Around the AFC West: Broncos Zap Chargers on Thursday Night Football and other Week 8 Division Storylines

This week’s Around the AFC West will be a little different than usual, as we were treated to the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football last night, the first time since writing this feature that we have had a AFC West team play in Thursday’ nights game.

It’s good for you the viewer, as you will get some immediate reactions to what we saw on the field last night; as the Broncos took a strong control of 1^st place in the AFC West with their 35-21 win along with putting themselves right back in the front of the discussion for best team in professional football.

Without further ado, let’s go Around the AFC West.

Standings (with last week’s result*)

Denver Broncos…….6-1 (W, 35-21 v. SD)

San Diego Chargers..5-3 (L, 21-35 v. DEN)

Kansas City Chiefs…3-3 (W, 23-20 v. SD)

Oakland Raiders……0-6 (L, 13-24 v. ARI) 

*Last Night’s “TNF” Game is included in the standings 

Denver Broncos

• Congarts to Peyton on 509; Keeps the Strong Season Going Against Chargers

We didn’t get a chance to congratulate Peyton Manning for his 509^th career touchdown pass yet in the column, so I just wanted to start off with that. For those of you with the inconvenience of being stuck under a rock for the last week, the 509^th touchdown gave Manning the career lead for career touchdown passes.

To be honest, we all know how great Manning is and seeing as it is five days after 509, I’m sure you have been covered to death of it by this point. So this is it; just a quick congrats on the career achievement for one of the best players to ever play the quarterback position.

Like us at the site, Manning wasn’t spending time reliving 509 either, as he shredded the Chargers defense in a game that after the second quarter wasn’t really that close.

The Broncos put 35 points up on the board against a defense that was the third best scoring unit coming into this game. Denver didn’t commit a turnover and didn’t allow a single sack.

This offense is scary good with all of the weapons at each position. It is going to be another record setting year for Manning (1,848 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, 3 interceptions and 118.2 quarterback rating), who has made throwing for three touchdowns a game seem like commonplace for NFL quarterbacks this season.

• Emmanuel Sanders Continues Breakout Season

No one was really giving Emmanuel Sanders much of a chance to turn in a season like Eric Decker (the player he replaced) just the year before.

Sanders has emerged this season as a playmaker for Peyton Manning, learning a new offense and earning the trust of his quarterback with just one off-season together.

Coming into this game, Sanders had 51 targets that he turned into 38 receptions for 514 yards and a touchdown. Those 51 targets were more than Decker, Jimmy Graham, Randall Cobb, Larry Fitzgerald and DeSean Jackson.

After his 9 reception, 120 yard and 3 touchdown performance last night, Sanders has already set his career high with 634 receiving yards through the first seven games of the season.  He is also just 20 off his career high of 67 receptions in a season.

Sanders has stepped right into his role as number two receiver and taken off with it. The Broncos offense with Manning is all about exploding match ups and Sanders gives Denver a dynamic playmaker who takes pressure off of others while also possessing the skills to make tough catches under heavy defensive pressure.

He has already proven that if it is a one-on-one match up, Sanders is going to win it.

• Von Miller is playing at a Crazy Pace to Start Career; Defense Looks Much Improved

Von Miller is good.

No, Von Miller is really, really good.

Miller racked up his 9^th sack on the year in this game, and his 44^th sack in 47 career games played!

The biggest difference between Miller of old and this year is not only is he constantly getting better, but the Broncos defense is taking a step forward as a unit too.

It was a point of emphasis for Denver in the offseason and the Broncos made sure to address it by adding defensive end DeMarcus Ware, safety T.J. Ward and corner Aqib Talib in the off-season.

The results on the field have been promising, as the entire unit continues to get better and grow each week. They are really starting to gel together as a unit, and are going to be a force to be reckoned with as the season goes on.

It was just a few weeks ago in which it was just the offense getting the press in Denver. You have to make sure you don’t forget about this defense too.

San Diego Chargers

• Stop Calling this man Old! Antonio Gates Goes off Again

I am guilty of it myself, so I would like to apologize to Chargers tight end Antonio Gates for calling him old, as he is playing like anything but his age.

The future hall of famer was Phillip Rivers favorite target in the red zone against the Broncos and finished the day with 5 receptions for 54 yards and two touchdowns.

Gates now has 9 touchdowns and over 400 yards receiving yards through the Chargers first 8 weeks of the season. He is now on the verge of reaching double-digit touchdowns for the fourth time in his 12-year career. It would also be the first time that Gates reached the milestone since 2010.

• Running Game Stagnant; Factor Offense Couldn’t Overcome

Chargers running back Branden Oliver is no stranger to this column, but this week it is for all the wrong reasons.

The Denver Broncos completely shut down the Chargers and Oliver, as he was able to rush for just 36 yards on his 13 carries. The worse part about that is 23 of those yards came on his last carry in the game, in which the Chargers and Broncos were just trying to run out the clock. Before that last one, Oliver was able to manage just 1.08 yards a carry on his first 12 carries of the game.

The lack of rushing game put all of the pressure on Phillip Rivers, who still managed to have a productive game.

Rivers threw 3 touchdowns on 30 of 41 passing. He also finished with 252 yards through the air, but learned at how stingy a defense the Broncos could be. They not only pressured Rivers throughout the evening while also sacking him twice, they also had two interceptions.

Rivers is a great quarterback who is going to lead this team to a lot of victories. They just weren’t the better team in this one and the Chargers offense was turned one-dimensional before they really had a chance to keep up with Denver’s attack.

