The Thursday night football matchup in Week 15 is another divisional game and the Denver Broncos will be hosting the San Diego Chargers from Sports Authority Field at Mile High and the game will be live on TV starting up at 8:25 pm and the matchup will be streaming online from the main NFL.com website as Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers face off.
Both teams are coming into the game after wins and the Broncos have been very impressive over their last stretch, as they have won five of the past six games and have only lost twice this season and neither of those games were at home. The team had a deadly stretch coming out of their bye week in Week 9, but they defeated the Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs in back to back games before losing to the New England Patriots and after that the team won its next two games, including last week against the Tennessee Titans and that game was particularly impressive, as Peyton Manning put up more video game numbers against the team in the victory. The Titans gave up over 500 yards total and nearly 400 of those came off Manning's arm and Eric Decker had himself his second great game in a row, following up his four touchdown performance with 100-plus yards and another TC.
Check here for the Broncos and the Chargers Thursday coverage.
The Broncos are looking like Super Bowl favorites against this season from the AFC and they have put up some amazing performances this season, scoring over 50 points on multiple occasions, including last weekend against the Titans. The Broncos face a Chargers team with a passing defense that ranks 28th in the league in yards allowed per game and that will be the main area of focus for both sides as they meet on Thursday. Manning has over 4,000 yards and 45 touchdowns on the season and he is edging closer to the record for TD passes and with three games to go, there is a good chance that he will get it and with all his receivers putting up solid stats this season, there has been planet to go around after many felt that it would be too crowded for the wideouts.
Wes Welker will not play after getting a concussion last week, but he has come into the offense seamlessly without disrupting anything with Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas and anyone would be hard pressed to find a better trio in the NFL. The team also has one of the best tight end duos skills wise with Julius Thomas and Jacob Tamme and Manning should be able to have another solid performance on Thursday, as the team still is not locked in yet as the division winner and home field advantage is still up for grabs with the Patriots right behind Denver in the standings and even with Rob Gronkowski getting injured, Manning knows better than to underestimate Tom Brady.
The Chargers have been playing well this season compared to last year and they rank fourth in the NFL in passing yards per game and with the Broncos D also struggling, this could turn into another shootout like Denver had with the Dallas Cowboys earlier in the season. The Chargers beat the Cowboys as well and they come into the game having won two of the last three weeks, but overall they have dropped four of six and now they need to likely win out to even have a chance at making the playoffs. No one in the AFC will catch the Chiefs unless they collapse and everyone else is chasing the sixth spot for the wild card with the Ravens currently sitting in that spot. That could set up another game with the Ravens and the Broncos in the playoffs and that is likely something the team does not want after what happened last season.