, but the Broncos still got obliterated and there was no positive note for bringing back Orton and keeping him in the game. The move worsened Orton’s injury and affected Chris Simm’s confidence.

Josh McDaniels didn’t take history into account with Orton who was brought back too early last year after an ankle injury and played his worst ball down the stretch because of being brought back prematurely. Now the Broncos have a starting quarterback who is in worse condition than a week before and a back-up quarterback with no confidence and now have a big offensive task ahead of them on Thanksgiving at New York against the Giants.

Speaking of McDaniels bad first year moves. I am sure he learned another valuable lesson against the Chargers through speaking out of turn. Before the game the knucklehead in McDaniels told Charger players “that he owned them.” McDaniels got a taste of his own medicine and I am sure he won’t consciously do that again.

The Broncos couldn’t do anything right and the Chargers took advantage of it by controlling time of possession, 37:52 to 22:08, and rushing for 203 yards, the most this season in their biggest lopsided victory.  

The Chargers are now 5-0 when Rivers throws below his average of pass attempts and have scored more than 30 points each time they crack the century mark in rushing yards.

Much of the success from the offense can be credited to the offensive line who are opening holes to run through and keeping the pressure off of Rivers.

Through the first five games of the season Rivers was sacked 15 times and in the last five games he has only been sacked five times and kept spotless last game. The running game has also benefited from the great play of the line after rushing for more than 100 yards in three out of the last five games.

The run has also been a contributor to Rivers success because now teams have to respect the run. The Chargers averaging the lowest total in rushing yards a few weeks ago, now are 20th in league averaging less than a yard fewer than 100.

In the last five games, Rivers has completed on average 69 percent of his passes compared to 59 percent through the first five and has thrown for better than 77 percent in his last two.

The offense has been rolling of late for the Chargers and the defense is following its lead sacking the quarterback 20 times in the last five games and having a leagues fifth best rushing defense allowing a tad over 80 yards per game.

To those who doubted the Chargers balance attack, 28 rushes for 203 yards and 22 passes for 145 yards sounds like a good balance attack to me. What perfect timing for my article last week on their underrated balanced attack . 

The Chargers have two winnable games at home against Kansas City and on the road at Cleveland. Both teams won this past week with a few other unexpected wins so the Chargers could be in for tough games against the teams they are expected to beat, but as long as the Chargers can win the turnover ratio and control the clock, like they have been doing of late, they will go into Dallas at 9-3.