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Denver » And so it comes down to this: Broncos vs. Chargers at San Diego on Sunday, with the winner advancing to the NFL playoffs as the AFC West champion and the loser left to lament the lost opportunities and a season over too soon. A look back through the years at the 10 most notable Denver appearances in San Diego:
1. Super Bowl XXXII, Jan. 25, 1998:
Broncos 31, Green Bay Packers 24
When Brett Favre led the Packers down the field on their opening possession and threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Freeman, it seemed possible that the Broncos -- 12-point underdogs as they attempted to end the AFC's Super Bowl losing streak at 13 games -- could be headed for another Roman-numeral pummeling. But they came back, got the tiebreaking touchdown on Terrell Davis' 1-yard run with 1:45 remaining and celebrated when John Mobley knocked down Favre's fourth-down pass on the next Green Bay possession.
Davis ran for 157 yards and three touchdowns, and John Elway provided a signature play for his career, doing a helicopter twirl when nailed at the end of one drive-prolonging run.
On the victory platform at midfield after the game, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen announced: "There's one thing I want to say here tonight, and it's only four words: This one's for John."
Said Elway: "There's been a lot of things that have come along with three Super Bowls and playing for 14 years, and kind of being known as the guy who's never been on a winning Super Bowl team. The NFC-AFC thing, you take that for a long, long time. And all those things we've been asked questions about for the past umpteen years, well, that just makes it that much sweeter."
2. Nov. 13, 1977:
Broncos 17,
Chargers 14
In their first Super Bowl season, the Broncos were 7-1 under first-year coach Red Miller and tied with the Raiders for first place going into Denver's first meeting of the season with the 4-4 Chargers. There still was a "pinch us" attitude prevailing in Denver about the Broncos' ascension, and if they had fallen behind the powerful Raiders in the AFC West, the sky might have been falling.
With the Chargers leading 14-3 in the third quarter, the Broncos' M&M Connection got going, with quarterback Craig Morton calling on receiver Haven Moses.
First, Morton hit Moses for a 33-yard score in the third quarter. Then, still trailing 14-10 with 96 seconds remaining, the Broncos had a fourth-and-goal from the Chargers' 8.
"I remember coming all the way from the left side and he didn't hit me until the far corner of the right side," Moses recalled. "I don't know how Craig got the ball in there, to tell you the truth," Moses said, holding two fingers about an inch apart.
Morton later confided that it was improvisation.
"I just said, 'Here's what we're going to do. Riley [Odoms], you're going to do an out and up. They will bite on Riley and I'll look over that way. Haven, just go and find a hole and we'll see what happens.'"
What happened was a touchdown that helped keep the Broncos tied at the top of the AFC West.
3. Super Bowl XXII, Jan. 31, 1988:
Washington 42, Broncos 10
Quarterback Doug Williams, running back Timmy Smith and receiver Ricky Sanders mainly had "Andy Warhol games": Fifteen minutes of fame.
After the Broncos got a 56-yard touchdown pass from John Elway to Ricky Nattiel and a 24-yard Rich Karlis field goal in the first quarter, the Redskins exploded for 35 points in the second quarter and had the world championship wrapped up by halftime. Williams threw four touchdown passes in the quarter -- to Sanders for 50 and 80 yards, to Gary Clark for 27, and to Clint Didier for 8. The other score came on Smith's 58-yard run, and he added a fourth-quarter score and finished with 204 yards on 22 carries.
Elway ended up 14-for-34 for 257 yards and the one touchdown, attempting to play comeback in the second half.
"We got our tails kicked today," he said. "We were moving the ball in the first quarter and doing some good things. The second quarter, they started to make some big plays, and we never answered the bell."
4. Dec. 17, 1979:
Chargers 17,
Broncos 7
This was the final regular-season game of the year and decided the AFC West. Going in, the Chargers were 11-4 and the Broncos 10-5, but Denver had won the meeting at Mile High Stadium in October and thus a victory in this game would have given the Broncos the division title on a tiebreaker.
The Broncos scored first, on Otis Armstrong's 3-yard run, but Dan Fouts ran 4 yards for one touchdown in the second quarter, threw 32 yards to Charlie Joiner to break the tie in the third, and the Chargers put it away with a late Mike Wood field goal. Fouts' pass to Joiner pushed him past Joe Namath's NFL single-season record of 4,007 yards.
Both teams lost to Houston in the postseason.
5. Oct. 29, 1961:
Chargers 37,
Broncos 0
In the AFL's inaugural 1960 season, the Chargers were based in Los Angeles. So this was the first Broncos-Chargers game at San Diego, and it underscored Denver's ineptitude in the early days. San Diego quarterback Jack Kemp, presumably rolling only to his right, had a good day, but the real difference-maker was two Chargers interception returns for touchdowns off Frank Tripucka passes. The Chargers improved to 8-0, the Broncos fell to 3-5.
6. Dec. 9, 1973:
Broncos 42,
Chargers 28
This win, in the next-to-last week, got the Broncos to 7-4-2 under second-year coach John Ralston and guaranteed the franchise's first winning season. Charley Johnson threw TD passes to Odoms and Moses took a 39-14 lead after three quarters and held on.
7. Nov. 29, 1981:
Chargers 34,
Broncos 17
This didn't necessarily decide the division title, but it certainly tipped the balance in Denver's first season under Dan Reeves. The teams both ended up 10-6, and split the season series, but the Chargers advanced and the Broncos stayed home on the basis of records within the division.
The Chargers were up 27-10 by halftime and 34-10 after three quarters. Chuck Muncie rushed for four touchdowns before Fouts tacked on a 1-yard TD pass to Eric Sievers.
Broncos quarterback Steve DeBerg threw a 10-yard scoring pass to Moses in the fourth quarter to make the final margin more respectable.
8. Dec. 5, 2004:
Chargers 20,
Broncos 17
Like the 1981 game, this wasn't for all the marbles, but ended up a crucial part of the division race. Denver, at 10-6, ended up two games back, but a win here would have given the Broncos a sweep in the series against the Chargers and the potential tiebreaker. And Denver ended up matched up against Indianapolis in the wild-card round, losing 49-24.
9. Dec. 22, 1996:
Chargers 16,
Broncos 10
This didn't seem to be a big deal -- until two weeks later. The Broncos came in 13-2, with the division title and the AFC's No. 1 seed wrapped up and in cruise control.
The win pulled San Diego to a somewhat face-saving 8-8 record, and after a wild-card round bye, the Broncos lost to Jacksonville at home in the divisional round. There's no way of knowing if playing the final game with more intensity to try and maintain momentum would have changed anything, but it's valid to at least wonder.
10. Dec. 10, 2006:
Chargers 48,
Broncos 20
This was rookie Jay Cutler's second start after Jake Plummer's benching, and it extended Denver's losing streak to four games in a season destined to end both ignominiously on the field and tragically off it. LaDainian Tomlinson scored three times, giving him an NFL-record 29 for the season. "It's extra meaningful because not only did I get the record," Tomlinson said, "you clinch the division, clinch a playoff spot, and then you take over the No. 1 seed in the AFC."
The Broncos had gone from 7-2 to 7-6 and were in big trouble.