15:00: The Broncos have a first-and-10 at the San Diego 49-yard line when play resumes.
Jay Cutler is in the shotgun with Tatum Bell to his right. He tries to find Eddie Royal downfield after avoiding pressure, but he skips it just short of the rookie. That brings up second-and-10. The offense breaks its huddle and jogs up to the line — there are four receivers out wide. Cutler drops back and avoids pressure from all angles — very impressive pocket presence — and finds Darrell Jackson for a 13-yard gain near the left sideline for a first down.
On the ensuring play, Cutler gets it to Brandon Marshall, who falls backwards for what looks like another first down.
13:42: In fact it’s second-and-1 for the Broncos after Marshall’s nine-yard gain. Cutler takes the snap in the shotgun and pitches it quickly to Tatum Bell, who runs forward for four yards and the first down.
On first down, Cutler avoids pressure once again, rolls out to his right and throws a bullet toward Tony Scheffler in the end zone, who was locked up with a defensive back. At the last second he leaps high in the air to haul in the touchdown pass.
The Broncos are going for two. Cutler is in the shotgun and takes off toward the end zone. He gets in on his own with a run up the middle. It looked like the same formation from the first time Denver ran a two-point conversion against the Chargers 15 weeks ago.
Now the Broncos trail the Chargers 38-21.
12:53: Darren Sproles takes the Matt Prater kick to the 34-yard line before being brought down by Karl Paymah and a group of Broncos. That’s where the Chargers offense will take over after a TV timeout.
Sproles takes the handoff on first down and gains three yards before being taken down by Marcus Thomas and Ebenezer Ekuban.
12:05: Rivers gets the play call from the sideline before setting up the offense, dropping back and rolling to his right. He decides to take off and is chased out of bounds by Jamie Winborn after a gain of three.
Third-and-4 for the Chargers at their own 40. Rivers is in the shotgun. He fires a pass downfield and finds Chris Chambers past the first down marker for a gain of 18.
10:50: The Chargers are in Denver territory as Rivers takes the snap and hands off to Sproles. He picks up three yards on the carry.
Second-and-7 for San Diego at the Denver 39. The offense breaks its huddle and two receivers are out right. Vincent Jackson goes in motion and it’s a hand off to Sproles. He picks up 37 yards down the sideline before being pushed out of bounds by Wesley Woodyard at the two-yard line.
On the ensuing first down, Sproles takes it the final two yards for the touchdown. Nate Kaeding knocks the extra point through and the Chargers lead 45-21.
9:40: Chad Jackson takes the kickoff from the two-yard line and brings it out to the 22-yard line, where the offense will take over after a TV timeout.
Cutler is in the shotgun when play resumes, and he takes the snap and fires to Royal. The rookie fights his way forward for a first down, and the offense huddles up after the 11-yard gain.
9:00: Cutler takes teh snap and fires down field for Marshall, who had his defender beat, but the ball falls incomplete — flag on the play, however. Two flags on the play — illegal contact on the defense and pass interference on the defense. The illegal contact is declined and the Broncos move to the San Diego 35 on the pass interference call.
8:55: Cutler’s pass is complete to Royal on second down — it’s a gain of five yards, setting up third-and-5 at the San Diego 30.
Cutler is in the shotgun with four receivers out wide and Tatum Bell to his right. He takes the snap, drops back and fires to Tony Scheffler — but he’s drilled just outside the 10-yard line and the ball falls to the ground.
That brings up fourth-and-5 for the Orange and Blue. Cutler buys time and finds Marshall behind the defense after running a great route — but he stumbles as he reaches the back of the end zone and the ball flies just over his head. Turnover on downs.
7:45: Sproles picks up another first down on the first play for the Chargers offense. On the ensuing play, it’s Sproles again — he picks up nine more yards. Second-and-1 for San Diego at its own 49. Rivers hands off to Hester, who picks up the first down before being brought down by a group of Broncos.
6:22: On first-and-10, Rivers hands off to Jacob Hester, who is pummelled by Marcus Thomas after a short gain — two yards to be exact.
5:38: On second down, Hester takes a carry up the middle but is taken down after a gain of two more. On third-and-6, Sproles picks up the first down.
4:05: The Chargers have a first-and-10 from the Denver 30. Hester takes the carry down to the 13-yard line. On the next play it’s Hester again, and he’s brought down by Jamie Winborn after a seven-yard gain.
2:19: It’s second-and-3 and Hester is tripped up for no gain. That brings us to the two-minute warning.
2:00: Hester picks up two yards on third down and sets up fourth-and-1. The San Diego offense stays on the field. Hester pushes his way forward for a touchdown and spikes the ball afterward. The extra point is good and the Chargers lead 52-21.
