The San Diego Chargers kept their slim playoff hopes alive on Sunday after defeating the New York Giants on the road and now the team will continue that mini road trip with an AFC West division game against the Denver Broncos and the Thursday night football matchup will on the NFL Network and streaming live online from Sports Authority Field at Mile High starting up at 8:25 pm with Peyton Manning.
Manning has been having an amazing season and Philip Rivers has bounced back from a tough 2012 season for the Chargers, passing for nearly 4,000 yards along with 26 touchdowns while increasing his accuracy and lowering his turnovers. The Chargers have been helped along by a healthy Ryan Mathews and he comes into the matchup on Thursday after rushing for over 100 yards against the Giants and he has put together a very solid season with over 800 yards and four touchdowns. The Chargers are ranked four in the league in passing yards per game behind Mike McCoy and the team has been much more consistent than last season, but they still need some help for a chance to get into the playoffs, as they are chasing the wild card right now in the sixth spot that's help by the Ravens and there are other teams looking to get there as well.
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The team comes into the game having won two of the last three, but overall they have lost four of six and to get things going in the right direction they will have to stop one of the best offenses in the NFL. The Chargers are ranked 28th in passing yards allowed per game and that is troubling when they are facing a team that is ranked first in the opposite category with over 340 yards per contest from Peyton Manning. This season Manning already has over 4,000 yards and 45 touchdowns and chances are he will break the all-time record, as he needs six to do so over the final three games.
Manning has so many receivers to choose from it's almost not fair, as he has Eric Decker, Demaryius Thomas as well as Julius Thomas and that's not even counting Wes Welker, who will be out with a concussion for the Thursday game. Decker is coming off two huge games and he has five touchdowns over that span and the team is rolling, having only lost twice all season and once in the past six games. The team has won two in a row and they are coming off their best offensive performance after racking up over 500 yards against the Titans and the team also put up 51 points. Anyone worried about the weather with Manning saw that go out the window last week, as he had nearly 400 yards in the matchup and showed no problems dealing with the elements.
Rivers has been playing very well over the past five games and he only has two picks in that time compared to nine touchdowns and he had a great game against the Chiefs in their win on the road with 392 yards and three touchdowns and over the past five games he has not completed less than 62 percent of his passes and this season he is up over 70 percent and that is very impressive for Rivers, as are his nine interceptions compared to 26 TDs. Keenan Allen has been huge for the team after they lost Malcom Floyd and Danario Alexander, as he has 61 catches for 902 yards and five scores as a rookie.