***TNF IN THE SWAMP - DEN @ SD***

***DENVER BRONCOS VS SAN DIEGO CHARGERS***

Thursday Night Football this week features an AFC West matchup between the defending Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos as they head into San Diego to take on the snakebitten Chargers. As we know, sometimes the best medicine for a team after a loss is a short week to quickly get the bad taste out of their mouths and get back on the horse. No team needs that type of dosage than the Chargers do here tonight. The Bolts have probably been the unluckiest team I have seen in a very long time, maybe ever. The amount of key injuries this team has suffered so far this season is insane, and it is only week 6! I have to give them some credit however, they have fought and rallied through the adversity by applying the "next man up" mentality successfully and impressively competing in every game thus far despite losing these games in terrible fashion. One couldn't dream up some of the ways the Chargers have blown games this year and tonight will be extremely interesting if they have another screw up in their back pocket serving as the final dagger to Head Coach Mike McCoy's tenure in San Diego. McCoy is said to be on the dreaded coaching hot seat and this two game divisional stretch between last week against the Raiders and tonight's game against the Broncos are apparently critical to his job and a change could be made given the extended week before the next game. Now that being said, we saw what happened last week in Oakland where the Chargers blew yet another lead and despite falling apart in the 4th quarter once again - had a chance to tie the game with a FG and head into overtime, and botched the hold on the kick, resulting in another ugly loss. I won't get into how they lost the previous games this season as I feel I've done that in previous write-ups involving the Bolts and I am sure you have heard all about it on ESPN or whatever sports venue to the point of exhaustion. Given this factor I ask myself if the players like McCoy as their Head Coach and will they fight to keep him employed, and looking at last week's game against the Raiders even though it was a loss, in my opinion the Bolts played hard and I liked the effort I witnessed. There is also a sketchy situation going on behind the scenes in San Diego involving a new stadium located downtown. From what I understand the hotel prices near the new stadium will be forced to jack up their prices to help pay for it all, and the San Diegans will vote on whether they agree and want this to happen I believe sometime in November. A strong 2/3 vote in favor of 'yes' will be needed for this to all go down and that is extremely hard to get.

Otherwise, the Charger owners might elect to push for the move to LA and join the Rams in a relocation. That all being said, this Chargers organization really needs to win over their fanbase like never before and get them on their side as a push to vote in favor of the new stadium and to keep their Chargers in San Diego. If this season keeps going the way it has been, most San Diegans may vote good riddance. The Chargers either need to start winning or fire McCoy to please the fans and show them that they are dedicated to winning. I think choice A for this franchise is to start winning, and start tonight. Needless to say there is a tremendous amount of pressure on the Bolts tonight to get the job done against the Champs who have absolutely owned them as of late.

The Chargers haven't beaten an AFC West opponent in the last 10 tries, disgusting. The Broncos have won the last 15 road games against AFC West opponents, impressive. If you know the Swamp, you know I am a man to go against the grain more often than not and I got to believe that tonight has to be the spot where these two streaks come to an end! Denver will be without Head Coach Gary Kubiak due to health issues and the Swamp wishes him well, but that means things could and probably will be a little differently ran tonight for this team. Denver QB Trevor Siemian is also back after being out last weekend with an injury. The Broncos surely missed him as they started rookie Paxton Lynch for the first time against the surging Atlanta Falcons and it was a big failure. Lynch looked like what you would expect a rookie QB to look like before all this weird rookie QB immediate success we have grown accustomed to lately. Siemian hurt his non-throwing shoulder and is still not 100% but will be back in action tonight. While this is a good thing for Denver, I think he might be a little out of sync, especially with the coaching change. Siemian was comfortable with Kubiak and the offense, and things could be a little out of whack tonight, just enough to screw him up. I'm thinking that maybe the guy is due for a bad game after such an awesome start, maybe he will take a bad hit and Lynch will be thrown back in the game? There are too many moving pieces to my liking to back Denver in this spot here, so I'm rolling with the Bolts at home with their backs against the wall to claw and scratch and keep this thing close and maybe even upset. QB Philip Rivers has been playing very well and despite the big injuries on offense this offense is cooking. RB Melvin Gordon is coming into his own and has had a nose for the endzone. If he can stop fumbling in the fourth quarter with the game on the line, he could become one of the best backs in the league. Rookie TE Hunter Henry has been a breath of fresh air for this offense while future HOF TE Antonio Gates was out with injury. Now Gates is back, and the combination of the two is an awesome one that Rivers will surely utilize to help make up for the lack of WR dominance. The WRs are no slouch though as the speedy Travis Benjamin has had a huge role and Tyrell Williams is a big target that has filled in nicely since stud Keenan Allen suffered an injury in week 1. The Bronco defense is top notch and this is no secret, but they have shown that they can be beaten and I have noticed that there are some weaknesses hence me being on the Falcons last week. That being said, Atlanta laid out a pretty good blueprint on how to get to these guys and the Chargers have a similar offense and can try and replicate that attack. Dink and dunk type passes to tight ends and RBs out of the backfield, and I expect the Bolts to hold nothing back in this one by taking a shot deep once or twice.

As I mentioned I was impressed by the Chargers effort last weekend on defense despite losing top CB Jason Verrett. Although they gave up points, it was against the strong arial attack of Derek Carr and weapons Cooper & Crabtree. They got pressure on Carr and Oakland's offensive line is one of the better ones in the league. I chalk this up to the debut of their 3rd overall pick DE Joey Bosa providing a spark to this defense's energy. Bosa played limited snaps and racked up two sacks with a handful of pressures. I like the young man to build off of that momentum tonight and get to a young QB in Siemian to rattle him and once again elevate his teammates like Melvin Ingram and Corey Liguet to do the same. The Chargers defensive front is strong and should get back LB Denzel Perryman, which also should provide another jolt of lightning (see what I did there?) to this defense's energy at home tonight. Basically, I like the Bolts to get up for this one and feed off the energy of a home dawg on Prime Time. I also am thinking Siemian has an off game and might not even make it through, resulting in Lynch under center. Phillip Rivers has called his team the Bad News Bears and I think they have suffered just enough embarrassment to have no choice but to get it right tonight. McCoy stated that "hopefully they have ran out of ways to lose" and I am hoping he was right. CHARGERS+3