Third-and-16 from the 50: What began as a third-and-1 turned into a third-and-16 thanks to a false start then a holding penalty against the Broncos. In the end, it didn’t matter as quarterback Peyton Manning found Tight End Jacob Tamme open down the sidelie for a 25-yard gain. Four plays later, Manning hit wide receiver Eric Decker for a 7-yard touchdown to bring Denver to within a field goal at 24-21 early in the fourth quarter.
Third-and-8 from the San Diego 31: Trying to add to the Chargers’ slim lead, quarterback Philip Rivers dropped back to pass. But, cornerback Tony Carter stepped in front of his intended target, Robert Meachem, to come up with his first career interception. After a 15-yard return to midfield, the Broncos offense took its first lead of the night when Manning connected with wide receiver Brandon Stokley from 21 yards out to give Denver a 28-24 lead with 9:03 to play in the game.
Third-and-7 from the Denver 41: With the Chargers driving into Denver territory looking to retake the lead, cornerback Chris Harris intercepted Rivers’ pass intended for Eddie Royal. The pick stopped San Diego’s scoring threat and gave the ball back to the Broncos offense.
Fourth-and-16 from the San Diego 41: Any hopes of a miraculous comeback by the Chargers were put to rest when defensive end Elvis Dumervil strip-sacked Rivers for the second time of the game. Safety Mike Adams pounced on the loose ball and two Manning kneeldowns later, the Broncos were headed home with the victory.
Tags: Key Plays, San Diego Chargers, Week 6
You couldn’t stop Peyton Manning last night if you were a 10,000 pound bull. He was fierce and determined and everybody knew it. Crikey. I looooooved that game. Thanks guys!!!
Bill Williamson has believed all along. I always like reading his articles. Today’s is no different:
http://espn.go.com/blog/afcwest/post/_/id/49856/manning-miracle-reshapes-afc-west-race
THANK YOU DENVER BRONCOS!!! Can’t say that watching you get pounded 24-0 in the first half or have less than 60 yards Rushing really restores my belief that this team is a contender but D A M N that second half was fun to Watch!
THANK YOU DEFENSE FOR FINALLY STEPPING UP AND SCORING SOME MUCH NEEDED POINTS! please don’t go away the rest of the season, it should be fairly evident by now we need you Real Bad!
Thank You Peyton for doing what you got paid to do in the second half! Great stuff to watch
I thoroughly enjoyed the rout in the 2nd half. Our team definitely came out with fire in their bellies and red in their eyes. Manning only had one incompletion the 2nd half while Rivers had 2 INTs and 2 fumbles lost. The Broncos completely shut the Chargers down, they couldn’t run, couldn’t pass, and couldn’t score any points. Have to give it to them for not giving up. Chris Harris and Tony Carter wow those two really stepped it up last night with Porter out. I still don’t know if starting Brookings was all that good of a choice. They didn’t completely gash us like NE but seemed like Brookings isn’t the leader on defense that Mays brings.
I still don’t know why you put in a punt returner you just signed. Leonhard hasn’t had good returns, but he hasn’t put the ball on the ground either. Holliday can take a holiday and sit on the bench.”Yeah, you can let the kickoff bounce, don’t run up and catch it” said no ST coach ever. Bolden has a lot to learn about the NFL. In college yeah you can let that happen but the speed of the players and game are too fast to let a kickoff bounce 6 yards in front of you.
Penalties….ridiculous ones too like Leonhard spiking the ball. The refs “replacement ref’d” the PI call on Decker, that was just a horrible call. Maybe getting even for the false start calls on SD, even as a Broncos fan, some of those were questionable. We shot ourselves in the foot too much. We go from a 3rd and 1 to a 3rd and 16 on the road and then we rush the ball. We have Peyton Manning why not take a shot?
No pass rush in the 1st half, hardly any pass defense. SD helped us out by dropping and overthrows by Rivers. If you told me that we were playing for the division lead/tie I wouldn’t have guessed it by watching us play in the 1st half. We have some serious work to do to clean up some of these things. I think at times our offense looks stale. I think we rely too much on the no huddle rather than being able to operate a good offense attack. We just seem to do similar things just in the no huddle so at times it looks like we’re being predictable. They kept mentioning McCoy, is it really McCoy when we go no huddle or is it Manning?
