FanNation - The Republic of Sport

I know it looked like Marty Schottenheimer on the sidelines Sunday night in Denver coaching the San Diego Chargers, but can that be? How is it possible that a team with as much offensive muscle and as many offensive (shall we say) stones, is coached by Marty Schottenheimer? Whoever that is occupying Marty's body and brain these days has a team that's an awful lot of fun to watch.

The game was so entertaining that NBC couldn't dull it up or dumb it down to any level of annoyance. The fact nuggets kept coming along with the TDs: LaDainian Tomlinson, the fastest player to 100 career TDs; LT, the first player since the old Packer Jim Taylor to score four TDs in a game two games in a row; LT, 19 TDs in six games, an all-time best; the Chargers, the first team to come back from second-half deficits of more than 17 points to win two games in row (and that piece of info came along with the total number of games player in NFL history); the Chargers, the only team to allow 24 points a game four straight games and win all four. Lots of stuff and it all seemed to fall for the Bolts. Watching the Colts go down in the afternoon and the Chargers bust it in the evening made you wonder exactly who the best team in the AFC really is.

(Think about this for a second: last year Coach Schott had Drew Brees starting at QB and Philip Rivers sitting watching and learning. Sunday Brees, now with the Saints, threw for 510 yards and two TDs; Rivers kept his cool again and helped bring SD back and had 222 yards and two TD. Coach Schott wanted to keep Brees this season and let Rivers sit some more but was overruled. The decision is  working great for two teams.)

For the Broncos, the idea of losing that big West Division game at home on national TV cannot sit well with their fans, who are sure to be shouting the name Jay Cutler in the mountain chill. And Coach Mike Shanahan cannot be happy with his formerly league-leading defense torn apart.

And for Denver, it just keeps getting better. The Broncs get the first NFL Network Thursday night broadcast this week at Kansas City against the Chiefs. A home stadium loss followed by a three day week (actually two) a trip east to KC and a game on Thursday night. You wonder if they ticked off someone high up at NFL HQ in NYC.

I'll stop this for a second for a quick message to the Nation. The brilliant boys of FanNation.com have created a really cool game for NFL.com to let fans play along with the NFL Network schedule. Eight games, eight player picks to make, one for each game. Check it out at NFL Fan Challenge, enter and the winner goes to the Super Bowl. Really.

One thing everyone playing the game will surely be wary of: Picking Jake Plummer as the QB this Thursday night.