Chargers hang on to defeat slow-starting Broncos, 23-16

DENVER — Maybe the Broncos should change up their home-cooking diet.

Maybe there’s some lumps in their own beds.

Whatever the reason, the Broncos have started slow in all three home games this season. And this time they didn’t have Pat Surtain II to wake them up.

The Broncos were getting whipped for three quarters by the AFC West rival Los Angeles Chargers before rookie quarterback Bo Nix got going in the fourth quarter. It was a bit too late as the Chargers hung on to defeat the Broncos, 23-16 on an otherwise perfect (68 degrees, sunny) mid-October, Sunday afternoon at Empower Field at Mile High.

The Chargers are now 3-2 while the Broncos had their three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 3-3.

It was 23-0 through three quarters until Nix got hot, as he often does after slow starts, in the fourth.

“I don’t know but we’ll figure it out this week in practice,” said Broncos’ outside linebacker Nik Bonitto, who got a sack in his fourth straight game. “I know the coach is going to make an emphasis, if not the players. But yeah that’s three straight games we came out very slow. We’ve got to get it fixed. We’ve got to use this altitude, we’ve got to use the fan base. We’re not doing that right now.”’

So far this season, the Broncos begin home games as if they thought kickoff was at 3:05 p.m. In their first home game against Pittsburgh last month, the Broncos fell behind 13-0 and lost 13-6.

In their second home game, they fell behind the Las Vegas Raiders, 10-0 and were about to go down, 17-3 when Surtain came up with 100-yard pick six off first-and-goal that was a 14-point swing. The Broncos went on to beat the Raiders, 34-18, but against the Chargers, Surtain suffered a concussion on the first defensive play of the game.

And with the Broncos playing in four days at New Orleans on Thursday night, there does not figure to be enough time for Surtain to clear the concussion protocol for the game against the Saints.

The Broncos were especially sluggish early Sunday against the Chargers. 

Through the third quarter, the Broncos were outgained, 324 yards to 88. The Chargers had 20 first downs to just five for the Broncos. The time of possession late in the third quarter was roughly 30 minutes for the Chargers to 12 minutes for the Broncos.

There was a stark contrast in quarterback play entering the fourth quarter.

The Chargers’ Justin Herbert was 21 of 33 for 184 yards with a touchdown and a 95.1 passer rating at intermission.

Nix was 4 of 14 for 27 yards with an interception and a 9.8 rating.

Aren’t the Broncos supposed to have a HUGE advantage by training, and then playing at 5,280 feet of altitude? Chargers’ head coach Jim Harbaugh fell ill early in the first quarter and had to go to the locker room. He returned in the second quarter.

“Stuff like that we have to use to our advantage,” Bonitto said. “Right now we’re getting whupped in the first half. We’ve got to come out better.”

Why the slow starts?

“That’s a great question and if I had a good answer for you we’d be better in that situation,” said Broncos’ left guard Ben Powers. “I really don’t know.”

Does he feel the team is ready to play?

Are the Broncos well-prepared?

Pyched up, ready to go?

Confident?

“Yep. Everything. I’m seeing the same thing you are. I don’t know what it is,” Powers said.

 Say this for Nix and the Broncos: They don’t quit. Despite their slow start habit, they always make a game of it, at least, and pull their fair share out at most.

“It’s a great building step,” Power said. “Having an identity of being a second-half team is never a bad thing because that’s when you win a lot of games.”

The Broncos outscored the Chargers, 16-0 in the fourth quarter. On fourth and 2 from the Chargers’ 39, Nix scrambled forward and as he approached the line of scrimmage, pushed the ball to rookie receiver Devaughn Vele, who was running a slant. Vele took off for 37 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 2.

Nix then hit another rookie receiver, Troy Franklin, crossing in the back of the end zone from left to right for a touchdown.

After getting the ball back, Nix connected with top receiver Courtland Sutton on their patented 20-yard dig route, then Vele again for 17. On fourth and 5 from the 21, Nix scrambled for 6, then hit Sutton in the back of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown play. Sutton made one of his trademark highlight-film snags in the back of the end zone.

Suddenly, 23-0 was 23-13.

‘No speeches,” Bonitto said. “We just have a sense of urgency in the second half.”

The Broncos didn’t get the 2-point conversion after their second touchdown as an end around to Marvin Mims Jr. was stopped short.

