Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers – Monday Night Matchups
By Craig Hurst
Eddie Royal (19) celebrates with running back Peyton Hills (22) and safety David Bruton (30) after scoring on a kickoff return in the first quarter against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. (Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee – US PRESSWIRE)
Today the Broncos announced that the 2012 Training Camp will begin on July 26, 2012. That means that next month at this time Bronco Country will be celebrating the start of another new football season. To help Bronco fans get through the next month, I am continuing to look back at past games against teams the Broncos will face in 2012.
After heading east in Week Five to face the New England Patriots, the Broncos will make another road trip, this time to the west coast for a divisional contest. Week Six finds the Broncos making their second appearance of the season on Monday Night Football when they face the San Diego Chargers. The Broncos have faced the Chargers in San Diego on Monday Night Football three times in the last five years. Continue reading for a brief synopsis of those games.
November 22, 2010: The Broncos were no match for the Chargers on this nationally televised football game as the Chargers easily handled the Broncos 35-14. The Broncos only scores came in the first and fourth quarters of the game. In the first quarter, a four-yard touchdown run by Knowshon Moreno gave the Broncos a 7-0 lead. From that point on it was the Philip Rivers show as the San Diego quarterback threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers. Rivers ended the night with fifteen completions, 233 yards, one interception and a rating of 116.8. The signal caller for the Broncos, Kyle Orton, had twenty-four completions for 217 yards, one interception, and the fourth quarter, thirteen yard touchdown pass to Brandon Lloyd. Orton’s rating for the evening was a mediocre 76.3. The loss caused the Broncos fall to 3-7, while the Chargers improved to 5-5. The Broncos would go on to lose five of the six remaining games in the 2010 season, the last one of which would be against the Chargers.
October 19, 2009: Being on the road in Week Six of the 2009 season, instead of brown and yellow striped socks, the Broncos wore brown and white vertical striped socks and white jerseys . Even though their uniforms may have looked somewhat funny to the casual football fan, the Broncos play on this Monday night definitely looked very professional. The Broncos performed well and improved their record to 6-0 with a 34-23 victory over the San Diego Chargers. The Broncos had many players step up and contribute in this win. Eddie Royal returned a kickoff 91-yards for a touchdown in the first quarter and then returned a punt 71-yards in the second quarter for his second score of the evening. Kyle Orton had a great second half as he threw touchdown passes to Tony Scheffler and Brandon Stokley. The touchdown pass to Stokley occurred with just under three minutes remaining in the game and secured the Broncos sixth straight win. Orton ended the night with a total of 229 yards on twenty completions and no interceptions, which gave him an overall rating of 115.4. The leading receiver for the Broncos was Scheffler, who pulled in six completions for 101 yards. Unfortunately, this game was not a sign of things to come in the 2009 season as the Broncos went on to lose eight of their ten remaining games, while the Chargers had a perfect slate the rest of the regular season, winning all of their remaining games and capturing the AFC West crown.
December 24, 2007: While the Chargers were playing to improve their playoff seed and to keep people healthy, the Broncos were only playing for pride. Unfortunately, Bronco fans didn’t have a very Merry Christmas Eve while watching this game thanks to LaDanian Tomlinson and his 107 rushing yards. Tomlinson went on to win the 2007 NFL rushing title one week later. The Chargers beat the Broncos 24-3, causing the Broncos overall record to fall to 6-9. Not only did the Chargers complete the sweep of the Broncos, they also managed to hold the Broncos “touchdown less” in the two games played in 2007. In early October of 2007 the Chargers travelled to Denver and destroyed the Broncos 41-3. For the season series, the Broncos were outscored by the Chargers 65-6. One week later the Broncos ended the season with an exciting 22-19 overtime win against the Minnesota Vikings in Denver.
Go Broncos! Good luck in 2012 (75 days and counting until Regular Season Game #1)
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