Jarrett Bell

USA TODAY Sports

The Chargers meet the Broncos in a divisional playoff game after beating them in Week 15.

The Chargers have defied the prediction of ex-coach Norv Turner%2C who said they weren%27t playoff-bound

They have reached this point in the playoffs after sporting a 5-7 record in the regular season.

Seeking clarification, I put in a call to Destiny but couldn't get through.

She has been pretty busy lately, with all sorts of NFL-related requests. After hanging out in Indianapolis on Saturday, she stopped over in Cincinnati. Now she's back in San Diego, chilling out in the sun while a "polar vortex" has left much of the nation in a deep freeze. Good move.

Destiny might be the only way to explain the San Diego Chargers' presence among the eight teams left in the NFL playoffs, after their spanking of the Bengals on Sunday.

These tightly-contested playoff games can swing on so many variables. Home-field advantage. Weather. Officiating.

Just don't underestimate the power of the Destiny factor.

To get in as the AFC's sixth seed, the Chargers had to win their final games and get a lot of help. In Week 17, they needed the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins to lose.

And they would have never beaten the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime in the finale if Ryan Succop didn't miss a 41-yard field goal.

That was Destiny, teasing us.

Ask last year's Super Bowl champions. The Baltimore Ravens entered the playoffs as a fourth seed last season. But Ray Lewis kept talking about making his last ride special. And Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones got the memo. Then Destiny showed her hand in Denver in the divisional playoffs.

Maybe Denver will be the last stop this time for the Chargers. The Broncos are the AFC's top seed again.

Then again, maybe not. The Chargers would not be returning if they had not stung the Broncos in Denver in Week 15. Being 10-point underdogs for Sunday's game – the biggest spread for the divisional round – might not matter. Consider:

*The Chargers opened 27th in The Associated Press' power ranking poll of NFL teams.

*When the playoffs began, they were given 40-1 odds to win Super Bowl XLVIII.

*When coach Norv Turner was fired after last season, he vehemently declared that contrary to what some had stated, the Chargers were nowhere near being a playoff team. And you know how you can take whatever he says to the bank, right? Guess Destiny had the last word, Norv.

But Herm Edwards, take a bow. In late November, the ESPN analyst told me that of the half-dozen teams fighting for that one last AFC playoff berth, he thought the Chargers would get in.

Edwards liked that San Diego had four of its final five games at home. He loved that quarterback Philip Rivers has meshed with a new offense that provided him with Danny Woodhead -- the outlet receiver he hasn't had since Darren Sproles left town.

A few days later, the Chargers were beaten by the Bengals in a Week 13 loss.

They were 5-7, and it seemed that even if they could run the table, they would miss the playoffs, given all the tiebreaker scenarios. But Destiny thought otherwise.

And the Chargers kept believing.

"We're just going one week at a time," Chargers coach Mike McCoy said after his team dealt the Bengals their first home loss of the season. "We don't care as an organization what anyone else thinks about us. We've got confidence in our room, within our organization from (team chairman) Dean Spanos all the way down, and that's the most important thing for the whole organization."

Maybe this has something to do with the rather unique bolo tie that Rivers has been wearing to games since that win at Denver. Now it's a lucky charm.

You knew these playoffs would bring surprises. Baltimore shocked the field last year. In 2010, the Green Bay Packers got in as a sixth seed and won it all. Listening to Aaron Rodgers after Sunday's loss to the San Francisco 49ers, it sure seemed like he expected something similar after he made it back from a broken collarbone – and won the NFC North title on the miracle fourth-down pass to Randall Cobb vs. the Chicago Bears.

But Destiny has options. Like the Indianapolis Colts, after the rally from a 28-point, second-half deficit that included the pinball fumble recovery touchdown by Andrew Luck.

Or the Saints. New Orleans finally won a road playoff game (when you don't consider winning a Super Bowl in Miami as such), and survived crunch time in a hostile environment. Reverse last-second losses at the New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers and New Orleans might have finished 13-3.

Nonetheless, it's notable that New Orleans' milestone win came in Philadelphia. That's where the Chargers won in Week 2, spoiling the Eagles' home opener. It's striking that the opponents for the Eagles' past three home openers ended up Super Bowl champs – the Ravens, New York Giants and Packers.

A few weeks ago, that factoid seemed to have run its course as insignificant for what's ahead.

Not now. The Chargers are still alive. One way or another, Destiny will have the final say.