SAN DIEGO — Headliners are better appreciated when they’re not in every scene.

So running backs will occasionally perform at Qualcomm Stadium tonight.

When the Broncos and San Diego Chargers do run the ball, it won’t be for the usual reasons of controlling the clock and setting up the pass.

The running plays will serve to give the receivers a breather from running down passes thrown by the NFL’s two most prolific quarterbacks this season, San Diego’s Philip Rivers and the Broncos’ Kyle Orton.

“I almost laugh when I hear announcers say they’re running the ball to set up the pass,” said former quarterback Ron Jaworski, an NFL announcer. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.

“As I’m watching Kyle Orton and Philip Rivers this week, I’m seeing Kyle Orton throw the ball all over the lot. His play-action numbers are just through the roof. And yet they can’t run the ball a lick.”

As part of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasting crew that will carry the Broncos-Chargers game tonight, Jaworski has access to statistics that say Orton has completed 52 of his 77 play-action passes this year for 927 yards — 17.8 yards per completion — and a 120.0 passer rating.

Spectacular numbers, especially when considering Orton fakes the run off the NFL’s 32nd-ranked rushing offense.

Orton, by the way, is generally considered the second-best of two passers tonight at Qualcomm Stadium.

The old American Football League had John Hadl and Lance Alworth, Daryle Lamonica and Cliff Branch, Joe Namath and Don Maynard. The aerial show at Qualcomm tonight will feature Orton and Brandon Lloyd, Rivers and the great Seyi Ajirotutu.

“I think if we get a nice, crisp, clear, nonwindy night . . . , ” Jaworski said.

Rivers has been putting up top-ranked passing statistics for a while now. He has been a starting quarterback for going on five seasons, and he has almost single-handedly led the Chargers back into contention for their fifth consecutive AFC West title.

Unofficial surveys from bar stools across the NFL landscape generally list Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Drew Brees as the league’s top three quarterbacks. Each has Super Bowl title rings, and each has shared time atop the most significant passing charts.

Rivers doesn’t have the Super Bowl title ring — not that he didn’t try in the 2007 AFC championship game when he played a few days after surgery to temporarily secure torn knee ligaments.

But the Chargers never have lost a division title on his watch, and he has consistently posted high passer ratings. This year, he’s put up numbers never previously charted through the nine-game mark.

“When you are talking about Peyton and Brady and Brees, you better be talking about Phillip Rivers,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. “He is the best deep-ball thrower. I said that last year, and I don’t see any change in that. He is the best deep-ball thrower that we are going to play or that I have studied. He has an uncanny ability to ignore everything that is going on right around him in the pocket, and he maintains all of his focus down the field.”

For all the deep-ball hype McDaniels bestows upon Rivers, though, Orton has been the more powerful passer this year. Who would have thought that among those who watched Orton dink-and-dunk for the Chicago Bears and throw check-downs in his first season with the Broncos?

Jaworski spouted some more eye-popping numbers. In Orton’s three seasons as the Bears’ starter, he completed only three of the 32 passes he threw 30 yards or more past the line of scrimmage. This year, he’s completed eight of 14 passes that have traveled at least 30 yards downfield.

To be sure, Lloyd, who has displayed some of the best deep-ball hands in memory, deserves considerable credit for Orton’s big-play efficiency this year. But in turn Orton is chucking the ball with the type of gumption usually reserved for Turkey Bowls.

“It really has been a resurgent in his game,” Jaworski said. “If I could think of one word that explains his game it would be comfortable. He just looks like a comfortable NFL quarterback.

“He’s not all wound up. It looks like he’s enjoying playing football.”

Acclaim for Rivers has intensified this season because he seems to be doing more with less. He has played all season without No. 1 receiver Vincent Jackson, a former Widefield High School and Northern Colorado star who returns next week from his contract dispute and suspension. And in the Chargers’ 29-23 victory two weeks ago at Houston, Rivers also didn’t have superstar tight end Antonio Gates and No. 2 receiver Malcom Floyd.

Yet, Rivers got two touchdown catches out of Ajirotutu, a rookie free agent who has two touchdowns in his career, and another two scoring catches from Randy McMichael, a veteran tight end who had only one touchdown in his previous 2 1/2 seasons.

“Throughout the week,” Orton said, meaning every week, not just the week he plays the Chargers, “I always watch San Diego’s offense.”

Rivers is on pace to break Dan Marino’s 26-year-old NFL season passing record of 5,084 yards while Orton has fallen slightly below a 5,000-yard projection.

“Yeah, it’s been brought up,” Rivers said of Marino’s record. “A lot was brought up about it at the halfway point. We want to win. And a lot of ways, yards help you go win and yards help you score.”

If both Rivers and Orton have nothing more than their typical games tonight, there will be more than 635 yards gained through the air. And if it’s established quickly that neither team can run the ball and the game evolves into a Rivers-Orton passing duel?

“Norm Van Brocklin’s 554 yards passing (record) might be in jeopardy,” Jaworski said, half-jokingly. “I’m not going to even tell you which quarterback.”

Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com