The Monday night game established the Broncos as the class of the AFC West. Not only did they beat the favored Chargers on the road which significantly boosts their chances of winning the division; it was also the way they won which involved out-playing the Chargers in every way possible – better offense, vastly superior defense, more big special teams play and better coaching. The Broncos are now second to just the Colts in playoff probability at over 97 percent.

Orton was 11-of-15 for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the second half Monday night. According to ESPN’s Stats & Information, his passer’s rating in the half was 143.3. He was brilliant in the second half and in overtime against New England in Week 5. Orton was 8-of-12 on third down, compared to 3-of-7 for Rivers.

On the injury that he’s dealing with right now:
"It’s groin. It’s groin. It’s kinda one of those where you over-compensate for a long time. My knee has been feeling great for the last couple of months. Just for all the months of overcompensating, it just happens. If you’ve talked to anybody that has had a major kind of deal done, it’s always something that you have to overcompensate with it so long. You’ve got to get used to walking a certain way, running a certain way and you know it’s just coming back."

On whether the knee is fully back after reconstructive knee surgery:

"Oh absolutely. That’s one of those things where you cant defend yourself until you start winning and until you start getting after some quarterbacks. No matter what I say, I won’t defend that part. I have to go out and I have to get those things done."

On whether or not he’s surprised by Denver’s great start:

"I cant say that I am. I think they’ve had tools over there for years. They’re a good football team. The last few years we got a chance to play them. (They’ve) probably had games that they should’ve won in the past against other people that they haven’t won. I think they’re just having a fast start. We know exactly what we’re facing coming up this week and we’re going to bring our A game. Period."

On the way the fans should feel about the 2-2 start to the season:

"I think everybody should stay positive. We definitely are. We’re not panicking. We know that we have to play better as a team, but you know let’s face it, we’ve played the Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami who was also a playoff team as well. It’s not like we had the easiest schedule in the world. We don’t see to be negative right now at all. Especially myself as I’m talking to you guys and talking to everybody else, I don’t see us in a negative light right now. I say ‘look, we’ve got to come out and be three and two, period.’ That solves a lot of problems."

On whether the players are down in the locker room after the 2-2 start:

"No, absolutely not and we can’t wait for Monday. That’s kind of our way of fixing any kind of problem that’s going on. You got out and win. Winning cures a lot of things. In an NFL locker room, if you’re sitting around and you’re 5-0 or you’re 4-1, things are looking great, everybody is happy, patting each other on the back and it’s all smiles and it’s great. We’ve been there. We’ve been there where we’re sitting around and we have a great record and things are just great and that’s the best way to have it, but unfortunately it’s not that way all the time. When things are not going the way you want it to go, that’s when you have to really come together as a team and say ‘look, this is what we have to do, we’re 2- 2 right now and the only way we’re going to be 3-2 if we go out and we play better."

One team clearly leaps off the page: Denver, doubted by the "pundits" all season long, are still 5-0 and the standings and, now, 3-0 in our Quality Standings following their 20-17 overtime win against Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the Patriots.

Only the Patriots and Saints have as many as two Quality Wins this year. So the Broncos are clearly shaping up as the class of the NFL, with wins over the 4-1 Bengals, 3-2 Patriots and 3-2 Cowboys. Those are three teams who are a combined 0-3 against Denver, but 10-2 against the rest of the league.

San Diego’s Philip Rivers was extraordinarily efficient against the Dolphins, averaging a solid 8.7 YPA on the day. He sports an impressive 8.5 yards per attempt for the season and – we should have noted this last week – now counts himself "officially" among the all-time leaders in two key passing categories: passer rating and yards per attempt.

During San Diego ’s Week 2 loss to Baltimore , Rivers surpassed the minimum 1,500 career pass attempts required to qualify for official NFL records.

Following the win over Miami , Rivers’ career stat line now looks like this:
957 of 1,542 (62.1%), 11,688 yards, 7.58 YPA, 81 TD, 39 INT, 92.36 passer rating
If you’re not impressed by the numbers, you should be. He’s fifth all time in passer rating, just ahead of the great Joe Montana. Here’s the top six in career passer rating as of the end of Week 3 of 2009:
* Steve Young (96.81)
* Peyton Manning (95.11)
* Kurt Warner (93.45)
* Tom Brady (92.41)
* Philip Rivers (92.36)
* Joe Montana (92.26)
With an average of 7.58 YPA, Rivers ranks in the top 20 all time in this key indicator of success.

Rivers is also on the very short list of passers in NFL history with a TD to INT ratio of better than 2 to 1 (2.08 to 1). The record is held by Brady, who’s thrown 2.27 TDs for every INT.

That’s winning football, and Rivers is a winner, with a 35-16 (.686) career record following Sunday’s win.

Defensive Hog Index

Playing the Fields

Bringing The Wood

Brian Dawkins - Farewell Highlight Reel from Philly Fan