But Nix was not done. The Chargers’ punted down to the Broncos’ 4 with 2:26 left and Denver had no timeouts remaining. Nix moved the Broncos to the Chargers’ 22 where on first down, Payton called on Wil Lutz to make a 40-yard field goal.

Good. It was a one-score game, 23-16 with 59 seconds left. But Lutz’s onside kick traveled out of bounds before Tremon Smith could track it down and that was the game.

“Let’s be honest, it picked up when we started going uptempo,” Payton said. “And when you’re behind you’re getting different coverage looks. We played with tempo early in the first half, we had a false start. We played with tempo in the second quarter, we fumbled the football. Those were all tempo plays.

“But I think in the fourth quarter fortunately we were able to make some plays down the field. But I think the game is in a different position at that point. But. We fought to get back in it.”

Nix, remember, is coming off five years of college where offenses rarely huddle up or take the ball from under center. It’s not that he can’t play under center or at a slower pace. It’s just that there’s a different flow and rhythm to the pro game that takes some getting used to.

Through six games, Nix has proven to play well in the 2-minute, hurry-up offense when there seems to be chaos. Is it possible to run up tempo, when it’s 0-0?

“Yeah, in fact we have,” Payton said.

“We have incredible coaches who continue to put us in a good position,” Nix said. “Whatever they want to do is what I’m going to do.It’s my job to go out there and make the play work, and the play happen. If it’s not there coach Payton trusts me to check it down and move on to the next play. I don’t really care what the play is, we just have to go out there and execute it.”

Nix finished 19 of 33 for 216 yards with two touchdowns along with the pick for an 84.9 passer rating. Nix also had six unscripted rushing attempts for 61 yards. Herbert threw one pass in the fourth quarter — an incompletion.

Nix also had a 46-yard strike down the middle to Sutton with 26 seconds left in the first half, but the big play was called back on a Quinn Meinerz holding penalty.

To begin the game, two Javonte Williams’ runs created nothing more than third and 8. Nix overthrew Mims on a deep middle route. Mims reached up to get a fingertip on the ball, which deflected it to Chargers’ safety Elijah Molden, who returned it 25 yards to field goal range.

The Chargers moved to first and goal at the 5 but an offensive pass interference call pushed them back and they had to settle for a rare 20-yard field goal by Cameron Dicker.

While the Broncos’ offense was going interception, punt, punt on their three, first quarter possessions, Herbert finished off his second possession with a perfectly thrown wheel route to running back Kimani Vidal, who outraced Broncos linebacker Cody Barton to the end zone for a 38-yard touchdown. It was 10-0 Chargers.

A lost fumble by Broncos’ running back Javonte Williams, who was held up and had the ball yanked away, set up the Chargers’ final touchdown before the half. J.K. Dobbins finished the 11-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run in which he broke two Denver tackle attempts to make it, 20-0.

“We try to look at all that stuff,” Payton said of his team’s slow starts at 5,280 feet. “A lot of it is opponent driven. But you’re going to fall behind if you turn it over. We’ll pay close attention to it.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Zach Allen, the Broncos’ standout defensive end said of both his team’s slow starts at home, but also it’s determination to not quit when all seems lost. “It’s a special group. We’ve got a lot of guys who pride themselves on that. We’ll be fine. Think about where we were at this point last year. The sky’s not falling.”

The Broncos were 1-5 after week 6 last year, then reeled off five straight wins. Next up is a game Thursday at New Orleans.

“Guys are excited,” Nix said of the stand-alone game against the Saints. “If we could practice tonight we would.”

Might help them get a jump on disrupting a disturbing trend. 

Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh left the sidelines and into the visiting locker room in the first quarter because of illness. He returned to his coaching sideline position in the second quarter. …

Vele led the Broncos with four catches for 78 yards. …

Nik Bonitto had a sack for a fourth straight game. Justin Strnad also had a sack.

The Broncos gave uniforms – an odd mix of orange tops and blue bottoms — to rookie running back Audric Estime, who was fresh off injured reserve with an ankle issue. They also played tight end Lucas Krull ahead of Greg Dulcich, who was inactive for a second consecutive week. And defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike dressed for his first game since 2022 as he was suspended all last season for gambling violations and was inactive through the first five games.