Week 14 Game Recap: Denver Broncos 20, San Diego Chargers 48

What you need to know

Denver Broncos

RB Tatum Bell was very impressive in going over 100 yards on the ground. He was the first opponent to rush for at least 100 yards in San Diego in 20 games.

QB Jay Cutler, who looked a bit skittish and inconsistent in his first NFL start a week ago, got off to an equally rough start in this game’s first half. But he really settled down after halftime, and turned a 25 point halftime deficit into just eight before San Diego pulled away for good.

TE Tony Scheffler may be beginning to deliver on his immense promise. He had a coming out party of sorts, going for a team-high 66 yards and two touchdowns en route to sparking the team’s temporary third quarter comeback.

San Diego Chargers

RB LaDainian Tomlinson set or tied a multitude of NFL records, the biggest of which was the league’s all-time touchdown record of 28, set by Shaun Alexander of Seattle a year ago. Tomlinson scored three times in this game to give him 29 on the season, and fought for another tough 100 yard rushing game.

TE Antonio Gates is coming on very strong down the stretch. He was clearly the first (and at times, the only) option in the passing game. He has put up his best stats of the season over the past several weeks, thanks in no small part to the decision by opponents to focus on stopping LaDainian Tomlinson.

QB Philip Rivers played pretty much mistake-free for the entire game. He didn’t turn the ball over, led the Chargers on several scoring drives, and perfectly placed both deep balls and short routes.

What you ought to know

QB Jay Cutler, Pass: 17 - 30 - 188 - 2 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0

After a mostly inauspicious debut a week ago, Cutler got off to another disappointing start against San Diego. He was just four of 11 for 36 yards in the first half, as the Chargers opened up a 28-3 lead over Denver. But Cutler rallied the team to a touchdown on its first two possessions of the second half, and brought Denver to within 28-20. He looked sharp, poised, and locked in on TE Tony Scheffler, as the two connected to rip apart the San Diego secondary. Cutler’s second half numbers were 13-19 for 152 yards and two touchdowns (both to Scheffler). While he didn’t take many shots downfield to the wideouts, he had no problems finding Scheffler deep down the seam on more than one occasion. For just about the entire game, Cutler had plenty of time to throw the ball. The Chargers pass rush affected him very little, and he seemed fairly comfortable. He never got flustered or tried to do too much, essentially taking what the defense gave him. However, late in the game the San Diego pass rush finally began wearing down the Denver offensive line. Blitzers were finally able to break through, and both Luis Castillo and Shawne Merriman came up with crucial sacks to seal the victory for the Chargers. Still, it’s important to note that in the face of perhaps the league’s best pass rush, Cutler never blinked and never looked incapable. It was an important building block to play well against another high-caliber opponent, and overall he looked very impressive in this game.

RB Tatum Bell, Rush: 17 - 116 - 0, Rec: 4 - 15 - 0 (5 targets)

Bell became the first visiting player in 20 games (Curtis Martin in Week 2 of 2004) to reach the 100 yard rushing mark against the Chargers, no small feat against a run defense that has been touted as being one of the league’s best for the past few seasons. Bell broke a 51 yard run up the right sideline early in the second quarter, his first run of more than fifty yards all season. Unfortunately for him, he stepped out of bounds at the 24 yard line – otherwise, he certainly would have scored on the play. Also impressive was his nose for the loose football. On two separate occasions, QB Jay Cutler was hit for fumbles, and each time, Bell was right there on the spot to recover the ball and save possession.

RB Mike Bell, Rush: 10 - 46 - 0

Bell got a decent workload, especially considering how well Tatum Bell looked running the ball. Still, it was limited to ten carries as he only played if Tatum Bell needed a breather. There wasn’t really a situation that warranted a change-of-pace, although certainly Mike Bell ran a bit differently than his Bell counterpart. His style was more of running through guys than around or by them, though each philosophy worked in its own way.

WR Javon Walker, Rec: 4 - 52 - 0 (8 targets)

Walker has seen his statistics drop significantly with Jay Cutler at the helm, and the biggest play he made in this game was in breaking up a potential interception by CB Drayton Florence. Walker nearly made a great grab of a tipped pass by LB Stephen Cooper, but was unable to hang on for what would have been at least a 20 yard gain. Many of the passes intended for Walker were quick outs and short targets, and he doesn’t seem to be able to stretch the field as much. It could be that Mike Shanahan was protecting his rookie quarterback from making mistakes downfield and putting the team in a hole, but in the process, Walker seemed lost at times.

WR Rod Smith, Rec: 3 - 20 - 0 (5 targets)

Even in the midst of his quietest season, Smith was atypically absent from the flow of the game. He caught just one ball after halftime, and was never able to make much of an impact aside from his downfield blocking for RBs Tatum Bell and Mike Bell.

