It isn’t about moving into first place in the AFC West.
Oh, sure, that’s nice and all, but, if you’re a Broncos fan, that’s not what the prospect of beating the Chargers is all about.
It’s too early to be talking about who’s leading the division. There are too many blown leads, tipped balls and season-ending injuries ahead of us to be going there. There’s too much momentum to be gained and lost.
Case in point: The Chargers were 1-3 last season and seemingly headed nowhere, only to win 10 of their final 12 games and almost make it to the Super Bowl.
So, if not first place, what is Sunday’s game all about? One word: relevance.
Beat the Chargers, and the Broncos, for the second time since their Super Bowl years _ 2005, when they lost in the AFC Championship Game, being the other _ would be relevant again.
They would be bold faced on the NFL map. They would be talked about from coast from coast. They would be analyzed and overanalyzed. They would be debated and critiqued.
Some people would say they’re overrated, and others would claim they’re underrated. But everyone would be talking about them. , which ranked the Broncos 23rd among the NFL’s 32 teams as recently as six weeks ago, would send them skyrocketing up its power rankings.
Beat the Chargers and the Broncos would create a sense of anticipation, the likes of which rarely has been felt in the Rocky Mountain Region in the past decade. Whatever you do, don’t discount how important that would be to the franchise and the people who follow its every move.
In the NFL, anticipation is half the fun. The other half comes in January, when your team is in the playoffs.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s Broncos updates on The Jimmy Page at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
