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For the third week in a row, NFL fans will be in for another exciting divisional rivalry game on Thursday night, when the San Diego Chargers pay a visit to the Denver Broncos.
San Diego Chargers (5-2) vs. Denver Broncos (5-1), Thursday, October 23, 8:30 PM. ET.
Phillip Rivers has played so well this season that he is considered one of the front runners for the MVP award, but the Chargers saw their five game winning streaks snapped at home against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
The Chiefs ran the ball very effectively against the Chargers, and were able to control the clock for 39 minutes, which kept San Diego’s offense on the sidelines for most of the game. Kansas City’s defense also limited Phillip Rivers to his worst game of the season, completing 54% of his passes for 205 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.
San Diego will try to bounce back with a win against the Broncos, who are now ahead of them in the AFC West, but they will need to run the ball better than they did against Kansas City, where they had 69 yards on the ground.
Defensively, the Chargers need to do a better job against the run, because Denver has run the ball very well in their last two games, which were against very good run defenses, and they will be able to control the clock if they can establish the run against San Diego.
The Broncos have won their last three games convincingly, and look like the most complete football team in the league right now. Although he isn’t on the type of pace he was on last year when he broke the record for most touchdown passes in a season, Peyton Manning made history again this season when he passed Brett Favre for the most touchdown passes in a career, throwing his 509th career touchdown pass in the first half of their game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Broncos defense has also been much improved this year with the addition of DeMarcus Ware and Aqib Talib, two offseason acquisitions that came up big for the team against San Francisco, Ware finished the game with 3 of the team’s six sacks, while Talib had the teams only interception on Sunday night.
With the win against the 49ers, Denver has finished the toughest part of their schedule, and they went 4-1 against teams that won 10 games last season, and only have two games left against playoff teams from last year, with the exception of their division games, which puts them in a good position to finish with the best record in the AFC, barring significant injuries or a major collapse.
Denver has the 3rd best passing game in the NFL, and the 25th best running game in the league, but their running game has improved significantly in recent weeks, despite the loss of Montee Ball, who has missed the last two weeks with a groin injury.
Game Line: The Broncos are favored to win the game by 7.5 points, the Over/Under is 50.5 points.
Personal Pick: Denver looks very good this year, especially at home, and will give the Chargers their second straight loss.
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