chargers

MNF

Jeromey Balderrama

I’m probably not making any big posts tonight due to my attention being focused on the Broncos/Chargers game.  Usually I’m able to blog during Monday Night Football, but I’m too focused on this game to collect any thoughts.

As I watch this game, the more I realize how much I loathe the Chargers.  I think there are some teams that the national media becomes infatuated with, maybe it’s due to the supposed level of talent, or a specific player they want to rally behind – but it seems like the Chargers are one of those teams that the media is simply in denial about.  The Chargers have been pretty sub-par for the last two years, yet the media still tries to see them as a Super Bowl team.

Even tonight, when the ESPN pre-game show was going across their screen, they had 3-4 of the commentators going for the Chargers.  Never mind the fact that they’re injured on their offensive line, that Shawne Marriman isn’t the player he once was before he got injured, or that LaDainian Thomlinson has fallen from grace.  Somehow they manage to ignore that and still see the Chargers as the darlings of the AFC West, which they’ve penciled into their playoff brackets.

Media infatuation aside, I also loathe the Chargers because of Phillip Rivers and the way he gets a pass for all of his trash-talking that he does.  He always looks like a spoiled kid whenever they are on top, but if they face a shred of adversity he’s nowhere to be found.

So yes, it was fantastic watching the Broncos win tonight and continue to prove the national media was wrong: both about the Chargers and about the level of play coming from the Broncos.

2-0(*?)

Jeromey Balderrama

NorvTurner

Two days after the Broncos huge win over the Chargers, and still everyone is talking about the “Refgate” show heard around the world.  In case you don’t follow the NFL/Broncos, head ref Ed Hochuli (who should be called “Ed Hurcules”) blew a call on the last drive. Peter King describes it best in his column:

Methodically, Cutler drove Denver downfield. On second-and-one from the Charger 17 with 77 seconds left, Cutler rolled right and the ball popped out of his right hand as he raised it to throw. He definitely was not in the throwing motion. The ball landed on the ground near the Chargers’ 10, and San Diego recovered. But wait. Hochuli had blown his whistle. The play was dead. When a quarterback loses the ball on a play like this, any whistle means the play is over, unlike if it happens to a running back or receiver; those balls can be recovered. Not this one. Denver retained possession. Two plays later, Cutler threw to second-round rookie Eddie Royal for a four-yard touchdown. Immediately, Shanahan held up two fingers.

I respect Peter King and his statement when he says in the same column “The Chargers were robbed”.  The refs did blow the call.  At the same time, the Refs weren’t the ones couldn’t stop Cutler from throwing the touchdown pass two plays later, and the Refs weren’t the ones that gave Eddie Royal the two point conversion as well.

Either way, I’ll take 2-0 and the Broncos Offense machine running on all cylinders.  The defense. well I hope they can step it up with the Saints come to town this weekend.  The Chargers have great weapons, and they were able to hold those weapons down in the first half.  However, blowing it in the second half has become all-too common for the Broncos defense.  Something tells me that this next Sunday will be another shoot-out.