How the West Was Won: Chargers Bury Broncos 52-31 to Take Division

As far as the San Diego Chargers are concerned, justice has been served.

That justice took place Sunday night in San Diego as the Chargers, left for dead just a few weeks ago, put a severe beating on their AFC West rivals, the Denver Broncos, topping them 52-21.

With the win, the Chargers take the AFC West with a record of 8-8. The Broncos had three chances to close out the AFC West, but a three-game losing streak to end the season meant losing the divisional tiebreaker.

The Chargers crushed the Broncos to the tune of 491 yards of offense, 26 first downs, and 289 yards rushing—115 of which came via Darren Sproles. The remaining 96 was gained by LaDainian Tomlinson, who also scored three touchdowns.

Denver put up 406 yards of offense, but every time the Broncos tried to make it a game, their defense let them down.

Jay Cutler was 33-for-49 for 316 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The Chargers were up 10-6 after the first quarter, then started to pile on the points, scoring two TDs to go up 24-6 at the half.

Denver got a TD from Tatum Bell, who went in from 37 yards out to make it 24-13 at the 12:47 mark of the third quarter.

The Chargers then made it 31-13 on a Philip Rivers-to-Sproles TD from 13 yards out. Then, after defensive lineman Luis Castillo picked off a poorly thrown ball by Cutler, Tomlinson put the game out of reach for good with a 4-yard run that made it 38-13.

The Chargers piled on two more rushing TDs in the fourth for the 31-point win.

Maybe it was fate, considering the refs robbed the Chargers of a win in Denver in Week 2 after a blown call that the league later admitted to getting wrong. This time the Chargers were not going to let the refs, or anyone else for that matter, get in their way.

San Diego will now have to get set to play host to the hottest team in the league in the AFC Wild Card game on Saturday.

The Indianapolis Colts beat San Diego on Nov. 23 in San Diego, 23-20. The two teams have a playoff history, as San Diego topped the Colts last season in Indy before falling to the Patriots in the AFC title game the following week in New England.