1:15: The Chargers boot the kick high and short and it’s fielded by John Engelberger. he takes it to the 33-yard line.
On first-and-10, Cutler takes the snap in shotgun formation and gets it to Royal for what looks like a first down.
It’s a nine-yard gain, and the team runsback up to the line. Royal gets the first down on the following play.
Now the offense is back at the line. Cutler is in the shotgun and takes the snap. He finds Royal again, who fights his way across the field for another first down.
As the clock ticks all the way down, Cutler finds Royal again down to the San Diego 32.
Time runs out and the Chargers and Broncos meet at midfield.
The Broncos and Chargers both end with an 8-8 record, but the Chargers win the AFC West title because they have a better record within the division.
The Chargers beat the Broncos in San Diego, 52-21.
-Gray Caldwell, DenverBroncos.com
Tags: Fourth Quarter, Gray Caldwell, Live Blog, Week 17
We lost….. wel at least uhhhh we tried this year?? Draft we need some defensive studs
I gotta say, I’m proud of the way Culter is holding himself up….Nice TD
What good is having defensive studs if they sit on the bench? Woodyard?
All you nay Shanahan people are nuts. He’s a genius. Only he could still be in a fight for the playoffs with all the injuries he’s had this year. Cutler is playing well. He’s had many dropped balls tonight and couple of bad throws. Yet, he’s still fighting it out. He’s all heart. What we need is a DEFENSE. Let me say it again DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. Every possesion for the oposition is points. We need a defensive coordinator. We need some Pass Rush. And most of all we need some cornerbacks and safties. With the exception of Champ, everone we have stinks. And Champ is not up to speed, but still playing his heart out. If we can get these things in the offseason, we will be a contender next year. The offense is good and will mature. We just need DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE.
oh gosh!! our D is losing morale..very horrible
Man I love the BRONCOS I know that we are losing by quite a bit but I absolutely love the BRONCOS and I’m glad that we aren’t ending the regular season without a fight.
it’s more than that, it has to be on shanny and slowik, yes we’ve had a lot of injuries, but our d played a lot better with our 2nd stringers in there on D than we have the past 3 games, we had that nice little run with the rookies in on D, why don’t we try to change things up, put larsen and woodyard back in, get our D going again, but no the coaches want to play the players that they’re paying lots of money to, it doesn’t make sense, our D began to slump again once we threw in the vets, i love DJ and he is great, but why not move him to winborn’s spot, paly woodyard and DJ’s side, and put in larsen at mlb, webster is our downfall
Cutler is all heart along with champ, next year bring in the d fence and we will rock the NFL you can take that to the bank.
If the coboys release Wade Phillips try to get him to come back as our Def coord Shanny Pleeeeeeease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wade Phillips sucks… He can’t even coach the Dallas defense who has more talented players than we do at this point. We need to draft some people and try to sign some players like Haynesworth or Asmougha because both would help us and help the offense which is in good shape. DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE
without a fight!!!!!We gave up last week against the bills
dnvabroncomaniac. Are you kidding? You call this a fight? Jesus, they laid down tonight. There was NO fight in this defense.
Is it o.k. to be a naysayer now? When can I say I told you so?
We need a defensive leader!!
It all got bad when Wilson left. And with Lynch gone even worse.
We need a MLB wo takes up blocks and makes plays to give our fast OLB´s room. Like Wilson did. Webster is so often too late.
Also we need a DT who takes on and sheds blocks. Safety are 2 other huge needs. And DE. Another Corner would be good too.
But spent all money in the offseason on defense and a kicker.
PS: Hold Marshall!!
Amen West Coast!!! Woodyard is a difference maker….period. And Sproles and the Chargers offenseive is exploiting everything that is wrong with the denver d…this is an embarrassment….
im thinking that we really need to draft: inside linebacker, strong safety, cornerback, defensive tackle
Move shanny to O-coordinator and get a defensive minded Head coach or at least a very good D-coordinator who brings his own guys in and plays them(woodyard).
In the draft everything than not to get Maualuga would be a shame.
I am A die hard Denver Fan but lets be all the way real, they got there asses handed to them again. I am so tired of this defense, they seem to think every time they do a good play they must talk trash or do something special. They must realize they need some nasty defenders, I like champ and D Will, I think they have some talent on the D line but players like webster have to go, het over pursue, miss to many tackles, and is not a good pass defender, I miss Al and mobley and gold thats was the good ol days. and Dre’ Bly, get torched, We need to draft nothing but defense.
