The NFC South is one of the top two divisions in pro Football. Combined record: 34-19.

The AFC West is one of the bottom two divisions in Football. Combined record: 18-34.

Yet the Broncos, who belong to the latter, are 3-0 against the former, with a chance to make it a clean sweep Sunday in Carolina.

Nobody else in the Broncos' division has won so much as a single game against the NFC South. In fact, this disparity alone explains the Broncos' three-game division lead.

Turn those three wins into losses, and they are where San Diego is. Turn the Chargers' three NFC South losses into wins, and they are where the Broncos are.

Now all we have to do is explain it. Is there something about the way the NFC South plays, a style or scheme, particularly suited to the Broncos' strengths? I asked around.

"No real common elements," said Broncos tight end Daniel Graham. "They just so happen to be all in the same division, and we executed and played well against those teams."

"We just played well against them," said long snapper Mike Leach. "We didn't make the big mistakes that we made in some of the other games, especially the big games we lost in the AFC West. When we don't turn it over, we do pretty well."

"Nothing's different," said center Casey Wiegmann. "Football's Football. You have to be ready for every opponent. We've had a couple of shootouts here at Invesco with Tampa and New Or- leans, and then we went down and played a tough team in Atlanta down in their dome. It's just the way it is, it's the way the schedule works out. Some teams play better at home; some teams play better away."

As you can see, I wasn't getting very far. It's true that members of the NFC South are 24-2 when playing at home and the Broncos have played two of their three games against them in Colorado. On the other hand, they also won the road game, in Atlanta, and San Diego has lost at home to both Atlanta and Carolina. I asked around some more.

"I think, up front, it's easier for us to hit blocks instead of the zone-type teams," said defensive end Elvis Dumervil. "These kind of teams allow us to play man on man. The big guys like Dewayne Robertson and Marcus Thomas, they don't have to run sideways like they do against a team like the Raiders. I think our tackles are built to kind of hit blocks like these type of teams from the NFC South."

Hey, at least it's a theory. Not only that, Robertson is right there with him.

"When you know a team's fitting to come straight downhill on you, you pretty much just get ready for that," said the 308-pound defensive tackle. "When a team likes to run a lot of direct runs, power runs, it's basically like a man-on-man thing. You've got to outmuscle the next guy to get to the ball, instead of trying to be disciplined and hold your gap and run and keep up with the linemen and all that zone business.

"I believe you can ask any defensive lineman what he'd rather play against. Would he rather it be a zone team that cuts your legs, or a team that's going to come right at you and try to outmuscle you? I'm pretty sure they'll say that second one."

The Broncos, of course, use a zone blocking scheme in their running game.

Much as I like having a theory, we also have to consider the possibility that we are talking about a fluke, especially this year.

For example, the Broncos beat the Saints only after Martin Gramatica missed a 43-yard field goal with two minutes left.

The Chargers lost to the Panthers on a freak play in which Jake Delhomme's desperate pass into the end zone with two seconds remaining was deflected by Chargers linebacker Matt Wilhelm into the arms of Panthers tight end Dante Rosario.

Against Oakland, Delhomme threw four interceptions and finished with a passer rating of 12.3. The Panthers gained a total of 219 yards. They won anyway, the Raiders being the Raiders.

If not flukes, these games were at least fluky, and if you reverse the results, the pattern we have documented goes away.

But that's not what happened. What's happened, so far, is the Broncos have gone 3-0 against the accomplished NFC South, while the rest of the AFC West has gone a collective 0-10. Whatever the reason, this is the difference in the season.

"It's just the game plan each week against those certain teams," Graham said. "All the teams are different. We just executed against those teams well, put our game plan together. If we continue to do that this Sunday, we'll go ahead and take the sweep in that division."

Tell you what: It would be hard to call that a fluke.