The Denver Broncos ground out a narrow 10-7 win over the Las Vegas Raiders to maintain the best record in the NFL.
In a tight game, just three points scored in the whole second half but they were vital as Wil Lutz scored a 32-yard field goal to send the Broncos to an 8-2 record.
They had more penalties than first downs in a stop-start game at Mile High Stadium but are top of the AFC West after a seventh straight win.
Coach Sean Payton said his team can refine their style as they look to keep on winning games.
“We’ve got to clean up some of the penalties. We’ve got to clean up the execution and that is an ongoing thing that probably never ends,” he said.
New tight end Evan Engram has stepped up big and new running back JK Dobbins is a guy they believe in. He’s currently fifth in the NFL for rushing yards (402) and tied-fourth for rushing touchdowns (four).
That shows how the Broncos are a team that wants to run first, because you can do a lot off the back of that. It slows down the pass rush and keeps you in favourable down and distances.
It’s also helped quarterback Bo Nix, who came into the league as the 12th overall draft pick last year, throwing 29 touchdown passes – second only to Justin Herbert for the rookie record (31 in 2020).
Josh Allen and Herbert have the arm strength to throw anywhere, but they don’t move in the same way as Nix. He has incredible arm talent, which is different, and he is so athletic.
His strengths are his mobility, being able to throw on the run, and finding different arm angles to make the pass when he rolls out of the pocket, the bootlegs. He can throw that layered pass across the middle or over the corner.
For a young quarterback, at 25, he’s got a lot of poise in the pocket and isn’t really fazed by the blitz. He tries to avoid a sack as much as possible and is able to throw under pressure. He has a high football IQ and is very decisive.
When you constantly run the ball it eats up the clock and forces the defence to be on the field for longer, and when you’ve got an athletic quarterback the defence has to cover the field vertically and horizontally. It can be exhausting.
Nix has bitten back at Payton on the sideline sometimes and I think the coach likes that attitude, that he’s such a competitor. I think it’s fun for him to have a young quarterback who’s kind of like play-dough. He can really build something up the way he wants to build it. I think it’s a special experience for him.
Payton has won a Super Bowl and now passed Bill Parcells for career NFL wins (173 – tied 14th overall). He’s seen it all. I think the success Denver are having on offence is mostly down to his leadership, his play-calling, his situational awareness – and the combination with Nix helps make him what he is.
You wouldn’t want a better guy in your ear, to help you through some of the tougher situations and build confidence.
I believe in Denver’s defence, in Bo Nix’s tenacity and composure. But are they good enough to go against an elite team at its best? Because that was not a Super Bowl performance by the Eagles last Sunday.
Right now, I don’t think the Broncos are incredible. They’re working above average, which is a good place to be in their division. All they need to do is maintain this trajectory.
They’re really good at leaning into their strength, which is running the ball, and that’s exactly what they should do against the New York Jets at Tottenham. It’s going to be the JK Dobbins show, essentially.
The Jets have allowed 140 rushing yards per game (sixth worst in the league), five rushing touchdowns this season (10th worst), and they’re the only team yet to win a game.
Since the NFL began tracking turnovers in 1933, the Jets are also the first team to be without a single takeaway through five games, which is kind of shocking when you think that their new coach Aaron Glenn was defensive co-ordinator at the Detroit Lions.
They dispatched of the Denver Broncos on Sunday, after beating the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders in the previous two weeks.
If you’re keeping a scorecard, those are wins over Andy Reid, Pete Carroll and now Sean Payton, all Super Bowl winners, in a historic start for Jim Harbaugh, who is quick to remind people not to “put me on that dance floor” because he has yet to win a ring.
But Sunday’s 23-20 triumph might have been the most impressive considering the Chargers were flat as day-old soda for a considerable stretch yet still found a way to come back and win.
“It’s a signature win,” said Harbaugh, whose 3-0 start matches the club’s best since 2002.
His team’s first home game of the season, when the SoFi Stadium stands were mostly orange, had the Chargers taking a 10-0 lead before surrendering 17 unanswered points that left them chasing the entire second half.
The game-tying touchdown was a beauty, a sidearmed, cross-body, 20-yard sling by Justin Herbert to ageless receiver Keenan Allen, who was blanketed in the end zone yet still came up with the catch.
“I was lower than he was,” Allen said of cornerback Riley Moss. “I put my hands out there and the ball just kind of stuck.”
Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen, right, celebrates with tight end Oronde Gadsden II after catching a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter Sunday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Everyone in the stadium watched in amazement. Everyone, that is, but Herbert. He was on the ground, so he didn’t see the touchdown but heard it.
