Chargers become first team to lose to Broncos in 2019
By Travis Wakeman
The Los Angeles Chargers faced a winless team on Sunday and that winless team left with its first victory of the season.
The Denver Broncos jumped out to a 17-0 lead against the Chargers and held on for a 20-13 victory in a game in which the Chargers just never seemed to get off the starting blocks.
The Broncos jumped out early in this game, scoring two first-quarter touchdowns. The offense looked better than it had all season in that quarter as Phillip Lindsay had a 4-yard touchdown run and Joe Flacco then threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton.
The Chargers seemed shocked but fought back as best they could. They just didn’t have enough offense.
Melvin Gordon ran for just 31 yards on 12 carries and Keenan Allen was held to just four catches for 18 yards. Philip Rivers, who has had some of the worst games of his career against the Broncos, passed for only 211 yards while throwing two interceptions. One of those came in the end zone directly after the Chargers got a big turnover.
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The Broncos had yet to win a game but it was clear they were better than an 0-4 team after watching how they had lost some of their games. The Chargers didn’t seem to overlook them, they just came out flat.
Does the team just have too many injuries? Is the offensive line play just not going to cut it? There could be several things to pin this loss on, but the Chargers won’t have long to dwell on it as they will have to get ready for the Pittsburgh Steelers next Sunday night. That will be a battle of two teams that aren’t quite having the kind of seasons many expected them to.
On a bright note, Austin Ekeler caught 15 passes in the game to tie a franchise record set by Kellen Winslow back in 1984 and matched by Allen in 2015.