CINCINNATI — This is the last thing Peyton Manning and the Broncos wanted: The Chargers. Again.
But that’s what the AFC’s No. 1 seed — fresh (or stale?) off a bye week — are getting Sunday in Denver as a result of the easy work the Chargers made of the favored Bengals in Sunday’s wild-card game at Paul Brown Stadium, a 27-10 walkover against a team that had been 8-0 at home during the regular season.
The Chargers, quite simply, are the hottest team in the NFL at the moment, and that makes them the most dangerous team in the postseason.
Sunday’s win was the Chargers’ fifth in a row, but more significantly, they’ve been playing playoff-like elimination games for more than a month now while climbing from the 5-7 hole they dug for themselves.
They are a playoff-hardened bunch going to Denver.
“We’ve been in playoff mode for five weeks now,’’ Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said. “This was the fifth round for us.’’
One of those “rounds’’ was a 27-20 Chargers win over the Broncos on Dec. 12 in Denver. That win got the Chargers to 7-7. It was the second victory in the four-game winning streak on which they ended the regular season to get into the tournament.
That win was important then, because it kept their season alive. And it is important now, because the Chargers go to Denver next weekend knowing they’ve already beaten the Broncos there, so it can be done again.
In the NFL playoffs, it is so often not the most talented team that advances to — and sometimes wins — the Super Bowl, but the hottest team. Five of the last seven Super Bowl champions were teams that had to play a wild-card game at the start of the playoffs and got on magical rolls (see the 2011 Giants).
Based on what they’ve done the last five weeks, highlighted by what they did to the Bengals Sunday, the Chargers look like that team this year.
“Oh yeah, we know we’re a team to be dealt with,’’ Chargers safety Eric Weddle said.
“If we are that team that’s great; I like where we are right now,’’ Chargers linebacker Jarrett Johnson said. “The hardest teams to beat are the ones that are getting healthy at the end and winning in December and that’s what we’ve done.’’
The most impressive thing the Chargers did against the Bengals was win the game convincingly while Rivers, their best player, was throwing for a season-low 128 yards — albeit on an efficient 12 of 16 and a touchdown pass to tight end Ladarius Green in the third quarter that gave them a 14-10 led they would never relinquish. Rivers, who had 544 attempts this season, threw only six passes in the first half.
The Chargers too often are thought to be all about Rivers and not much else. But on this day, they showed they are much deeper than a team that relies too heavily on its star quarterback.
San Diego battered the Bengals defense for 196 yards and two rushing touchdowns (from castoffs Danny Woodhead and Ronnie Brown) on 40 carries. Their defense forced four turnovers — two interceptions of beleaguered Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and two fumbles.
So now, on to Denver. Again.
“We will be confident,’’ Rivers said. “But we have to be careful not to be overconfident, and we won’t be.’’
The Chargers love the fact that few believed they’d make the playoffs, fewer thought they’d beat the Bengals and almost no one will pick them to beat the Broncos.
“I love it,’’ said Chargers linebacker Donald Butler, who made arguably the biggest play of the game when he stripped Bengals running back Giovani Bernard of the ball from behind, two yards before he was about the cross the goal line for a touchdown in a 7-7 game with 1:47 remaining in the first half. “This whole team loves it. So go ahead and write us off all you want. Say all the negative things you want about us. Even when we beat Denver before, all we heard was what Denver didn’t do, not what we did.
“As a team we’ve embraced that and we’re just rolling with it. There’s no pressure on us. We get to go out there and play like we’re in the back yard, all buddies out here just having fun.’’
The Chargers are, indeed, having a blast playing with house money. They can’t wait to get to Denver. They’re the last thing Manning and the Broncos want to see.