TE Tony Scheffler, Rec: 3 - 66 - 2 (6 targets)

Scheffler enjoyed a coming-out party of sorts, setting career highs in receptions and receiving yards to go along with scoring the first two touchdowns of his career. The player who head coach Mike Shanahan has compared favorably to Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates looked great running all over the place in this game, and catching balls all over the field. His first touchdown was a pass to the back line of the end zone on which he beat LB Stephen Cooper. On the second score, S Terrence Kiel had the ball all lined up for an interception when Scheffler made an outstanding play. He got his hand in front of Kiel, tipped the ball sideways to himself, and waltzed off with the easy score off the deflection. He showed a variety of skills, and certainly has put his name on the map if not for the fantasy playoffs this season, than as a nice sleeper at TE for next season.

PK Jason Elam 2 - 2 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 8 points

Despite a sore hamstring that may have limited his distance on kicks, Elam connected on his only two field goal attempts of the game (34, 33). The only time the injury may have come into play was on a third and 18 call late in the third quarter. The Broncos had the ball on the San Diego 21 yard line, but rather than call a pass play, Denver opted to run Tatum Bell up the middle for six yards (in order to make the kick more manageable for Elam).

DEN Rush Defense

Tomlinson’s big gain of the game went for 17 yards, and that came on the second drive of the game. After that run, he was held relatively in check as far as yardage goes. Even with that run, he averaged just 3.7 yards per carry – a very good job by Denver considering the streak he’s been on lately. The problem, of course, was that the Broncos had no answers for Tomlinson in the red zone. On each of his touchdown runs, Denver defenders got a hand (or two, or three) on him or at least got in his way with an opportunity to make a play and prevent the score. Yet each time, he shrugged them off with relative ease and found the end zone. And on the one occasion at the goal line when Tomlinson didn’t score, Denver was done in by a modified “Fumbleroosky”. The Chargers hid the football in the backfield, as QB Philip Rivers quickly handed off to FB Lorenzo Neal (who was crouched in front of Rivers) giving him the ball between Neal’s legs. Neal then powered his way into the end zone for the unconventional score.

With the last Tomlinson touchdown, the Chargers had totaled 48 points – the most points ever allowed by a Mike Shanahan coached Broncos team.

DEN Pass Defense

Simply put, the Broncos had no answers for TE Antonio Gates. The Chargers built their lead in the first half mostly due to the downfield work of Gates (along with a perfect first half QB rating for Philip Rivers). Gates also added two tough touchdown receptions to his ledger. On his first score, Gates almost reverted to his basketball days by boxing out both CB Darrent Williams and Champ Bailey to haul in the score. Bailey did nothing wrong on the play; it was simply a matter of Gates’ athleticism and strength winning out over the smaller Bailey. On the second score, Gates came down with a jump ball over the defenders for his second and final score of the game.

In addition to Gates, Denver allowed long pass plays of 35 and 55 yards to Vincent Jackson, and a 34 yard pass to Eric Parker. Aside from the passes to Gates, the Chargers clearly wanted no part of throwing anywhere near All-Pro CB Champ Bailey. So they instead opted to go after CB Darrent Williams whenever possible (which was a lot). And with Denver applying little to no pressure on Rivers for all but two isolated sacks, it wasn’t difficult for him to sit back and pick apart the secondary on both the deep and short looks.

QB Philip Rivers, Pass: 15 - 23 - 279 - 2 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 2 - 5 - 0

Rivers rebounded from a tough couple of games to regain his composure and lead the Chargers to this win. With LaDainian Tomlinson getting all of the attention (and deservedly so), what’s lost is the fact that Rivers essentially played mistake-free. He compiled a perfect first half passer rating of 158.3, but threw just ten passes after halftime with four completions as San Diego milked a lot of time off the clock. Most of the passes thrown by Rivers found their mark with ease, regardless of down, distance, or target on the field. He completed three passes of more than 30 yards, all of which were well-thrown balls that were put where they needed to be. Rivers was never under any kind of intense pressure for a prolonged period of time, and actually threw a touchdown on the one occasion he faced the most pressure all game long. With blitzers coming right up the middle at him, he lofted a jump ball in the end zone to TE Antonio Gates. It wasn’t the prettiest pass in the world, but as Daunte Culpepper with Randy Moss and Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning have shown with Plaxico Burress, when you’ve got a big target down near the goal line, sometimes a 50/50 ball is the best option there is.

RB LaDainian Tomlinson, Rush: 28 - 103 - 3, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (3 targets)

It was a banner day for the likely league MVP, as Tomlinson scored three more touchdowns en route to breaking the single-season touchdown record of 28, previously held by Shaun Alexander of the Seahawks. Tomlinson’s three scores gave him 29 on the season, with the final two coming in a span of just 47 seconds late in the fourth quarter. By scoring more than once, Tomlinson extended his streak of games with multiple touchdowns to seven (tying John Riggins). He also topped the 100 yard mark for the seventh consecutive game and eighth time overall this season. It was also the 20th consecutive game that San Diego won in which Tomlinson rushes for at least 100 yards. Yet despite all of the accolades, this was no easy task for Tomlinson on this day. The Broncos swarmed to the ball each time Tomlinson touched in, which resulted in him having his worst yards per carry average since October 15 vs. San Francisco. The Broncos did a great job of bottling him up for the majority of his carries, but once he got down near the goal line he always found a way to push the ball across. He wasn’t terribly active in the passing game with just one reception, though he was thrown to three times (all in the second half).