“I’m sure it was an incredible catch by Keenan,” said the quarterback, who planned to watch the replays when he got home Sunday evening. “The defender wasn’t looking. That’s advantage Keenan.”
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Sam Farmer breaks down what has gone right for the Chargers over the course of their 3-0 start to the season.
That play locked the score at 20-20, but it was the ultra-accurate Cameron Dicker who broke that tie a couple minutes later with a 43-yard field goal as the clock expired. It was the eighth winning kick of his career and extinguished a remarkable effort by the Broncos, who sacked Herbert five times and pulled off the most creative touchdown in Payton’s two-season tenure with the team.
The play in question came with 46 seconds left in the first half with Denver trailing, 10-0, and facing a fourth-and-two at their 48.
Denver gave every indication it planned to run, and the Chargers called timeout to prepare their defense. When the Broncos emerged from the timeout, they loaded up the right side of their line with both starting tackles and a tight end between them. The ball was definitely going to that side.
Quarterback Bo Nix rolled right then surprised everyone by throwing left to a wide-open Courtland Sutton who essentially was ignored by defenders and raced untouched 52 yards for a score. It was the longest Broncos touchdown pass on fourth down since 1978 and a testament to the play-drawing artistry of Payton.
“He’s a master at scheming it up,” said Chargers safety Tony Jefferson, in his 11th season. “Ever since I got into the league, I’ve played the Saints so much [Payton’s former team] and you’ve always got to be on your P’s and Q’s with them.”
The Chargers had to watch their P’s and Q’s, and their old J.K. — running back J.K. Dobbins, who played for them last season and Sunday made them pay. He caught a screen pass for the Broncos at the beginning of the second half and turned it upfield for a 19-yard touchdown. He dashed down the sideline as if sprinting on a tightrope before diving across the goal line to give Denver its first lead of the day.
Cameron Dicker kicks the winning field goal as time expires in the Chargers’ 23-20 win over the Broncos on Sunday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Payton lamented his team’s slow start and the 10 penalties, compared to three for the Chargers.
“Tomorrow’s an important day,” he told reporters afterward. “Tomorrow’s more important than the game we just played. Because we’re in this accelerated … we’ve got to get better fast. And if we do, I think this will be all right.”
Whereas Dobbins led all rushers with 83 yards, the Chargers are still looking to get their ground attack rolling. That just got a lot tougher as the team lost veteran running back Najee Harris to an ankle injury in the second quarter. He had to be helped off the field, and the replays were cover-your-eyes cringeworthy, although the severity of his injury was not disclosed.
That piles even more of the running burden onto the shoulders of rookie first-round pick Omarion Hampton, who ran for 70 yards in 19 carries including his first NFL touchdown, from three yards out.
The Chargers, who had to reshuffle their offensive line with the loss of left tackle Rashawn Slater before the season, had to do so again Sunday when right guard Mekhi Becton sustained a concussion.
Those are the realities of the game, though, just as the Chargers already had to adjust to losing edge rusher Khalil Mack (shoulder) as well as defensive backs Elijah Molden (hamstring) and Cam Hart (hip).
Chargers linebacker Troy Dye (43) tackles Broncos wide receiver Troy Franklin in the third quarter Sunday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“That’s the unfortunate part of the NFL,” Herbert said. “You’re going to have to deal with adversity.”
Against the Broncos, the Chargers dealt with it and wound up on top. That makes this victory particularly impactful, a touchstone that Harbaugh and others can point to in future high-pressure situations.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this does a lot for morale, and that was already high,” said Harbaugh, adding his team has “gravel in our gut.”
With that in mind, they have sent an unambiguous message to their three division foes: kick rocks.
There’s no guarantee the Chargers will pass through the gate of golden opportunity, but this 2-0 team has sawed the lock off the latch.
With Sunday’s home opener against Denver, the Chargers have the chance to go 3-0 in the AFC West with a week to go in September. That’s unheard of. The last time this franchise opened the season with three consecutive division games was 1988, and those Chargers stumbled to a 1-2 start.
These Chargers could be 3-0 for the first time since 2002 and are heading into a softer part of their schedule.
But how did it happen? Why did the NFL set up the Chargers schedule to go Chiefs, Raiders, Broncos when that kind of rollout is so rare?
Let’s rewind the tape.
Why did the Kansas City game wind up in Brazil?
The league had the Chargers hosting a game in São Paulo, and because of the distance, it only made sense to make it an opener. (Just as the Rams will open next season in Australia.) The team can “protect” two home games and the league won’t touch those, so the Chargers chose Washington and Minnesota. Pittsburgh couldn’t go to Brazil, because the Steelers already have an international game in Dublin, and it couldn’t be Philadelphia, either, because the Eagles opened in Brazil last season.
