The Los Angeles Chargers suffered another disappointing loss in Week 12 to the Denver Broncos. They lost the contest 28-13.

After this loss, the Chargers are now a full game behind the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West. They are 6-5 on the season and the Chiefs are 7-4. Los Angeles had their opportunities early on in the year when the Chiefs were playing badly but failed to take advantage.

If the Chargers want to make the playoffs and win their division, they need to start playing better football. They started the season 4-1 but since then have lost four of their last six games. There's too much talent on this Chargers team for them to not be succeeding. Any team with Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler, and Keenan Allen, should always find a way to sneak out victories, especially against teams like the Denver Broncos.

Let's take a look at some key takeaways from the Chargers week 12 loss.

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Chargers Week 12 Takeaways

3. Herbert needs to be smarter with the ball

When taking a look at the stat sheet, Justin Herbert looks like he had a good game because he went 28-40 and threw for over 303 yards with two touchdowns. Unfortunately for Herbert, he threw some timely interception that cost the Chargers this game. If the Chargers want to make the playoffs and win a Super Bowl like they have the talent to, their offense simply needs to be better and that all starts with Justin Herbert. Herbert cannot be throwing two interceptions against an average Broncos' defense.

Austin Ekeler also needs to be better as he only had 31 yards on 12 carries. Both of these guys are way too good and if the Chargers want to start winning ball games, they need both of them to start playing like they are capable of.

2. The defense needs to step up

Once again, the Chargers' defense has failed them. They have now given up more than 20 points in each of their last seven games. This is inexcusable for a team with this much talent on the defensive side of the ball. The Chargers will not find much success if they do not start defending at a higher level.

Regardless if the offense has been bad or not recently, in the playoffs they will not find much success if they cannot get stops. It's inexcusable for this defense to give up 28 points against a very average Broncos' offense.

1. The division is slipping away

At this point, this is what the Chargers and their fans have to realize. They had the perfect opportunity to take over the division when the Kansas City Chiefs were struggling earlier in the season but failed to do so. If anything has shown in the past few weeks, it's that the Chiefs are back to how they used to be for the past few seasons. This was the perfect time for the Chargers to take advantage of the Chiefs down play but they failed to do so and now find themselves in a tough spot to win the AFC West.

If the Chargers want to turn their season around, they need to start waking up on both sides of the ball, otherwise, it's going to be too late and they are going to fail to make the playoffs.