RB Lorenzo Neal, Rush: 3 - 20 - 1, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (1 targets)

As is often the case, Neal got the call on several short yardage carries. As is rarely the case, Neal received a goal line carry that he converted into a score. In sort of a modified “Fumbleroosky” formation, the Chargers hid the ball, and then Philip Rivers quickly handed the ball to Neal from behind him between Neal’s legs. Neal then did the rest of the work, fighting off several defenders on his way to the end zone. This was a “few and far between” run for Neal, who rarely gets an offensive touch.

WR Vincent Jackson, Rec: 3 - 95 - 0 (4 targets)

Jackson started for the injured Keenan McCardell, and did not disappoint to live up to his hype as a potential game-breaking receiver. Jackson hauled in a 35 yard reception on San Diego’s second play from scrimmage. He later added a short five yard reception in the first half before capping his afternoon with a fantastic 55 yard catch from Rivers that helped set up a field goal. The ball was intentionally underthrown a bit and Jackson had to wait for it to come down. As he waited, a defender’s arm temporarily blocked his sight of the ball’s path, but he still managed to maintain concentration and haul in the reception for a huge gain.

WR Eric Parker, Rec: 1 - 34 - 0 (1 targets)

Parker made the most of his lone opportunity, hauling in a 34 yard reception along the left sideline to help set up LaDainian Tomlinson’s first touchdown of the game.

TE Antonio Gates, Rec: 7 - 104 - 2 (11 targets)

If anyone was concerned about the performance of Gates this season, those fears were certainly put to rest in this game. Despite being covered by Champ Bailey at times, Gates put up terrific numbers and looked outstanding in doing so. He caught passes all over the field, often lined up split out as a wide receiver, streaking down the seam, crossing routes, slants, etc. His first touchdown catch of the game was a combination of football and basketball skills, as he “boxed out” CBs Darrent Williams and Champ Bailey to haul in the score. On his second score, Gates out-leaped the defender for the touchdown. Basically, the only thing that stopped or even slowed Gates in this game was the fact that the Chargers got out to such a large lead and didn’t need to throw as much in the second half.

TE Brandon Manumaleuna, Rec: 2 - 33 - 0 (3 targets)

Manumaleuna showed surprisingly good hands and very fine agility on two of his receptions in the game. On one, he picked the ball out of the air and away from a defender before rumbling for 14. Later, he grabbed a first down reception where he fought several players for extra yardage before being taken down following a pickup of 18. His role isn’t huge in this offense with Antonio Gates around, but he has seen his opportunities increase as the season has gone along.

PK Nate Kaeding 2 - 2 FG, 6 - 6 XP, 12 points

Kaeding continued his excellent season kicking field goals, nailing two more in this game to go along with six extra points.

SD Rush Defense

For the first time in 20 games, the Chargers allowed a 100 yard rusher on their home turf. Tatum Bell looked very good running the ball 17 times for 116 yards (including a 51 yard scamper up the right sideline). The yardage could have been worse had Bell not stepped out of bounds at the 24 yard line during his 51 yard run. And even if you disregard the big gain as a fluke, he still picked up 65 yards on his other 16 carries. Even backup Mike Bell performed well, gaining 46 more on his ten carries. Basically, each Denver back had little trouble moving the ball on the ground against the normally stout Chargers run defense.

SD Pass Defense

As was the story with Jay Cutler, it was a tale of two halves for the San Diego pass defense. In the first half, they pretty much sat back in coverage and didn’t allow Cutler to make any big plays downfield. His first half stats (4-11, 36 yards) pretty much tell the story. But after halftime, the Chargers made a concerted effort to apply more pressure. Yet for one of the first times all season, they simply couldn’t get to him. For nearly a quarter and a half, the Chargers consistently sent pass rushers only to see them picked up time and time again with ease. Cutler typically had more than enough time to make his reads, set his feet, and complete passes downfield (in the second half, he was 13-19 for 152 yards and two touchdowns). It wasn’t until the end of the fourth quarter that the San Diego pass rush was able to muster any kind of effectiveness. DL Luis Castillo had a crucial sack on a fourth down play, and LB Shawne Merriman wrought havoc over the final frame with a sack and a forced fumble/fumble recovery that enabled RB LaDainian Tomlinson a shot at breaking Shaun Alexander’s touchdown record.

Merriman had earlier forced a fumble of Cutler that LB Shaun Phillips should have easily recovered for the Chargers. However, he tried to pick it up and run but never got it tucked away. It squirted out of his hands, and was recovered by RB Tatum Bell.

As for other near misses, earlier in the contest CB Drayton Florence nearly came down with an interception on a deep ball intended for Javon Walker. Florence was unable to hang on, and hit the ground hard. He was shaken up a bit and left the field, but would eventually return without any repercussions. On the second touchdown to Tony Scheffler, S Terrence Kiel waited in the end zone for a Cutler pass, thinking he had a sure interception, but Scheffler tipped the ball to himself for a touchdown. Scheffler gave San Diego a lot of trouble down the seam, and there were several instances where he was simply unaccounted for.