SAN DIEGO — The pregame thinking going into Sunday’s fling was unthinkable — at least by rational football thinkers.
But why not? Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning hadn’t been playing particularly well. His passes had been wobbly. After 51 consecutive games, he failed last week to throw a touchdown pass. And this was even before we were told he had been sacked by the flu bug Saturday night.
So the thought passed through this feeble brain that, if the Chargers were going to win this crucial affair against the AFC West leaders, they were going to have to do what nobody ever considers. They were going to have to stop the run (which the Broncos had been doing well) and make Manning beat them.
Unheard of. But not that bad an idea, if I do say so myself. And it might have worked — if the Chargers hadn’t decided to let Manning slip off the hook by not covering his receivers running deep fade routes and basically beating themselves. Manning wasn’t great, just good enough, but not the incredible pain he usually is.
He seems more, well, mortal, but the Chargers didn’t get any divine intervention to pull him off his cloud.
San Diego scored one touchdown, its second over the past eight quarters, made one field goal, missed two, and eventually fell rather feebly, 22-10, in their final Qualcomm Stadium game of the season.
As a result, the Broncos clinched the division and the Chargers (8-6) lost control of their destiny. But they have not been air-brushed from the playoff picture. They have two games remaining — at San Francisco and Kansas City — and must win both. Plus, much like last year, they’re going to need assistance from others to get into the postseason.
Hard to see it all falling into place this December, but because the NFL isn’t very good after you get past the elite teams, it’s not impossible. San Francisco’s offense, up next for a defense playing well enough to win most games, may be worse than the Chargers’.
And San Diego’s offense, at present, stinks.
As he was against New England the previous game, quarterback Philip Rivers isn’t playing up to his usual standards, and Sunday, against one of the league’s more feared pass rushes, his maligned offensive line got some help from a scheme to add more protection and he wasn’t sacked, much less touched very often.
And yet, with his receivers failing to get open with any frequency — if they did he didn’t see them — Rivers was way off his game, completing 24-of-41 passes for 232 yards (a dismal passer rating of 62.2, thanks to two late critical interceptions). The rabbits he once pulled with great frequency out of his December hat appear to have stopped breeding.
“There just wasn’t a whole lot there,” Rivers said of Broncos defensive backs covering his receivers. “Obviously, we have to do a better job scoring more points. We scored one touchdown. We’ve scored two touchdowns now in eight quarters. You’re probably not going to win either of those games.”
Not probably. They didn’t.
Rivers didn’t act like a quarterback who saw many openings.
“If you see a lot of guys open, let me know,” he said. “I’ll take your help.”
Coach Mike McCoy, who once again wished so many visiting fans weren’t in the audience (a fact other coaches here have gotten used to), basically concurred with his quarterback, answering questions with “I have to look at the film.”
When he does, it will not be “The Godfather.”
“I think the players fought extremely hard, but it’s not good enough,” McCoy said. “It’s all about winning. We’ve got to score more points and do a better job in all three phases to win against a good team.”