• The Shine of a 5-1 Start is Starting to Wear Off

This isn’t a bashing of the team, as they are a very good unit from top to bottom. It is just an objective look at their season so far.

They started off the year as one of the best, but have looked like a team with a few holes in their last two defeats. The defense is good but the offense still relies way too much on Phillip Rivers to produce results week in and week out.

The Chargers can right the ship with some very winnable games in the upcoming future, as the Dolphins, Raiders, and Rams are all beatable teams.

The schedule ends tough though with matchups against the Ravens, Patriots, Broncos, 49ers and Chiefs to end the year.

San Diego needs to get the wins now so they don’t fall in the middle of the AFC race, you don’t want your season coming down to tiebreakers.

Kansas City Chiefs

• Statement Win to Get back in the Playoff Race

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if the Kansas City Chiefs were going to be able to stay in the playoff race this year. I stated they were better than their record, but wondered out loud if they would be able to not only keep up in their division (which I thought was out of reach) but in the AFC wildcard race as well.

After a big win over the San Diego Chargers last weekend, the Chiefs now sit at a respectable 3-3, along with improving them to 1-1 in their division.

Don’t look now, but Kansas City is now 3-1 in their last four games and have three very winnable games on the schedule coming up in two straight home games against the St. Louis Rams (2-4) and New York Jets (1-6) before heading to Buffalo to take on the Bills (4-3).

If the Chiefs can take two of the next three, all of a sudden they find themselves right in the thick of a playoff race in what is usually a very wide-open AFC.

In the end, it’s the final three weeks of the season (against the Raiders, Chargers and Steelers) that decide whether the Chiefs are playoff football come January. They need to make sure they keep themselves in the hunt so that they can still make a move late in the season to leapfrog what I imagine is going to be a very crowded field for the last wildcard spot.

• Alex Smith Shows Again he Can Win a Football Game Late

Quarterback Alex Smith is one of the most underrated signal callers in the entire National Football League.

He isn’t going to throw it all over the field every week (he has yet to eclipse more than 255 passing yards in a game this season), but when he has a chance with the game on the line the veteran seems to deliver.

Smith has lead 12 fourth quarter comebacks and 14 game-winning drives in his career to this point, the latest just coming last weekend in which he completed three passes in a row for 53 yards on the final drive to help set up Cairo Santos’s 48-yard game winning kick.

Smith is good enough to make all the throws in the NFL and he has proven time and time again that he can lead his time on late game drives. He will be one of the biggest reasons whether or not the Chiefs can continue their run of recent success.

It isn’t often that you can say you trust a guy who is leading the 30^th ranked passing offense (199.7 yards per game through the air) to step up when the game matters most.

The Chiefs will be playing in a lot of close games this year, and they are going to need Smith to lead them to a couple more victories.

• On Tap: vs St. Louis Rams (2-4), 1:00 PM Sunday (eastern)

Both the Rams and Chiefs are coming off of huge divisional victories from the week before (the Rams upset the Seattle Seahawks).

On paper, the Chiefs are a more talented team and have an advantage in having a veteran quarterback presence at the position while the Rams have been starting the pleasantly surprising Austin Davis (135 for 205 for 1,520 yards, 9 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in six games played.

Even with a spark at quarterback, the Rams offense is very middle of the pack and has to go up against one of the better defenses in the league. The Chiefs enter the game with the 2^nd ranked pass defense, only allowing an average of 209 yards a game while picking off three passes so far this year.

The gameplan should be feed Jamaal Charles, who will be in line for a big game going against a defense that is allowing 145 rush yards per game (28^th in the NFL).

The good times in Kansas City should continue another week, as I am predicting a Chiefs win in a game that looks a lot more closer on the scoreboard than what it was on the field.

Oakland Raiders

• 12 Straight Loses and Counting

The Oakland Raiders dropped another one last week, which was their 12-straight loss dating back to last season, along with their current 0-6 start being the worst in franchise history since 1962, in which the Raiders lost their first 13 games of the season that year.

To put that in perspective, 1962 was the year before the late Al Davis joined the franchise.

It has been a very rough year in Oakland, as there are a lot of young players who are experiencing growing pains as they get used to football at the next level. Playing the Browns this weekend might be their last chance at a win for quite sometime, as after Cleveland the Raiders have to play the Seahawks, Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs in that order.

“This is as bad as you’re going to get through the first part of the season,” Safety Charles Woodson stated after the game last weekend. “We haven’t won a game. How much worse can it get than that, than not winning a game?”

• LaMarr Woodley Headed to the IR

What could possibly make a rough season worse?

How about losing a big free agent signee, veteran LaMarr Woodley (who signed a 2-year/$12 million contract in the off-season) for the year?

It was announced just yesterday that Woodley, who had just five tackles in six games this year, will miss the rest of the season with a bicep injury and will be placed on injured reserve.

C.J. Wilson and Benson Mayowa will fill in for the Raiders in his place.

It might not matter much for the struggling Raiders, who defense isn’t very good to begin with.

It looks like this could be another failed signing in the decade long list that is the current Oakland Raiders.

• On Tap: at Cleveland Browns (3-3), 4:25 PM Sunday (eastern)

Coming into the season, you could have thought that this game would be between two teams on the bottom of the AFC standings.

Instead, the Browns come in looking to continue their strong start to the year. Their defense is top notch and they have gotten great quarterback play from Brain Hoyer (1,439 passing yards, 7 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions) who must be laughing about all the Johnny Football drama the media created in the off-season.

The Browns are the much better team coming into this one, and I have a feeling the Raiders will still be searching for their first win of the season after this weekend.