The Broncos (9-6) failed to clinch their first playoff appearance since the 2015 season as the Los Angles Chargers (9-6) exploded in the second half, outscoring Denver 21-6 en route to a 34-27 victory on ‘Thursday Night Football’ and a season sweep of their AFC West rival. 

The result of the Chargers’ victory is Los Angeles and Denver swap places in the conference standings with the Chargers now standing as the AFC’s sixth seed and the Broncos tumbling down to the seventh and final postseason slot with two weeks remaining in the regular season for both franchises. 

Both teams entered Week 16 tied atop the NFL, along with the Philadelphia Eagles, for the league’s best scoring defense, allowing 17.6 points per game, and while Los Angeles’ defense didn’t look a top scoring defense early, it certainly did late. 

The Broncos offense didn’t have any issues moving the ball against the host Chargers’ No. 1 scoring defense in the first two quarters, scoring touchdowns on each of their first three drives. The first concluded with a 3-yard rushing touchdown by fifth-round rookie running back Audric Estime; the next two were a 1-yard touchdown pass from first-round rookie quarterback Bo Nix to fullback Michael Burton, and another touchdown pass, a 6-yard strike, from Nix to seventh-round rookie wide receiver Devaughn Vele. 

However, their offense went completely cold after their first three drives. Five of the Broncos’ final seven drives ended in punts with the other two being a 41-yard field goal to open the second half, and a 55-yard field goal on their final possession of the night. Nix finished the game with 248 yards passing and two touchdowns on 29 of 40 passing, but he threw for only 109 yards on 14 of 19 passing in the game’s final two quarters. 

Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense fed off the momentum of concluding the half with a 57-yard field goal off the first fair-catch kick since 1976 from kicker Cameron Dicker after the Broncos committed a fair catch interference penalty on a punt with no time left on the clock that trimmed their halftime deficit to eight, 21-13. The Chargers scored three touchdowns on their four second-half possessions prior to recovering a last-ditch onside kick by the Broncos with just under a minute left to play. Running back Gus Edwards added his second rushing touchdown of the game from 5 yards out and finished the game with 68 rushing yards and two scores on 14 carries. 

Then, Herbert locked in, throwing two touchdown passes, including a miraculous 19-yarder to wide receiver Derius Davis in which the Chargers quarterback launched the football to the end while rolling to the left with a defender draped all over him. A shovel pass to running back Hassan Haskins for a 34-yard score with 2:27 left to play sealed the victory as Herbert finished with 284 yards passing, two touchdowns and an interception on 23 of 30 passing. 

Why the Chargers won

Herbert heroics, and a defense that stepped up after a horrific start. Herbert finished this game 23 of 30 for 284 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception, but the stat line doesn’t do his performance justice — even when you account for his 40 rushing yards. He was firing lasers all over the field, and he repeatedly came up with huge plays at the most crucial moments. He was the best player on the field. And L.A.’s defense yielded just six points the rest of the game, after allowing the Broncos to begin the night with three consecutive touchdown drives.

Why the Broncos lost

Their offense peaked too early, and their defense had no answers once the Chargers got going. As previously mentioned, the Broncos scored touchdowns on each of their first three drives. But beyond the 21 points they got, the ease with which they did it was astounding. They opened the game by going 72 yards on 10 plays, 70 yards on 12 plays and 70 yards on six plays. They didn’t take a negative play until there were around four minutes remaining in the first half. It was SO easy for them … until it wasn’t. After those first three possessions, Denver ran just 35 more plays, and gained only 143 yards on those snaps. And after holding the Chargers to 10 points on their first five possessions, the defense yielded three touchdowns on four second-half drives before the final possession where the Chargers ran out the clock.

Turning point

Leading 21-10 late in the second quarter, the Broncos had the ball deep in their own territory. They’d been rolling offensively so with 41 seconds left they tried to put together a real drive rather than just running out the clock. But it went disastrously bad. A first-down pass to Javonte Williams went backward. Crucially, a second-down pass fell incomplete. And then a third-down run was stopped after just a yard, with 8 seconds left. The Chargers called timeout to force a punt. Why not, right? Something strange might happen. And then something strange happened.

That’s right, we got a fair-catch free kick for the first time since 1976. Aided, naturally, by a fair catch interference penalty, which moved the ball into Cameron Dicker’s range. That sequence left the Chargers down by only one score at halftime, and started their run to eventually win the game.

Highlight play

It’s tough to choose between Herbert’s ridiculous touchdown throws, but let’s go with the one with a higher degree of difficulty.

SHEESH. That is a frozen rope, on the move to his left, thrown back across his body, over the top of a defender and right on the money to the receiver, in stride, in the end zone. Hard to make a better throw than that.

What’s next

L.A. improves to 9-6 with this win and also moved ahead of the Broncos in the standings. The Chargers now hold the No. 6 seed in the AFC and hold the tiebreaker over Denver in the event the two teams finish with the same record. Their final two games of the season are at New England and at Las Vegas.

Denver drops to 9-6 with the loss and falls behind the Chargers in the standings. Denver now holds the No. 7 seed in the AFC but remains fairly safe in the playoff race, with the Colts, Dolphins and Bengals all sitting at 6-8 and needing a lot of things to break their way (likely including Denver losing out) in order to make the field. The Broncos finish out the season with games at Cincinnati and home against the Chiefs.