I thought they brought back instant replay for a reason

Since I know you're going to ask, I'm just going to come out with it. Yes, I paid the referees to "help" the Broncos beat the Chargers. I told them to be innocuous - an offsides here, a holding there. I even had a ticket to the game so I could watch my money in action, but I never thought they'd take it this far. Who's even heard of a replay machine malfunction before? There are several hundred TV's scattered thoughout the stadium and all of them could show Bailey's interception. All but one. And the blown call on Cutler's fumble was just a tragedy. For Chargers' fans. Referee Ed Hochuli sure gave me my money's worth - he's a lawyer, you know. All jokes aside, I told a friend this weekend that the Broncos had a chance to steal one against the Chargers. I was being figurative. . . . or so I thought.

Preseason Prediction: L home San Diego (9/14) - There are a lot of problems with this one. First, the Broncos will come off a short week from the Monday Night Opener against the Raiders. They will have to play nearly flawlessly to win in Oakland, which will leave them slightly tired and less than perfect against San Diego. Second, the Chargers are returning nearly every starter on both sides of the ball from last year's team, a team which punished the Broncos in painful and embarassing ways. Twice. Plus, this is the team that took the Patriots to the brink in last year's AFC championship. They are not just good, they are playing for nothing less than the Super Bowl and they're mad enough to take it out on opponents every week. Even if the Broncos manage to play a perfect game, San Diego is just too good. Third, the loss of Marshall hurts the most against the Chargers. His presence would open up the field and give the running game a chance against one of the best front-seven in the NFL. And there's always the chance that he'd make a game-changing play. However, if the Broncos win this one it'd be the upset of the week and maybe shake things up in the AFC a bit.

There were several major flaws in my prediction for this game. First, the Broncos didn't need to play flawlessly to beat the Raiders. They just needed to show up. Second, the Chargers are returning nearly every starter except Shawn Merriman who is out for the year. He's the backbone of the Chargers' defense. With him, there is no way the Chargers give up 39 points, even if the last eight were a bit suspect. Third, the Broncos played a nice game, but it was not perfect, not even close. While we kept LT to under 30 yards, we gave up nice big chunks to backup Darren Sproles and Chris Chambers abused Karl Paymah over and over again. Our defense couldn't stop the slow flow of ketchup down an off-ramp right now, and our special teams coverage is worse than the proverbial sieve.

I was right about Marshall, though. If he missed this game, the Broncos would have lost. The guy had 18 catches. 18!!! He had 166 yards and a crucial touchdown to finish the first half. I'm not sure how San Diego gave up 18 catches to one player.On average, most teams give up about 20 completions a game - we gave up 21 to the Charges. JaMarcus Russell, for example, only completed six passes in the Raiders' victory over the Chiefs & all-pro Carson Palmer only completed 16 passes all day. Everyone will talk about Cutler's heroics and Eddie Royal's two nice catches at the end, but Marshall was the obvious player of the game.

This has to rank as an upset, and I'm sure the Broncos are loving their two game cushion over the Chargers in the AFC West. The New Orleans Saints are coming to Denver next week, and they might be the only other team in the NFL with a defense as flawed as ours. The two teams might score over 100 points combined, and I'm being completely literal. Both the Saints and the Broncos gave up over 450 yards this week so don't expect defense to figure heavily in this one, unless Champ Bailey manages to get another interception. Maybe it doesn't matter though. Shanahan clearly didn't trust the defense to help win this game. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone for it at the end. It was a riverboat gamble by a desperate madman with no absolutely no faith in his porous defense. And it paid off. Who needs defense when your team averages 40 points a game?

Not the Broncos. Not yet anyway.