Mile High Report
The Denver Broncos defeated the Los Angeles Chargers to improve to 14-3 on the year and have officially clinched the number one seed in the AFC and, more importantly, have homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
Playoff football and the road to the Super Bowl will go through Mile High.
As for the game, it wasn’t the prettiest contest. The Broncos’ offense did not play well, and it appeared they had a very simple and vanilla gameplan for this one. Still, they did not play well, but I expect a better effort from this team in two weeks. As for the defense, they dominated this game and held the Chargers’ backups to just 3 points.
However, the only thing that matters is getting the win, and they did just that tonight. With all that said, here are your winners and losers from the Denver Broncos 19-3 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers
THE DENVER BRONCOS ARE THE ONE SEED IN THE AFC AND HAVE HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE THROUGHOUT THE PLAYOFFS.
That’s the only thing that matters from this game.
Yes, the Chargers rested most of their starters, including Justin Herbert, Omarion Hampton, and others, but the Broncos’ defense still dominated this game.
They held the Chargers to 217 total yards, 104 yards passing, had 4 sacks, and forced 2 turnovers, which was a point of emphasis from Sean Payton this week. The Chargers were never really in this game, despite the offensive struggles, and the Broncos’ defense carried this team to the one seed.
The competition will be MUCH more difficult moving forward, but this was a strong way to end the year for the Broncos’ defense.
That was not pretty, but I am not overly concerned.
It was clear from the start that Sean Payton was not showing anything in this game. He wanted to run the ball down their throat and just have Nix do basic stuff in the passing game. We saw a lot of screens, dump-offs, and runs, and very few complex plays. They could face the Chargers in two weeks and did not want to put too much on tape for them.
On top of that, he had confidence in his defense to hold Trey Lance and the Chargers’ backups in check. They did just that, but the Broncos’ offense struggles stood out.
Bo Nix struggled to do much of anything, but was constantly under pressure throughout this game. He did miss a few passes, but overall, I am not too worried about his performance.
One thing I am concerned about is rookie RJ Harvey. He struggled to get anything going on the ground and averaged just 1.9 yards per carry and was outplayed by Jaleel McLaughlin, who averaged an impressive 6.1 yards per carry. The Broncos will need more from Harvey moving forward, even if JK Dobbins is able to return at somepoint.
Another area of concern is...
