Chargers Beat Broncos, Win 3rd Straight

Bolts win 1st game at "home" in 2017

When Mike McCoy was the head coach of the Chargers his team was known for making a whole lot of mistakes to cost itself football games. It would appear that has followed McCoy to Denver.

Now the Broncos offensive coordinator, McCoy’s unit turned the ball over three times and kept getting in its own way in a 21-0 loss to the Chargers at StubHub Center. The crowd was mostly wearing orange but the few in powder blue had a lot more to cheer about.

Things went south for the Broncos quickly. On their third play from scrimmage quarterback Trevor Siemian avoided a rush and found wide receiver Jordan Taylor, who was wide open. Chargers safety Adrian Phillips recovered to knock the ball out of Taylor’s hands and the Chargers recovered.

Tight end Hunter Henry drew a pass interference call in the end zone, setting up a first and goal at the 1-yard-line. The Bolts ran Melvin Gordon up the middle four times and didn’t move the ball an inch. If the Broncos were hoping the goal line stand would be a momentum builder that idea went out the window fast.

Denver was forced to punt and Travis Benjamin took it back 65 yards for a touchdown. It was the first Chargers punt return TD since Micheal Spurlock housed one in 2012. As a whole the Chargers special teams, which was a big reason they lost their last meeting in Week 1 in Denver, played extremely well.

In the 2nd quarter the Chargers moved down to the 1-yard-line again and this time tried something different. Philip Rivers lobbed a swing pass to backup running back Austin Ekeler for the rookie’s 2nd career NFL touchdown and a 14-0 lead. Other than that drive the Bolts could really do nothing offensively. They had six possessions in the first half; three of them lost yardage and one made zero positive gains.

The ineptitude of the Denver offense, however, was on constant display. On the only other drive that showed promise Siemian was sacked by defensive end Chris McCain, the ball came out again and the Chargers recovered again.

In the 2nd half it was more of the same. Neither offense was able to move the football with any consistency. The Broncos had one long pass play to Demaryius Thomas wiped out when Thomas was called for offensive pass interference.

In the 4th quarter Denver moved into Chargers territory again only to have Siemian get picked off by Casey Hayward. The Chargers put the game completely out of reach with Rivers found Benjamin for a 42-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-0. The only question at that point was whether or not they would get the shutout.

The Broncos got within striking distance but then McCain sacked Siemian again, the 5th Chargers sack of the day, to set up a long 4th down that Denver could not convert. Joey Bosa also had two sacks and Melvin Ingram had one. The Chargers pitched their first shutout since they beat the Jets 31-0 in October of 2014.

The Chargers can get to the .500 mark in a week if they can go to Foxboro, MA, and beat the defending champion New England Patriots.

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