Good news, everyone! The Chargers can become the first member of the AFC West to clinch a spot in the playoffs if they beat the Cowboys, like 8 other teams lose, Tim Tebow dies for our sins, and Brett Favre retires for the rest of the regular season and makes a comeback in the playoffs...for the Broncos.
Anyway, after being left for dead (by me and the MSM at least) after their 4 game losing streak, the Broncos have come back with two dominating victories over the G-Men and the Chiefs to stay within 1 game of the Chargers. The Chargers have a tough 3 game stretch (@DAL, vs. CIN, @TEN) but hold the tiebreaker over Denver so the Chargers still hold the best position to win their 4th straight AFC West title.
The Raiders now have two big wins on their schedule after the Gradkowski led them on multiple 4th quarter TD drives to win over the Stillers in Pittsburgh, something the Chargers couldn't do. While they still aren't very good, the are now clearly much better than the sucky sucky Chiefs. (HA! Take that Chiefs fans! I called your team sucky!) Let's see if the Raiders can beat the Broncos and prove they can win a division game (other than over the Chiefs, HA!) and maybe we'll think about considering whether the Raiders can be relevant again anytime soon.
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Kansas City Chiefs: The whispers are Matt Cassel better get his act together soon are he might go the way of the Dodo. I'm not sure what they expected from a career backup who came from the devious Patriots. Although Josh McDaniels sure wanted him and he obviously knows about him. On the other hand, maybe he was just feigning interest to get the Chiefs in on him to guarantee they would suck. Josh is pretty douchy like that, coming from the counsel of Bill Belichick. All of that, and now the Chiefs might be facing the first blackout in like a really really long time. Not to mention they've only won one homegame out of the last 12. Anyway, enough bashing on the Chiefs. If you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all, right? That Jamaal Charles guy is really good.
Oakland Raiders: Even if their best defensive player is out and their QB is coming back from his 23rd concussion, anytime you beat the Steelers on their home field it is impressive. Anytime your QB leads you on two 4th quarter TD drives that's impressive. Gradkowski has now led two winning drives in the final two minutes in three weeks. Vote in the poll for the AFC West Question of the WEEK! Was Jamarcus Russell such a black hole of Suck that he made the entire team awful? Or are the Raiders just catching some breaks and playing teams at the right time? 400 yards of offense by the Raiders on Hienz field. Think about that. This is way too much Raider love though; probably because I hate the Steelers more than the Raiders because the Raiders suck and they have two former Aztecs starters on their team. (C. Shillens and K. Morrison).
Denver Broncos: So, after getting shellacked in Denver by the Bolts, the Broncos b*tch slapped New York and then pimp slapped KC. I still can't understand this team. Streaky is an understatement. The Broncos appear headed for a wildcard spot in the #5 seed, which means they would play the #4 seed in an away game in the wildcard round of the playoffs. It looks like right now that would be the Patriots. Can this Broncos team beat the Patriots in Foxbourgh in January? If I had to bet, I'd say no, but then again I thought they'd lose to both the Giants and the Chiefs. The good news for the Broncos is that they really got the running game together against the Chiefs which will do good things for them in the playoffs; although that might say more about the Chiefs defense than anything else. The Broncos have a tough 3 game stretch coming up (@ IND, vs. OAK, @PHI) we'll know a lot more after we see how they do in those games.
San Diego Chargers: Here's what we know: The Chargers have the best passing offense in the NFL according to G0d Football Outsiders, a sometimes useful running game, an inconsistent defense, and really injury prone starters. A lot of the Chargers future success will depend on the health of the team. Sound familiar? Like every post season from the last 4 years familiar? I'm REALLY starting to wonder about the training staff. The health of Eric Weddle, Shawne Merriman, and Luis Castillo are going to be very important down the like; not only because of the players themselves, but when Shawne is in, Shaun doesn't get doubled and is able to get more pressure...our match-ups against offensive players are much better. Eric Weddle might be the most important player on our defense. We get killed on defense without him. (See Browns, Cleveland). If the Chargers beat the Bengals, they have a very good chance of locking up the #2 seed and a first round bye...which is very important given our health issues. We definitely could use that time to heal up.