NFL Thursday Night Football will see the Denver Broncos go on the road to take on the San Diego Chargers as the Broncos look to bounce back from their first loss of the season last week. Today's big game has a scheduled start time of 8.25 p.m. ET and takes place from the Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The game can be watched on TV on the CBS and NFL Networks or online through live stream via the link below.
The Broncos lost their perfect start to the season last week when they fell to the Atlanta Falcons. However, they won't have long to linger on what went wrong there as they now face a road trip on a short week for their first divisional game of the year.
The big news before today's game is that Denver will be without had coach Gary Kubiak, who was rushed to the hospital after last week's game. He is not expected back until next week and so the Broncos will have to find a way to get the job done without him for Thursday Night Football.
The Chargers also suffered a loss last week, falling short against the Oakland Raiders, losing out 34-31. It was a back and forward game but ultimately it was the Raiders who came out on top to hand the Chargers their fourth defeat of the season after just five weeks of the season.
At 1-4 the Chargers are looking desperate, and they will have to pull something special out of the bah today to record just their second league win of the season against the defending Super Bowl champs.
However, the Chargers have not been as bad as their record indicates, and the Broncos will do well not to take San Diego lightly today.
The Chargers have been ahead in every single game this season with two minutes or less on the clock. However, they have lost out in four out of five close games, and that is a trend they must stop immediately if they are to have any hopes of making the postseason this year.
At the moment San Diego are in the basement of the AFC West, and have already lost to division rivals Oakland and Kansas City. This is as close to a must win game as it gets, as if they drop to 1-5 their season will almost certainly be over with still more than half of the regular season remaining.
But they could not have asked for tougher opposition for today's game. The Broncos have not lost a divisional road game since way back in 2010, and even though they lost their first game of the season last weekend they will be huge favorites to win today.
The Chargers will be hoping the Broncos are hitting a bumpy patch in their form right now; last week they allowed a season high 23 points in their loss to Atlanta, and San Diego will be hoping they can find space and get points on the board against one of the fiercest defenses in the league.
San Diego average more than 30 points per game, but it is fair to say they have not come up against a defense as powerful as the Broncos' yet so far this season, and Philip Rivers will have to be at the top of his game today if they are to get going against Denver.
It will be interesting to see how the Chargers' players are holding up, and whether their heads are starting to drop yet. They have lost their last three games by a combined total of just right points, and that must be hugely disheartening for the players. If things start to go against them again today you wonder whether their heads will begin to go down easier. But that said, they are at home, against a fierce division rival, so it should not take much to motivate the Chargers' roster for this one.
Tonight's big NFL Thursday Night Football game between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers has a scheduled start time of 8.25 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the CBS and NFL Networks, or online through live stream by clicking here.
