Denver thoughts

i didn't get to see the whole game (yet), but from what I did watch, here are some thoughts.

Denver didn't score an offensive TD until the 4th quarter: What I saw of Kyle Orton was flat out ugly, and the defense looked like they showed up ready to play. Of course, once the defense was playing with a lead and forced to account for Tebow, it looked a lot worse and Denver was able to move the ball better. Still though, three quarters of giving up a single field goal on defense is getting it done. Without that QB curveball, there is no way Denver stays in this game. They gained 113 yards TOTAL through the air, showing once again that average passers cannot throw against this defense (plenty of quality QBs coming up though), and besides...

Run Defense: The stats paint a wild picture. Denver averaged 7 yards per rush between McGahee and Tebow. Quite ugly. But the time of possession was heavily in San Diego's favor at 40 minutes to 20. And yet, the Chargers seemed to get gashed all day. The Broncos completed 8 rushing first downs even though they had only 2 TOTAL third down conversions (2 of 9), meaning they moved the ball easily on the ground, though maybe falling short when it counted most.

Third Downs: 50% is good and is even a slight drop off, because the 3rd-down efficiency has been stellar thus far. But 11 first downs by rushing, split evenly with 11 by passing, shows true balance. The reason the offense isn't in the same conversation as Green Bay and New England? look no further than...

Red-Zone Efficiency: 20%. Ouch. Antonio Gates, get well soon... In Tomlinson's glory days, the Chargers were unstoppable in the red zone. As soon as he slowed down from injuries, the "high-powered" offense started to struggle inside the 20. The more I see Ryan Matthews get carries in the red zone, though, the more he reminds me of LT, because he seems to have a nose for the pylon. Matthews has a few touchdowns on 11, 15 yards, etc, it would be great to see Norv exploit his explosiveness for more scores. Novak has kicked a heck of a lot of field goals, and the team is averaging 24 points per game. That could easily be 30+

Turnovers still ugly: PR isn't to blame for the INT, I'd take that throw any day and expect it caught 9 times out of 10. Deflections are a fickle part of the game (just ask the Bills). I might be wrong but I believe the Chargers have yet to recover a fumble on defense this year, (or even force one???) which is troublesome. A turnover ration of -6 for the season (I may be slightly off) does not match the 4-1 record, and if that continues, the wins certainly won't....

Chances for the second half of 2011: The next two weeks (NYJ, KC) are highly winnable games, and important because of the schedule that follows. Starting with week 9, they have Green Bay, Oakland (twice), Chicago, Baltimore, Buffalo, and Detroit, with Jacksonville and Denver filling it out. Going into that stretch at 6-1 would be huge.