Where are you 07Elway? What do we say now? Wait until next year? Isn’t that what we say every year since the Super Bowl years? Keep the faith and all that BS? Where did that get us? Where did that get the Denver Broncos? Faith doesn’t win football games…neither do weak-ass defensive schemes and slow, old players.
A very sad ending to a horribly inconsistent team…
As long as Mike Shanahan takes responsibility for this failure and gets to work on the defense, I want him back. There just aren’t many teams with an offense system like we have, and I don’t want to lose it.
God, what a crappy ending. Welcome to the offseason.
well finally this horrible season is over it will be interesting to see what happens in the offseason one thing for sure it can only get better cause is no way it could get worse unless we pick up some more detroit lions players.
See ya guys in OTA’s with a batch of healthy running backs, and hopefully a defence…
This was a very sad, very disappointing end to our season. I really have no words for how this game went and turned out. Definitely our worst game of the season… but we’ll have brighter days next season. I will always have faith in this team even at our worst like tonight. They had heart to keep trying and keep playing and not giving up but they have to do much more than just try especially in a game like this. With so much on the line we had to come out and fight and that just didn’t happen. I’ve seen much better but I’m not going to bash this team, even after this really bad performance we put on tonight… I’m better than that.
Last thing… I hope like crazy Indy picks apart the Chargers like what happened to us tonight. I’d much rather see Indy go on further in the playoffs than this Charger team that I absolutely hate with a passion.
Happy New Year to everyone!!
With my never-dying faith…
GO BRONCOS!!!!!
I meant tonight and what would you expect from our defense against the chrgers offense anyway did you actually think that they would stand a chance?
Anyway I love the BRONCOS too much to care about not making the playoffs this year and I know that next year our defense should and will be better. Tonights loss to the shargrs was no surprise to me and as much as I wanted us to win I knew this loss was nearly inevitable which is why I’m not going to take it so hard. At least we didn’t lose like the cowboys.
And another reason why I’m not so pissed off about tonight is that the paytreeiots won’t be going to the playoffs this year
teeoneuptoo – I never said having faith would win football games but as long as you have your pitiful negative attitude, just know that it’ll come back to haunt you till you get some backbone and have faith. Lash out at me all you want about my faith in this team but your give up attitude will never get you anywhere. You’re on the road to nowhere my friend. I feel sorry for you!
Oh and like your little comment up there wasn’t predictable if we lost.
As the most faithful fan…
GO BRONCOS!!!!
we need a saftey or MLB that can lead this defenser
well im actually really looking forward to next year, we have such a young team n they’ll learn how to win consistently. they just need to take this loss into their hearts and keep it in there and remember how bad this feels. cuz this is whats gonna give them their drive next year.
and yes we do need to make some changes on defense. i loved nate in the beginning of the year because of his intensity, but i hate to say it but hes not cutting it for us. we should draft laurenitis out of ohio st or something… or just plug in spencer larsen. theres alot of other issues, but we’ll get to that soon enough….
this team played much better without webster and dj. woodyard should have started.
they need two quality defenders in the off season free agency.
i personally would like some accoutability from the head coach. i would like our owner to come out and say that shanny doesn’t have free reign.
This team needs another good draft and now they have a better chance at getting it. Maualuga in the first round and safety, DE, DT and CB in the next rounds.
ok,,we’re all very disappointed this season…no need to rub in anyone’s face teeoneuptoo…like thats going to change the outcome…
we need a huge defensive overhaul in the offseason..
still love the Broncos but just cant be happy to watch football here on out until offseason..
Happy New years
i love the broncos
=]
matt prater makes me angry
champ bailey makes me happy
bmarsh needs to gorw up
eddie royal is oh so hot
and jay is a little to confident
so theres my thoughts haha
go broncos…next year bby =]
Well, at least it was a close game . . .
at least until the opening kick-off.
There are high school teams that could have done a better job tonight. And there are Pop Warner teams that realize that winning just ONE of the prior two games would have made this game meaningless.
Maybe some of our loud-mouthed, sunglass wearing superstars will get their heads out of their @$$ and stop giving interviews where they talk about their superior arm strength, predict 2,000 yards rushing in a season, stop comparing themselves to pro-bowl wide receivers and quit reading the years old press clippings about the “shut-down” corners and get back to their job of playing football.
I thought the beating at the hands of SD last year might have been a learning experience, but apparently there are some very dense and very slow learners on this squad.
Maybe two years in a row will be the trick.
the defense needs to man up next year and not let every team treat us like a door mat.
BroncoOlli24 what do you mean PS: Hold Marshall?
