It sure feels good to be talking about a victory. After a month of talking about losing (and even more if you want to include the end of last year), fans in the Mile High City can finally talk about winning.
The Denver Broncos put together a complete effort on Sunday as they went into Dignity Health Sports Park and handed the Los Angeles Chargers a 20-13 defeat.
The Broncos got out to a 17-0 lead at halftime before holding on for the victory.
This season, there have been many more losers from the Broncos’ games than there have been winners. Things are a little different this week.
Winner: Phillip Lindsay
Lindsay just continues to put this team on his back and run with it. He ran for 114 yards on Sunday, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. He also scored a touchdown on the day.
The Broncos need to continue to ride Lindsay. If anything, they try to get Royce Freeman too involved. Freeman ran for just 61 yards on nearly as many carries and averaged three fewer yards per attempt.
Winner: Courtland Sutton
Sutton has come to play in every game so far this season and he is slowly evolving into a major offensive threat.
He finished with 92 yards receiving on four receptions in this game and one of those receptions was the biggest play of the game, a 70-yard touchdown in the first quarter that put the Broncos up 14-0.
Loser: Isaac Yiadom
The moment De’Vante Bausby went down in this game, the Chargers decided to target whoever Yiadom was covering as often as possible. Yiadom has had worse games, but he’s just not that good, simple as that.
Is he as bad as Brendan Langley, another cornerback the team took in the third round once upon a time? Probably.
He also had two defensive holding calls go against him in this game.
Loser: Adam Gotsis
Gotsis was a healthy scratch for this game, placed on the inactive list in favor of Mike Purcell. Vic Fangio is high on Purcell having spent time with him when both were with the San Francisco 49ers.
Purcell was solid in this game and may have taken Gotsis’ job for the foreseeable future.
Winner: Kareem Jackson
Jackson was fantastic in this game and was the defensive leader. He led the team with 10 tackles in the game, but his play against Austin Ekeler just before halftime was massive.
With Ekeler looking to turn the corner on a 4th-and-goal attempt, it looked like he was going to get there but Jackson put forth supreme effort and knocked the ball loose, forcing a fumble out of the end zone.
This was a critical play in the grand scheme of things.
Winner: Justin Simmons
The Broncos came into this game having not forced a single turnover through the first four games of the season. Simmons changed that with his first-quarter interception of Philip Rivers.
Winner: A.J. Johnson
How nice was it to see Johnson play so well?
The inside linebacker position has been knocked all season for this team (with good reason), but Johnson stepped up in a big way on Sunday. He made nine tackles (one for a loss of yardage) and had a huge interception of Rivers in the third quarter.
The Broncos gave the Chargers a short field after a blunder of their own. Chargers linebacker Kyzir White picked off a pass from Joe Flacco that was tipped by a defensive lineman, setting the Chargers up at the Denver 7-yard line.
Three plays later, facing a 3rd-and-goal from the 2-yard line, Rivers tried to flick one to Mike Williams in the end zone but Johnson picked it off.
Later in the fourth quarter, he should have had another one. Rivers made a mistake trying to get the ball to Williams again with just under four minutes to play and Johnson made a great play on the ball, he just dropped it.
Winner: The Denver fans
Broncos fans are awesome.
It’s not unusual to see many of the opposing team’s fans in the Chargers’ stands, but there was a ton of orange in the crowd on Sunday. That would normally not be a big story, but for the crowd to travel to L.A. and cheer on their winless team, even distracting the Chargers’ offense with loud chants of “defense” was truly remarkable.
The fans deserve a game ball.
