5 Good Stats: Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers

Turnover Battle: Tie
Earlier this season, I wrote about the San Diego Chargers getting worse under Norv Turner at holding onto the ball and creating turnovers. Before the second game against the Chiefs, the Chargers had gone 1-4-1 (1 win, 4 losses, 1 tie) in the turnover battle and had a turnover margin of -5. In that KC game, they tied the Chiefs by turning the ball over 4 times and forcing 4 turnovers. Let's update the record and magin.

Turnover Battle Record: 1-6-4
Turnover Margin: -10 (or 30th best in a 32-team league)

One win in the turnover battle this year. ONE. Against the Miami Dolphins. That's disgusting. Still, a tie is better than their usual loss in the turnover battle, so it counts as a good stat.

142 total yards
For his career, Ryan Mathews is averaging 127 rushing yards per game when playing against the Denver Broncos. His next best rushing numbers against a particular team is 81 rushing yards per game against the Dolphins, whom he has played just once. He had 137 rushing yards yesterday, his career high. For whatever reason, the orange and blue of the Broncos uniforms sets something off inside of Mathews that turns him into the RB that A.J. Smith envisioned to replace LaDainian Tomlinson.

6 catches, 49 yards, 1 TD
Watching Antonio Gates when he's healthy is a pleasure. He overpowers and outjumps smaller CBs, then jukes and outruns Safeties and Linebackers. He has looked stronger and stronger each week since returning from his foot injury, and looked like the Gatesy of old against the Broncos. He lead the team in TDs, catches (the next closest receiver had 3 receptions) and was one yard behind Vincent Brown for the lead in receiving yardage.

51.3 yards per punt
It was hard to see through the mess on both sides of the ball for the Chargers, but Mike Scifres turned in another stellar performance yesterday. His absurd yards per punt average included a 62 yard punt, but he does deserve some criticism for out-kicking his coverage on the 31 yard return by Eddie Royal.

3 tackles, 1 defended pass
I know I'm reaching here. Antoine Cason had a good game, meaning that he didn't have an awful game and was going up against Tim Tebow's inaccurate "guns" (shut up, Dan Fouts).