Just a game removed from a walk-off field goal to lose, the Broncos did it again. A Denver fourth-quarter lead was erased by the LA Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker on a 43-yard field goal as time expired. The 23-20 Chargers’ win gave them their third consecutive divisional victory, improving their record to 3-0. The Broncos fall to 1-2, tied with the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs  in the AFC West. Missed opportunities and sloppy play by the Broncos let the Chargers off the hook in a game the Broncos  should have won.

It was a golden opportunity for the Broncos to take the early lead in the division, but instead, they are left to pick up the pieces of another gut-wrenching loss at the buzzer. With three games under their belt, patterns are starting to emerge, both good and bad, for the Broncos. Each of their three games has been decided in the fourth quarter, and the team has yet to put a complete effort on the field. Complementary football has not been cohesive with the offense, defense, and special teams peaking at different times.

Quarterback Bo Nix missed several key plays that could have put the game out of reach for the Chargers had he connected. In a first quarter that started flat for the offense, plays finally came to life late in the second quarter and early in the third quarter. Both Bronco’s touchdowns came consecutively, one to close the first half and the second to open the second half.

“Obviously, we were playing a good football team,” said Head Coach Sean Payton. “We feel like we’re a good football team, and we flip the script at the end of the second, early third quarter. Then we have to offensively be able to finish. Two weeks in a row, we’ve been in that position to finish in the fourth quarter. I think the penalties were a big issue today in the meeting. We had 10. Some of them… We force the defense, defense forces a punt, we line up in the neutral zone and that equates to a turnover. All of a sudden, they’re first-and-10 again instead of you having the football. Those are the things, and us as coaches, we have to look closely at what we’re doing to help eliminate those issues.”

With emphasis on getting a fast start, Nix and the Sean Payton offense did the exact opposite, getting only 11 yards in the first half on the ground. Rookie running back RJ Harvey, who got the start over J.K. Dobbins, had just two yards on two carries in the game. Dobbins returned to his former stadium to post 87 yards and a touchdown to start the second half against his former team. Outside of the burst from Dobbins, the run game was silent. (Game photo Gallery available at www.SportsReportNet.com).

“They stopped the run,” said quarterback Bo Nix. “We knew this was going to be the game. It was going to be underneath completions. We just didn’t find as many as we’d like, but we knew they were going to take away the shots. They were going to take all our stuff deep, and they were going to play a shell and keep everything in front of them and we were going to have to run the ball efficiently and complete underneath passes. Really, we didn’t do either one of those two so that just goes back to execution. We didn’t do enough.” Nix finished with 14 completions for 152 yards and no interceptions.

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