SAN DIEGO -- One moment, Denver Broncos backup quarterback Brock Osweiler was warming up as halftime drew to a close, thinking the team’s chances to earn a fourth consecutive AFC West title would be in his hands.
And the next …
“I was throwing and I just heard this big roar," Osweiler said. “I didn’t even have to turn my head. I knew what it was."
It was Peyton Manning, jogging out of the tunnel from the visitors’ locker room in Qualcomm Stadium. Coach John Fox called a "cavalry entrance" to start the second half and close out a 22-10 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. The victory moved the Broncos to 11-3 and gave the team the division title and the playoff spot that comes with it.
Despite being in his 17th season and 254th regular-season game, Sunday brought a new experience for Manning -- an IV. Or rather, several IVs. Manning said flu-like symptoms arose Saturday night and resulted in "four IVs" in roughly a 17-hour span in order to play against the Chargers.
“I’m even not sure I’ve ever had to have one, 17 years, so it was a new experience last night," Manning said. “One I would prefer not to have again."
Asked if he thought when he woke up Sunday morning he would be able to play, Manning said: "[Saturday] night was pretty miserable. It crossed my mind a couple times in a couple of those trips last night [that he would not be able to]."
Manning also suffered a thigh injury -- an injury he attributed to being dehydrated -- on an 8-yard completion to Emmanuel Sanders just before halftime. Manning was in enough pain that after a third-and-goal run for C.J. Anderson, Manning jogged immediately up the tunnel to the Broncos' locker room with 1 minute, 53 seconds to play in the first half.
“Obviously I was in some discomfort," Manning said. “Thought I got a little relief at halftime."
Yes, had Manning stayed in the locker room at halftime and Osweiler had been behind center in a game that mattered, things might have gone differently. Though John Elway, John Fox and even Manning have said they believe in Osweiler’s progress, he is still an unanswered question.
But Sunday, although Manning was able to play through illness and injury, other Broncos were not. Several players who figure prominently on the depth chart left the game. And an offseason spent trying to make a Super Bowl team better, deeper and more able to overcome the battle of attrition, paid dividends.
Left tackle Ryan Clady left the game in the first quarter with a right thigh injury and did not return. Linebacker Brandon Marshall, the team’s leading tackler, left in the second quarter and did not return. And the guy who was filling in for Marshall, Danny Trevathan, who was playing in his first game since Oct. 12, left in the fourth quarter with a leg injury.
“But we’ve got guys who can step up," Sanders said. “And they stepped up, way up."
So much so that Todd Davis, who the Broncos claimed off waivers in November from the New Orleans Saints, was the team's every-down linebacker to close out the game for a defense that surrendered 288 yards and one touchdown. Chris Clark, who was benched earlier this season as the right tackle and has been a game-day inactive for the previous three games, filled in for Clady at left tackle.
“Think it says a lot, think it says we’ve got a good football team," Manning said. "And that we can win different ways."
So, here they are, style-points packed away for the moment, with a four-game winning streak since the sensibility-shaking loss in St. Louis last month. Four games when Manning has thrown three touchdown passes combined and the Broncos have had 148 rushing attempts -- an average of 37 per game.
So, fourth division title in hand, the Broncos are still one of the league's heavyweights. While this might not be the Broncos team many expected it to be, it is the team that's where it wants to be.
