Broncos Fall Flat to Chargers 21-13, Drop to 4-2

The Broncos headed to San Diego on Thursday night looking for a chance to get back on track after suffering a loss at home to Atlanta on Sunday. In a span of four days, the Broncos found themselves on the losing side once again. In one of the most disappointing and frustrating games in recent memory, the Chargers beat the Broncos 21-13 to send Denver to 4-2 and their first road loss in the AFC West since 2011. The Broncos now have to deal with some major issues going forward. It was a game that was similar to how the Falcons game played out in Week 5, and that is a problem because now it looks like it could be a harbinger of things to come down the road for this Broncos team. Here are my thoughts and observations about the game....

1) It was another horrible start for the Denver defense on the first two drives for the second straight week. They gave up a lot of big throws to Phillip Rivers and the Chargers offense, and both drives were long and ate up a lot of clock, and the next thing you know the Broncos were down 10-0 once again. This week TE Hunter Henry gashed the middle of Broncos defense like the Falcons did with their RBs last week. The Chargers had the Broncos defense off balance for most of the first half. The Broncos have to find a way to make stops early in the game and avoid these deficits right off the bat.

2) The offense was terrible all night. It was a very bad omen when the Broncos got a huge break. After recovering a muffed punt at the SD 11, the Broncos only settled for a field goal to make it 10-3 in the second quarter. They got the turnover they needed, and yet they couldn't go 11 yards to get a touchdown. That was a very key sequence.

3) The defense did settle down and played well from the 2nd quarter on. Von Miller was really good in the run game. I thought the defense held on the best that they could. They held the Chargers to only 3 field goals the rest of the way after the tough start. Give them credit on a night where there were a lot of bad performances.

4) The offense couldn't run the ball once again. The offensive line struggled once again. The Broncos had no room to run at all until late in the game and when Devontae Booker was running the ball. Trevor Siemian was 30-50 for only 230 yards and 1 TD and 0 INT. He was not good at all in this game. He only completed 1 pass completion over 10 yards. He took too many underneath throws and that might be because of the lack of protection and time from the offensive line or he that he doesn't have the ability to drive the ball downfield and take chances. It was like the Chargers were just not afraid of him beating him deep, and this is a Chargers defense that lost both starting corners earlier in the year. It was just some bad offensive football for most of the night. They scored three time and two of those scores came after the Chargers muffed kicks. That is not good at all.

5) The Broncos made a lot of errors and mistakes all night long. They made some really critical mistakes in the second half. They had a fumble by Jordan Taylor in the 3rd quarter, a missed 56 yard field goal, a safety on a holding call in the endzone, a holding call nullifying a touchdown, and a fumble by Demaryius Thomas.

6) As bad as the game was, the Broncos had an amazing C.J. Anderson touchdown catch and run to make it 21-16 with over 4 minutes to go and three timeouts left. The holding call by Russell Okung brought it back. A few plays later, Thomas fumbled and that effectively ended the game. It would have been really interesting to see what would have happened if Anderson's TD counted.

7) The Broncos did have some great special teams plays to give them a shot. They perfectly executed a pooch kick on the free kick following the safety that made it 21-3 in the 4th quarter. By kicking it short, the Chargers had to have a lineman try to catch it, but it was bobbled and the Broncos recovered. The Broncos also converted an onside kick late to give them a chance at 21-13. At least the Broncos can take that positive from the game.

7) At 4-2 the sky is not falling, but there are a lot of concerns. This was a game that had a lot of built-in excuses if they lost. It was a short week against a team that was due for a big win, and Gary Kubiak was not coaching this week. With that said, this is the team that I thought the Broncos would be before the year. I think their 4-0 start had a bit of a mirage to it. I know every NFL season has ups and downs, and it can change week-to-week, but this feels a little different. The Broncos now have 11 days off to come back and get ready for a home game on Monday night October 24th against the Texans in the "Brock Osweiler" Bowl. There is a lot of time to try to fix what they can, and get a much-needed win over Houston next week.