So disappointed with the way that this season ended but all I can do is look forward to next year and hopefully we can make the right moves to have more success.
Also, if the Broncos are looking for a defender who is about 5’9″ 155 pounds I am available because I am pretty sure that I could give more effort than some of the Broncos defenders did tonight.
Build this defense around the Bailey brothers, Dumervil, DJ and Woodyard and you will be fine.
Man I hate the “Dun Duh Duh Duh Chargers.”
Well that’s typical, I must say that our D needs some serious work. They just gave up there at the end and everyone saw it. I hope in the draft next year we pick up some good Defensive players or learn how to play good D. Offense can’t do it alone.
Either way it was still an exciting season.
Mile High Salute to THE BRONCOS!!!!! oo-rah
Oh yeah, what the H#!! was that Prater????
Isn´t he a free agent? I read it somewhere on the internet.
If not I´m very happy.
Is dumervil a FA?
This was disappointing to say the least. I know the defense needs to be revamped but the Broncos will be really good next season. Does everyone remember 1995 a.k.a Shanny’s first season? We were also 8-8 with a dynamic offense and an extremely porous defense. Things have not been good for several years now but they’ll get better if we make wise selections in the draft. Hopefully the Colts clip the Chargers so they’re just as miserable as we are. With a positive outlook, I bid a disappointing 08 good bye and look forward to 09.
07elway……Dude I enjoy you as a blog brother. Seriously its nice to read your posts. Its clear you love our Broncos. Shanny benched woodyard the last 3 games and guess what…..we lost all of them. Should have moved DJ to the mike position and kept woodyard on the field. That alone leads me to want him removed. Different season same result. Excuse after excuse is getting freakin old. Cowher please……..Take care my friends….West Coast
the first team to give up a 3-game division lead with 3 games left…
sums up our team, doesn’t it?
the offense had too many punts early in the game,
which tired out what little defense we had.
i loved Marshall’s halftime quote for NBC,
“this game is all about which team has more heart”
we sure found out that answer.
looking towards the offseaon,
we need a defensive overhaul,
a lot of defensive draft picks,
and hopefully a nice free agent pick-up.
i’d like to ask our soon-to-be former D-coordinator Bob slowik a question:
Why is Josh Bell of all people covering chris chambers?
i think, as a high school student, i could make a better gameplan.
Broncoinexile….nicely put.
sad to see such a good offense wasted on such a bad defense. Back to the drawing board.
Broncos 4 eva baby…
Cmon folks, what do we see tonite that we havent been watching all year long? Nothing! Let’s be honest, 21 points should keep you competitive in any game. However, when you have NO defense, you simply cant keep up. At the rate, Cutler will lead every QB in the NFL in statistics, but never see a playoff game. The offense can go into offseason thinking about the potential and opportunites to be one of the elite powers in the league. However, the defense better get their bags packed because many wont be coming back…who could blame Bowlen/Shanahan.
If Bob Slowik cant see the statistical differences between the time the starters were out due to injuries and the numbers since they’ve returned, it gives way to the question; what’s he smoking or what film is he watching? We’d been better off having Larsen/Haggans, Winborn, Woodyard starting and making rookie mistakes as they learned, then to watch our starters go out and take incompetence to the highest level of embarrasement. D-coordinator must go and he must take his band of futility with him to someother team. We must draft the players like Maualuga/Laurinitis/Mays/Cody/Raji to begin a new defense force that will redefine our identity and better yet, support the offense. Clear and simple.
I love this team and will never abandon my loyalty, but I truly believe that USC’s defense would be better…much better! So, let’s start to draft them?
im not one to knock coaches, so i wont…i just believe that the play within the defensive secondary was the achilles today, not because of their ability to play but because of the positions they were put in all game…they played soft man coverage all game and didnt mix it up by having people underneath enough to have Rivers think twice..Chargers didnt do much to beat the broncos today…they did the same thing cuz the broncos were showing the same thing, it was a very predictable defense and it didnt help that they lost the field position battle…offseason..it is important to draft “confidence”…something that allows our corners and safeties to make plays they are capable of because the broncos virtually should down the run every game but then get torched in the passing game which then gets them off balanced and in this case demorilized by their inability to stop anything. GREAT JOB TATUM, I wouldnt mind see him start next season.
I used to think dre bly was falling off, but its more to that and I hope he realizes that he’s still has play making abilities within him(same with Bell, Paymah and Jack), but they are having to come from way too far to make these plays…
All the DB INTs this season have come off of over throws… look it up and think about that…these are things smart players clue and that make you question the football IQ of certain defensive coordinators
Come on yall…now yall know when we blew a 3 game lead and it came down to the last game of the season we were gonna lose….just wasn’t meant to be for us this year….I can’t believe im saying this but theres no other explanation…just a pitiful end to a season filled with potential.
