The San Diego Chargers will win against the Denver Broncos

The 2013 Chargers don't make sense

Yes, that's a good enough reason.

The Chargers have beaten good teams they've faced, getting wins against the Eagles, Cowboys and Colts. They've also lost to teams they should have beaten, such as the Redskins, Titans, Raiders and Texans. The only game that we've accurately predicted, as a fan base, has been the win over the Jacksonville Jaguars and they barely count as an NFL franchise these days.

At this point, I'm ready to believe just about anything. The Chargers could go 4-0 against the Broncos and Chiefs, and 0-4 against the Bengals, Dolphins, Giants and Raiders, and I wouldn't be surprised. They seem to get up for big games, which is more than we could say for Norv Turner's teams, and this is maybe the biggest once they've had this season.

Ryan Mathews

Often times, players that are criminally underused in one game are almost overused the following game, as the team's coaching staff issues something of a "Here, fine, now shut up" to the team's critics. Often times, those critics were right and it works out wonderfully.

This would be a good game to unleash Mathews. The Broncos are the only team that Mathews has faced more than once that he averages more than 100 yards rushing against. That's right, Ryan Mathews' career averages against the Denver Broncos are:

21.8 carries, 100.6 rushing yards (4.6 YPC), 0.6 rushing TDs, 2.6 catches, 17.2 rec yds

24+ touches, 115+ total yards and no fumbles (he has never lost a fumble against the Broncos)? Not only would that go a long way towards shutting up the critics, and maybe proving to the coaches how valuable Mathews is, but it would help the effort to win the game a great deal.

j-man

Do you guys remember j-man? His name is actually Jason and he's one of the better Denver Broncos fans you'll ever meet. j-man used to keep us abreast to what the AFC West was up to on a weekly basis until he got tired of it, but he still e-mails me his thoughts before the San Diego Chargers face the Broncos.

Here's what I got from him this week:

Yes, Denver is 7-1 and playing great football but the Chargers might be getting them at the right time. With upcoming games against the Chiefs (twice), Patriots and Titans, Denver might be overlooking San Diego.

The keys to beating the Broncos are simple, but difficult. To have a chance at winning, you need to score consistently on offense and force at least two turnovers on defense. Philip Rivers, who looks greatly improved over last season, can handle the first part. Now SD's defense just needs to play like they did against the Colts.

Denver is average to below average on defense, but they can put up 40+ points in a game. The Redskins had the perfect gameplan, but could only execute it for 30 minutes.

Stopping Peyton's offense requires the same strategy it always has: Mug the WRs at the line of scrimmage, screw up the rhythm of the offense and hope that your pass rush makes Manning impatient enough to throw an interception.

All of that being said, and maybe I'm a homer, I don't see how the Chargers can win this week with John Fox's health scare. The Broncos will be motivated, and they already put a ton of pressure on teams to score every time they have the ball. They should be able to do the same against San Diego, who has an underrated front 7 (when healthy) but are quite weak at cornerback.

The Chargers are good enough to win 9 or 10 games this season, but I don't think this will be one of them.

You know what I took away from that? The Broncos are overlooking the Chargers to the game against the Kansas City Chiefs this week. That same situation led to the victory over the Colts, why can't it lead to a victory over the Broncos?