Remember last week when I said the game against the Colts was over at halftime? I wish this week would have been at least that good.
Sadly, after a fumbled kickoff in the first quarter gave the Chargers a second TD in 11 seconds, you had a sense that this game was over before the last second of the first quarter ticked off the clock.
This team really is as bad as advertised. There's nothing special about the special teams - There's no defense for the defense - And the offense is just that..... offensive.
This loss ended with the largest losing margin in the Shanahan era as the Broncos head coach, and it was the worst loss at home since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. It was also the worst home loss since the Kansas City Chiefs' 56-10 thumping on Oct. 23, 1966.
This week's 4 downs....
Most Glaring Weaknesses (I could almost paste and clip these)
1st - Poor Secondary play. Phillip Rivers averaged over 20 yards per completion today. He completed 72% of his attempts. He had a passer rating of 151.4. All of these were season highs for him. Perhaps the biggest bust of a play that demonstrates how pathetic the pass defense was today was on the 2nd and 33 play where Rivers completed a 45 yard pass.
2nd - Run defense. Please tell me how you allow over 200 yards in rushing defense for the third time in the first 5 games. (In one of the other two games against the Jags they surrendered 186). Please tell me how you can allow some of the big runs the Chargers got near the end of the game when all they were doing was running out the clock (see Michael Turner).
3rd - Fumbles... dropped passes... Interception... It all started with the kickoff fumble by Clark and ended with Cutler extending his streak of consecutive games with an INT to 10. I hear Brandon Marshall is upset with the fans for leaving early. Perhaps if he hadn't fumbled inside the 9 yard line when the Broncos were only down by 14, the fans would have had a reason to stick around.
4th - Play calling and team chemistry. Shanny (or Heimerdinger) were pathetic with playcalling. San Diego had the 29th ranked defense against the pass coming into today's game, yet it seemed like the ball was taken from Cutler's hands. I know we love to run, but Shanny used to be the "guru" in creating mismatches against the opposing team's weaknesses. I haven't seen it over the past three losses.
The Good Things (this was pretty hard with a game like this one)
1st - Tony Scheffler. It appears he's is back from his injury. It took an injury to Nate Jackson for him to get a chance, but he came through on a couple of big first down pass catches, and he had a blocked punt on special teams. It sure would be sweet to see the Cutler to Scheffler connection return after the bye.
2nd - Glenn Martinez. He did a great job playing the slot position today, catching 6 passes for 70 yards. He also had a very nice punt return, showing that we might have an answer in that area.
3rd - Brandon Marshall. He has the privilege of appearing in both the good and the bad this week. He did a decent job of playing the #1 receiver, netting 7 catches for 72 yards. If only he didn't have that key fumble....
4th - 3rd down conversions, going 6 for 13.
It appears the bye week will be needed. Several key players were injured today, including Champ Bailey and Brandon Stokley. When you add Javon's second consecutive missed game, the rest will be welcome.
As I have already stated, this team sucks. There's not a catagory anywhere over the past few weeks that would give the average fan reason to think that this year's edition of the Denver Broncos will finish the season better than .500 (playoffs...... PLAYOFFS??) /Jim Mora rant....
Hey, at least with the bye week, the defense won't give up another 200+ yards rushing next Sunday...