It's crazy to me that we're entering week 10... the season takes so long to get here and just like that - we're looking at the second half of games. Thankfully, this year, things are really interesting with the AFC West.
Chiefs 9-0
Broncos 7-1
Chargers 4-4
Raiders 3-5
The Chiefs enter their bye week with a perfect record, thanks in large part to their defense capitalizing on every mistake that the Bills threw at them. The Chiefs are staring at a game in Denver, while waiting to see what happens this week in an all important divisional battle down in San Diego.
Raiders @ Giants -
The 3-5 Raiders travel to the 2-6 Giants in a battle that ... few honestly care about.
The Giants are coming out of their bye week on a 2 game winning streak and they're only 3 games behind the first place Cowboys. Neither team is good enough to trust at this point, but given the timing and the location, give me the Giants in this battle.
Neither team is statistically great in any category really, but with the week off, the Giants will come out focused on narrowing the gap in the NFCE and doing all they can to salvage any hope of a run to the division title. The Raiders will make it interesting, but in the end... they are still the Raiders.
Giants 23 / Raiders 17
Broncos @ Chargers -
And, now the fun one... neither team has a defense that makes you smile. The lone difference between them really is that Denver lost @ the Colts while the Chargers beat the Colts in San Diego, limiting them to 9 points. That's a nice win, but its definitely not a sign of things to come in this game.
Both teams bring firepower on offense. Denver leads in most offensive categories, while the Chargers are right up there in the top rankings.
The Chargers' defense allows about 4 fewer points and gives up about 20 more yards per game than Denver. A big difference here is that Denver is -1 on the giveaway/takeway while San Diego is -7 (compared to +15 for a team like KC).
So, anything is possible in this game, but coming fresh off a bye week and traveling to play a .500 squad that just lost in OT to the Redskins... the Broncos will improve to 8-1.
Broncos 37 / Chargers 27
The Manning brothers walk away with wins this week and Denver sets the stage for an epic battle for first place in Denver vs the Chiefs in week 11.
Flame away and party on.
