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- Time to stop freaking out about Jackie Battle being the "starting Running Back" for the San Diego Chargers. He played just eight snaps. The only offensive players that played fewer snaps were David Molk and Eddie Royal.
- Ryan Mathews was far and away the most successful runner for the Chargers on Sunday. His stats would've made him far and away the least successful runner for the Broncos.
- Danario Alexander, a name that none of us knew a month ago, was thrown at more than any other Chargers WR and it wasn't close. His seven targets were almost double the four that Malcom Floyd and Ryan Mathews got, those two being tied for the second most.
- Eddie Royal played four offensive snaps and was thrown to on three of those plays. That might be tipping your hand a little too much, Norv.
- Robert Meachem, who is the Chargers highest-paid receiver, played on 11 (16%) offensive snaps and was thrown at twice.
- Philip Rivers is averaging 1.8 turnovers per game in 2012. He averaged 1.5 turnovers per game in 2011. He averaged 1.0 turnovers per game in 2010 and 0.75 turnovers per game in 2009.
- The Chargers got 13 first downs. Only one of those came via a running play.
- San Diego not only lost the turnover battle to Denver (3-2), they also converted 3rd down far less than the Broncos (19% vs. 38%).
- The Broncos scored a touchdown just once out of the four times that they were in the red zone. The Chargers scored a touchdown on their one and only trip to the red zone.
- The Chargers won the possession battle, holding onto the ball two and a half minutes longer than the Broncos had it.
- San Diego had the longest play of the day, a 38 yard pass to Malcom Floyd. Their 10 longest plays were all pass plays and their 7 longest players were all pass plays from the shotgun formation.
- Only five of the Broncos' 10 longest plays were completed passes, 4 of those coming out of the shotgun formation.
- I had not realized that Rex Hadnot came into the game for the injured Tyronne Green. Hadnot played 54 (78%) of the offensive snaps.
- Ladarius Green, typically inactive, played on 27 (39%) of the Chargers' offensive snaps. That's more than Le'Ron McClain, Robert Meachem, Eddie Royal or Jackie Battle.
- Eric Weddle and Antoine Cason were the only Chargers to play 100% of the defensive snaps.
- Atari Bigby is back to getting a ton (96%) of defensive snaps.
- Marcus Gilchrist, who has been mostly nonexistent this season, played on 94% of the defensive snaps. Shareece Wright, who has been nonexistent this season, played on 59% of the defensive snaps.
- YOU GUYS! Melvin Ingram got more snaps (40) than Jarret Johnson (33). I guess that plus the snaps by Gilchrist and Wright means that Pagano played to stop the Broncos' passing game (which explains all the successful running by Denver). It also explains how the Chargers managed to sack Peyton Manning 3 times.
- In that same vein, Kendall Reyes played more snaps on defense (39) than Vaughn Martin (12) and ended up with two sacks. Was this a one time "We need something special to stop Peyton Manning" gameplan, or have the Chargers started to play the kids?
- Larry English played zero defensive snaps. :-(