The NFL wanted to follow up that Packers-Eagles matchup with something similarly spectacular, so they needed the biggest opponent to pair with the Chargers, especially with this being the first YouTube game. No one has more sizzle these days than Kansas City.
From the Chargers standpoint, they got the Chiefs on a neutral field — SoFi Stadium is pretty much a neutral field anyway — and they were making their biggest division rival fly 12-plus hours to and from. Not an ideal way for anyone to start the season.
Jim Harbaugh’s team played a tremendous game, beating the Chiefs for the first time since 2021 and putting a spotlight on quarterback Justin Herbert, who was phenomenal. Not only that, but they handed Kansas City an unimaginably long flight home to prepare for a Super Bowl rematch with Philadelphia, which they lost.
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert fist bumps coach Jim Harbaugh before a win over the Raiders on Sept. 15.
(Ian Maule / Getty Images)
Objective 1: Check.
The NFL would rather not have a team make a long flight back from an international game only the hit the road again the following week, but that’s what the Chargers had to do. There was a Chris Brown concert at SoFi Stadium on the Sunday of Week 2, so it worked out better to have the Chargers back on the road.
The fairest solution was to give the Chargers their shortest road trip, to Las Vegas, plus give them an extra day to prepare by making it the second half of a Monday night doubleheader. Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders, was in use that weekend for the Terence Crawford-Canelo Álvarez fight.
Again, Harbaugh had his team prepared and the Chargers assembled a defensive masterpiece against the Raiders, breaking up 15 passes and putting Geno Smith under near-constant pressure.
Objective 2: Check.
Now comes Denver, a club a lot of people see as one of the league’s surprise teams. There’s an interesting connection between Harbaugh and Broncos coach Sean Payton, and not just that they were born six days apart. Harbaugh, a star quarterback at Michigan, was a first-round pick of the Chicago Bears in 1987, a year when NFL players went on strike. Chicago’s replacement team was nicknamed the “Spare Bears” and Payton was the quarterback of that fill-in squad.
It was more random that the Broncos wound up being the opponent in Week 3, except that the league wanted to put the Chargers’ games against Minnesota, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in prime time. So that limited the choices.
Nobody at The Bolt is complaining now. What looked to be a treacherous start could be a turbo boost for a franchise heading into a stretch that includes the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans, who are combined 0-6. Anything can happen and fortunes of franchises can flip in an instant — oft-struggling Indianapolis is 2-0, for instance, and has yet to punt once — so looking too far in the future is foolish. But that’s what networks have to do, and there’s a lot of buzz right now that the Chargers are going to be a team to watch as we get deeper into the season.
That fits Harbaugh’s profile, too, because his teams have a history of improving in his second season.
With the new Nielsen methodology, which takes a far more comprehensive sampling of what Americans are watching, it’s increasingly important for the NFL to do well in big markets. The league has to be delighted, then, that both the Chargers and 2-0 Rams are playing so well. The only other season when both franchises were 2-0 at the same time was 2001, when the St. Louis Rams made it to the Super Bowl before losing to a young quarterback named Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Both the Rams and Chargers have outstanding quarterbacks, and interestingly, Matthew Stafford went 12 seasons in Detroit before finally winning a playoff game, in his first season with the Rams. Herbert, in his sixth season, has yet to win a playoff game.
Both teams have top-notch defenses.
It’s absurdly early to make end-of-season predictions but this much is set: SoFi Stadium will play host to its second Super Bowl next season.
Is a colossal turf war in the cards?
With that in mind, maybe the Chargers and Rams are peaking too early. They certainly hope so.
A couple of former University of Oregon quarterbacks square off Sunday in a pivotal AFC West matchup. It’s Justin Herbert of the Chargers and Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos, both backed by talented defenses.
The Chargers are making their season debut at SoFi Stadium, and they already have two big pelts to hang on the wall. They’ve beaten Kansas City and Las Vegas, and against Denver are looking to sweep their first half of AFC West games. Last season, in the debut of Jim Harbaugh and Sean Payton with their respective teams, the Chargers swept the Broncos.
“Obviously, his success speaks for itself both at the NFL level and college level,” Payton told reporters this week of Harbaugh. “I was excited that he got a job in our league, but not so much in our division.”
How the Chargers can win: Get another strong performance from Herbert. Spread the ball around to exploit soft spots in Denver’s secondary. Put the clamps on a Broncos ground game and in particular former Chargers running back J.K. Dobbins. So far, the Chargers rank eighth in run defense.
How the Broncos can win: Win on early downs so they can avoid third-and-five (or longer) situations. Establish the run to set up the play-action passing game. Finish stronger — Denver has tended to fade late in games. Make the Chargers one-dimensional; they’ve had a hard time establishing the run.
