While the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers have been heading in different directions over the past month, their destination at the end of the season (at least heading into Week 16) looks to be the same: the AFC playoff bracket. With a win Thursday night, the Broncos — winners of four straight — can make that official, while the Chargers — losers of three of their last four — can keep their distance between the bottom of the AFC wild-card picture and the teams on the outside looking in.
L.A. limps into the Thursday Night Football Week 16 opener on the heels of a 40-17 blowout home loss to the surging Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Getting to erase that as quickly as possible could be a good opportunity for the Chargers, who come into the week two games clear of the Colts, Dolphins and Bengals for that final wild-card spot. Denver — which beat the Colts last week in Bo Nix’s three-touchdown pass, three-interception performance — found a way to get its win streak up to four and would love to carry that momentum into a late-season mini-bye with a playoff berth in hand with two games to go.
Back in Week 6, the Chargers won the teams’ first matchup in Denver, 23-16. Justin Herbert threw for 237 yards and a touchdown pass in that win.
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Time: 8:15 p.m. ET
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Location: SoFi Stadium | Inglewood, Calif.
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Streaming: Amazon Prime Video