By Tim Peterson
(Inglewood) – The Chargers rallied from an 11-point deficit in the third quarter to beat Denver 34-27 on Thursday Night Football before 70, 240 fans at SoFi Stadium.
Down 24-19 Justin Herbert connected on touchdown passes to Derius Davis and Hassan Haskins for the Chargers’ last two scores of the game. Before that, down 24-13 Gus Edwards scored on a five-yard run to cut the Bronco lead to five. Herbert then did his thing, the LA defense did enough and the Chargers held on to draw even with the Broncos for second place in the AFC West.
The Broncos were off and running as they drove 72 yards on 10 plays on their first possession with Audric Estime capping it with a 3-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead.
The Chargers answered with an 8-play, 70-yard drive. Edwards scored from a yard out to tie it. The touchdown was set up by a 24-yard pass from Herbert to Joshua Palmer down to the three-yard line.
Early in the second quarter Denver put together a 12-play, 70-yard drive with Bo Nix hitting Michael Burton on a one- yard pass to give the Broncos a 14-7 lead.
After Cameron Dicker kicked a 37-yard field goal later in the quarter, the Broncos responded with another 70-yard march. This time Nix found Devaughn Vele on a 6-yard touchdown strike to put Denver up 21-10.
Dicker “The Kicker” earned his moniker at the end of the first half booting a 57-yard field goal on a free kick with no time remaining to cut the Denver lead to 21-13 at the half.
Late in the third quarter Edwards picked up his second rushing touchdown of the night on the five-yard burst to finish a 70-yard drive. A two-point conversion failed leaving the score at 24-19.
The Chargers grabbed their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter. LA moved the ball down the field 78 yards in just 7 plays. Hebert connected with Davis on a 19-yard touchdown strike for the lead. Palmer then caught a pass for the two-point conversion in the back of the endzone for a three-point lead at 27-24.
The Chargers got the ball at their own 10-yard line with just 4:28 left in the fourth quarter. But they struck quickly moving the ball down to the Denver 34. Herbert then found Hassan Haskins on a 34-yard touchdown on a shovel pass and suddenly it was 34-24 LA with just 2:27 left.
Lutz split the uprights from 55 yards out with 57 ticks left on the clock to make it 34-27 but an onside kick was recovered by the Chargers’ Nick Niemann and the Chargers were able to run out the clock.
For the Broncos Nix completed 29 of 40 for 263 yards and two touchdowns.
Herbert was 23 of 31 for 284 yards and two scores for the Chargers. He also threw a pick. The Chargers did manage 117 yards on the ground as Edwards ran for 68 yards and the two touchdowns and Kimani Vidal rushed for 24. Herbert had 28 yards on 8 carries.
The Chargers and the Broncos are now dead even the AFC West with records of 9-6 and in second place in the AFC West with two games remaining. The Chargers swept the two games with Denver this year. The Kansas City Chiefs (13-1) have clinched the AFC West.
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Agree 100 on Harbaugh. It’s so interesting how a little thing , especially right before halftime , can turn the tide of an entire game . I noticed this frequently in the high school playoffs as well: if a team got a big play or score in the last couple minutes of half , they almost always won .
I remember the Ray Werschung kick in 74 pretty well. I even remember asking my older brothers wtf was goin on as a fledging when Paul Hornung got the most famous one for Lombardi s Packers . Of course , these things don’t seem so long ago in my present day memory. so the sequence was just good classic football. There hasn’t been much attention to the Bronco penalty which has totally unacceptable; it gave Chargers an extra play ! And the necessary 15 yards to make kick plausible .
Happy holidays to you and all the passionate and astute MVS stalwarts !
Yes .
There is no snap
To worry about , so that’s seven free yards
And perfect ball 🏈 placement
The defense must stand back so the trajectory of the kick is not an issue ; the kicker can go for length not height
Dicker making that 57-yard field goal at the end of the first half shifted the momentum in the Chargers’ favor. The fact that Jim Harbaugh and his staff used the rules to set it up as a free kick might’ve made all the difference.
With that savvy move, the Chargers made the Broncos pay for interfering with a fair catch of a punt on the previous play. (The resulting 15-yard penalty put Los Angeles within field goal range.)
Harbaugh is simply an outstanding coach. Just one year after leading the University of Michigan to a national championship, he has the Chargers on the verge of making the playoffs in a huge turnaround season.
What is the big deal about that obscure “free kick” thing? Is it just that the defense has to stand 10 yards back, not being allowed to rush and possibly block the kick?