{"id":1383434,"date":"2018-12-30T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T05:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/chargers-beat-broncos-23-9-despite-feeble-offense\/"},"modified":"2018-12-30T22:52:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T05:52:00","slug":"chargers-beat-broncos-23-9-despite-feeble-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/chargers-beat-broncos-23-9-despite-feeble-offense\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers beat Broncos 23-9 despite feeble offense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DENVER \u2014 Philip Rivers doesn’t care that the Chargers must hit the road on wild-card weekend despite winning a dozen games, including a 23-9 nail-biter in Denver on Sunday in which he completed just 14 passes. <\/p>\n

Nor does he mind facing the Baltimore Ravens, who thumped the Chargers 22-10 last weekend in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

The Chargers have won six straight on the road and went 7-1 away from home with their only road loss coming literally up the road to the Rams back in September. <\/p>\n

For their first playoff appearance in five years, the Chargers will face a rejuvenated Ravens team that’s won six of seven under rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson and features the league’s No. 1 defense. <\/p>\n

“It’s a heck of a challenge,” Rivers said. “I don’t think there was a team that wasn’t going to be a heck of a challenge. … They’re all good. That team outplayed us last week and it will be a new game, new everything. We’ll see who can play the best this time.” <\/p>\n

Were it not for a last-second loss to the Broncos at home in November, the Chargers would have supplanted the Chiefs as the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and earned a first-round bye. <\/p>\n

So, it turns out the Broncos (6-10) were the spoilers even though they lost again Sunday. That’s of no consolation to a franchise careening into another offseason of uncertainty after posting double-digit losses in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1966-67, an ignominy that could cost second-year coach Vance Joseph his job . <\/p>\n

“I want to come back and make this thing right,” said Joseph, who’s expected to meet with general manager John Elway on Monday morning to learn if he’ll get that opportunity. <\/p>\n

Joseph acknowledged an 11-21 record isn’t good enough by the Broncos’ standards, “but I think we’ve put a lot of work in. There’s a foundation that’s been laid here that should pay off in the future.” <\/p>\n

That bedrock, said defensive end Derek Wolfe, is a never-quit attitude that was on display again Sunday. <\/p>\n

“V.J., he’s one of my favorite people on this planet. I love that guy with all my heart and I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” Wolfe said, adding that he’d hate to see the Broncos go in search of their fourth coach in six seasons. <\/p>\n

Rivers was just 14 of 24 for 176 yards and a touchdown and he threw two interceptions in the first quarter, something that’s happened just twice before in Rivers’ 15-year NFL career. <\/p>\n

“It’s not as good as we want to play, but again, I don’t see any pattern,” Rivers said of the offensive struggles in back-to-back games. “I really don’t buy into patterns or momentums in the games. It hasn’t been as good. I think you look at our collective body of work this year and it’s been good enough to win 12 games.” <\/p>\n

And the Broncos were bad enough to lose 10. <\/p>\n

They were done in mostly by their feeble offense that punted on its first drive for the ninth straight game and which managed a mere two touchdowns in its last 34 first-half drives, endangering offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave no matter who’s coaching the team in 2019. <\/p>\n

Denver’s offense accounted for just nine points \u2014 six on fullback Andy Janovich’s first career touchdown and a chip-shot field goal by Brandon McManus. <\/p>\n

Denver’s offense also accounted for nine points by the Chargers. <\/p>\n

After Janovich’s first career TD pulled Denver to 14-9 with 10 minutes remaining, cornerback Casey Hayward Jr. stepped in front of rookie receiver Courtland Sutton and picked off the 2-point conversion attempt. He slipped Suttons’ tackle at the goal line and raced 102 yards to give the Chargers a 16-9 lead. <\/p>\n

Then, Rivers had his only sustained drive, capped by Austin Ekeler’s 1-yard TD run . <\/p>\n

Rivers’ only TD throw was a 3-yard toss to Mike Williams that made it 14-3 came after Joey Bosa’s fumble recovery at the Denver 16. <\/p>\n

The Chargers took a 7-3 halftime lead thanks to a defensive touchdown . <\/p>\n

Keenum hit Royce Freeman with a low screen that he didn’t secure. A hard hit by cornerback Desmond King II to a prone Freeman popped the ball loose, and linebacker Kyle Emmanuel scooped it up and ran 11 yards for a 7-0 lead the Chargers would never relinquish. <\/p>\n

\n

ALL FOR NAUGHT <\/p>\n

Rivers was intercepted twice in the first quarter for just the third time in his 15-year career. However, the Broncos failed to convert interceptions by rookie Isaac Yiadom and Will Parks into points. <\/p>\n

\n

INJURIES<\/p>\n

Chargers: LB Jatavis Brown injured his right ankle tackling Freeman on the final play of the first quarter. <\/p>\n

Broncos: RT Jared Veldheer (ribs), C Connor McGovern (ankle) and S Darian Stewart (shoulder) all went out in the second half. <\/p>\n

\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Chargers: Head to Baltimore for wild-card weekend. <\/p>\n

Broncos: Embark on another offseason of change with big questions yet again at coach and QB. <\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014 <\/p>\n

More AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/tag\/NFL<\/a> and https:\/\/twitter.com\/AP\u2014NFL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014 <\/p>\n

Follow Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http:\/\/twitter.com\/arniestapleton<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 Philip Rivers doesn’t care that the Chargers must hit the road on wild-card weekend despite winning a dozen games, including a 23-9 nail-biter in Denver on Sunday in which he completed just 14 passes. Nor does he mind facing the Baltimore Ravens, who thumped the Chargers 22-10 last weekend in Los Angeles. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 20:31:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}