The Denver Broncos avoided a season sweep against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday with a 27-19 win. Denver improved to 6-2 and kept pace with the 6-2 Oakland Raiders in the highly competitive AFC West.
Here are some numbers that mattered in the Broncos' win:
42.6 — Phillip Rivers' completion percentage, his worst mark of the season by a comfortable margin. The San Diego Chargers quarterback completed 20 of 47 passes. His previous season low was 61.4 percent.
Great day for the Broncos secondary, which was without Aqib Talib.
Speaking of ...
9 — Number of times Rivers threw at Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby, who replaced Talib in the starting lineup. Roby only allowed two catches for 34 yards. He also returned a tipped pass for a touchdown. This Broncos defense is absurdly deep.
13 — The number of QB hits Rivers took. Ouch.
57 — Yards rushing the Broncos mustered. In their first game without C.J. Anderson, the running game floundered. Collectively, the Broncos rushed the ball 25 times for just 2.3 yards a pop.
47 — Number of Devontae Booker's 54 rushing yards that came after contact. The rookie got his first start and didn't put up big numbers. But this metric indicates there weren't many lanes to run through.
68 — The numbers of yards Riley Dixon's punt traveled with 2:19 to go in the game. It was a critical play. San Diego trailed by eight points at the time. Dixon was punting from the back of his own end zone. The booming kick ensured the Chargers would have to work for those points, which ended up being too difficult a task against the Broncos defense.
