It’s hard to imagine that the Broncos victory over the Chargers could have gone any worse for Brock Osweiler, who was pulled from the game in the second half after Denver’s offense committed it’s fifth turnover of the game. Likewise, it’s hard to imagine it could have gone any better for Peyton Manning, who now looks to be the Broncos quarterback heading into the postseason.

For both the fans and the team, this was an emotional game, and it would have been understandable if the Broncos quarterbacks had entered their postgame press conferences with some emotions on their sleeve; they did not.

Instead, both Manning and Osweiler responded to each and every question by deflecting the blame and praise away from the quarterback position and onto the rest of the team.

As Manning said, it’s hard to say he won the game when it was C.J. Anderson and Ronnie Hillman who scored both of Denver’s second-half touchdowns.

And he’s right. While his presence may have sparked the Broncos’ run, the credit really needs to go to the running backs and offensive line, which had their best half of the season — no coincidence that Gary Kubiak finally decided to put in Tyler Polumbus for Michael Schofield.

Plus, while the Broncos had five turnovers under Osweiler’s watch, not many of them (if any) were his fault; you could easily make the case that he never should have been pulled from the game.

Osweiler, though, is not willing to make that argument.

Whoever is under center two weeks from now in the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs, it’s clear that their most important goal is winning, not starting.

And for Broncos fans, while there will undoubtedly be a lot of debate these next few weeks, the important thing is that Denver can feel comfortable with either quarterback behind center.