Shanny is still great in my book, champ should have sat out this game but is still great in my book (we needed him for panthers and he wasn’t around)…wanted to win a super bowl with champ but it seems unlikely cuz the mroe we mess up the older he gets…prater is the definition of this team…started off hot, was off and on during the season and ended cold….this team is pathetic but i still love THE ORGANIZATION.
something has to change……
It should have never came down to this game. The Broncos really never had a chance once they sealed their fate last week at home against the Bills. The Broncos players and coaches have only themselves to blame. San Diego got hot at the right time and Denver handed them the division on a silver platter. That said, I have been one of Mike Shanahan’s biggest supporters. I commend him for what he did this season in light of all the injuries and inexperienced players he had to use. However, there is no excuse to lose to Kansas City, Oakland, Jacksonville and Buffalo (three of those games were at home and one was to clinch the division.) In my opinion, Shanahan deserves two more seasons to have the Broncos back or very near a Super Bowl or it will be time for him to go. At the end of 2010 season, he will have completed his 16th season in Denver and if the Broncos aren’t competing for a Super Bowl by then, I believe it will be time for an infusion of fresh energy and insight (e.g. look at the Dolphins, the Falcons and Ravens in 2008 compared to 2007).
Also, Denver gave up 448 points this season. That is an even 28 points a game. An NFL team cannot give up four touchdowns a game to the opposition and expect to win. The Broncos defense and special teams is more painful to watch than a “Saw” movie. The Broncos special teams gave the opposition great field position time after time this year, which placed an already putrid defense in awful situations. Sadly, the Broncos D played their best this season when many of its “starters” and “stars” were out. The defense has to be rebuilt and it is going to take at least two seasons to do it.
What a frustrating season, Broncos fans. Losing to the Chargers in the last game of the season by giving up 52 points with a 31-point margin of defeat is a tough way to end it. Denver blew countless opportunities this year. I guess that is why Broncos fans are so upset about how the 2008 campaign ended. I take solace in the Chargers celebrating an 8-8 division title by virtue of a better division record tiebreaker when they were supposed to run away with the division, the conference and the Super Bowl.
Here’s to hoping that Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts put a playoff beating on Phyllis “Cry Me A” Rivers and the rest of the Chargers like he did to the Broncos in the 2003 and 2004 playoffs in front of all those San Diego Chargers “fans” next week.
I completely agree with killa bs 24-32
This defense is beyond pathetic. We need a complete overhaul of the defense. We need a DC that believes in stopping the other team lol. I think i speak for all bronco fans when i say that this game was what we ultimately dreaded happening. so long 2008 season. WE NEED CHANGE!
West Coast… its great to read your posts as well, even though there are times where I can’t quite agree with you. You give out constructive criticism, and I try to do the same. Don’t take this in a harsh tone or anything, I just want to make clear that I am a girl… just wanted to establish that.
And this game is very hard to swallow… like someone else said before me on here, this one will sting for quite some time. Our defense was just not there tonight… Champ gave it his all for what happened early on in the game. I found it really interesting that last season I really noticed that we had such a hard time scoring once we got into the red zone, right inside the 20. It just amazed me we could get all the way down the field and then it was like once we got inside the 20 we couldn’t score for our lives. Now this season, that was taken care of better than last season. The biggest offensive problem we all know about was the fact that in almost every game we played this year we always had a great first drive of the game and then it was like all over after that. We are always going to have some glitch we are going to have to deal with every season. This season it was building off our first drives and that horrible injury bug that bit us pretty darn good. Next season we’ll have something that will need improvement but we could go all the way too. We just have to establish ourselves and we just have to get consistent.
I’m going to be absolutely sick over this game for quite a while but I know we will have much brighter seasons ahead of us. Cutler is the most promising QB we’ve had since Elway… he will grow into this team with time. We can’t just keep getting rid of players every season when they don’t get us to the playoffs or play a good game. If we did that we’d never get anything established. We need to have another good draft like we had this year, and when we get players on IR back for next season like Hillis & Torain… we’ll be the team you don’t want to mess with. Shanahan’s got a few more seasons left in him… he’s never given up on this team, I don’t have it in me to give up on him. He’s not perfect but he’s one heck of a coach.
I’ve gotta say this again… I really hope Indy just kills the Chargers. I really despise them for last year and forevermore. I think we’ve established a bigger rivalry between us and the Chargers than what we’ve had with the Raiders.
With faith…
GO BRONCOS!!!!