NFL Week 15 Betting – Chargers Need a Win vs. Stampeding Broncos

Denver Broncos (-4, 50.5) at San Diego Chargers

Early this season, the San Diego Chargers (8-5, 5-2 home) turned a lot of heads, jumping out to a 5-1 start and looking like the class of the AFC.

Then the team stumbled its way to a three-game losing streak and looked dead in the water. The Chargers righted the ship just in time, winning three straight from week 11-13 and putting themselves back in the playoff picture.

Last week, San Diego hosted the Patriots with a chance to solidify its playoff hopes and prove, once and for all, that it is a top team in the AFC.

Instead, the Philip Rivers-led squad laid an egg at home against New England, gaining just 216 total yards and scoring 14 points, well below its season average of 22.5. The Chargers dropped the game by nine (23-14) and failed to cover despite having 3.5 points to work with at home.

Chargers head coach Mike McCoy was disappointed with his team’s execution, stating the obvious, “We got to play better as an offense. That was not our best day.”

Added Rivers, “I think it’s our veteran leaders and then we have a lot of young guys who are eager to follow. We fight and care for one another, and love one another. We’re going to rebound and bounce back, and play like crazy [Sunday].”

The Chargers next opponent is the AFC West-leading Denver Broncos (10-3, 3-3 away), whom they will host at Qualcomm Stadium this afternoon (4:05 p.m. Eastern). The Broncos have a comfortable two-game lead in the division and can lock up another division title with a win today.

While Denver has rediscovered its running game behind C.J. Anderson, it’s still the talent of Peyton Manning that will ultimately decide its playoff future.

“Let me just say that I can’t think of another quarterback that I’d rather have than Peyton Manning,” said Denver head coach John Fox.

The Broncos may not come in with the same sense of urgency as San Diego, but they know they need to keep winning in order to earn home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. With New England currently at the top of the heap – and nearly impossible to beat in Foxborough – home-field advantage may prove decisive this season.

Coach Fox knows the season is far from over, despite Denver’s current position. “We remind everybody that whether it’s two weeks, three weeks, at the end of the day we’re not done with our body of work yet. We’re just trying to win games.”

The Chargers will more than likely bounce back from last week’s debacle and at least keep it close at home, which means taking the home-dog (+4) is a good play.

(Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped from its original.)