Great win to go into the bye week tied for the division lead. Still have to put together 4 qtrs. of solid football not just 2.
WOW!!!! That is exactly why I waited until today to post, because after that terrible first half I didnt want to look like the noobs on here giving up on the entire season after that half. The way I saw it, if SD could put up 24 in a half there is no reason why we cant at least do the same… You eliminate the 2 fumbles in our redzone to start the game, ( I was ready to relase Holliday lol) and the 45 yard line tackle on Decker and this is a blowout. I was so impressed with the defense in that comeback… Peyton will always do his thing but Harris, Doom, Von and yes even Tony Carter had huge games… I am a big fan of Carter! I loved 4 picks of rivers. I loved Peytons hurdle (with a whopping 6 in vertical!) to keep a play a live when I thought he was surely sacked. This team has more fight in them then I have seen in a long time and you couldnt ask for a better way to go into a bye week. Turtle we were running 160 yards a game when we ran it 80% of the time and now we have one of the better passing attacks in the league, I think we are headed in the right direction overall and if we werent down 24 im sure the rushing attack would have been a lot more relavent… Come on man, I know you and DB love getting the blog riled up, but aside from the Oakland game I dont think Timmy would have gave us a shot in any of these games. The right desicion was made and I am very excited to move on with the 2012 Denver Broncos to see where this season takes us!!
I BELIEVE IN THIS TEAM! and after a game like that how can it not lead to bigger and better things in the future!!! What a game, what a night and I can not wait to see them to it again to the Saints!! Is anyone else planning on attending that game??
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!
Brian, on that 3rd and 16 play you are refering to Manning hit Tamme for 25 yards down the sideline. But I do understand the message you are getting across!
ScalptheChiefs, there was another one, maybe not the 3rd and 16 but it was 3rd and long and we ran it with McGahee for a 3-4 yard gain. So yeah, the actual down and distance scenario might not be that exact one, but you know what I mean so yeah..you hear what I’m laying down.
I watched the whole game, and I watched it as a Bronco fan, and I saw people dogging this team for no reason. TWO turnovers by the special teams inside the twenty…and the defense only gave up 10 points off of them (not horrible) a pick 6 as we were driving after what would have been a TD that cut the lead to 3. The defense gave up ONE drive to the Chargers. The offense was on teh field for a total of 8 plays in the 1st quarter. The team AVERAGES 27 points per game. Therefore we were still in the game even when we were down as soon as we were able to play “real” football. Some folks were totally ridiculous. GREAT game overall though. The comeback was amazing though. Simply amazing.
It is very simple to me:
The difference between the three losses when we fell in a hole early and could not quite come back is this is the first time that BOTH the O and the D clicked at the same time for a whole half = a total team win in the second half!
Fantastic ending to a game to go into the bye week for us.
Horrible way to go into another game for the Dolts after a loss of this magnitude and the one they suffered last week in similar fashion (they were up 17 on the Saints).
So it’s a no brainer that Shefter says this is the game that will ultimately win us the division because in essence the Dolts fried themselves, LOL (thank you Rivers).
Let’s not forget though that Shefter picked us to lose this game, so booOh on him, at least I had us squeaking out a 24-23 win.
BTW, congrats strand, I know how faithfully you play the predictions and never gathered much luck in it, your name is going to go up the scoreboard.
First half / second half
Hyde / jekyll
Hell / Heaven
Night / day
Black / white
heart attack / successful recovery
Death / life
End result though is we are alive and well in the AFC West! GO BRONCOS!
Just so everyone knows I called this pretty darn close
DenverOranges says:
October 15, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Chris Harris gets a pick 6 and Broncos Win 31 to 24
Well it seems like one thing exists from last year … the ability to make comebacks.
Everything the chargers got last night we literally gave to them. But while that may be true its still proof of the inconsistency of this team. Its always something. We are always down big. And most of the time this year we haven’t been able to pull ourselves out of it.
The Defense bailed out the whole team. Last night was more about them than it was about Manning (though he had a great game). The defense was what I was eager about this year and they delivered in the second half. I mean thats how u steal momentum on the road … by shutting down their offense and if possible scoring while doing that. The Defense was huge and accounted for 14 of our points … not counting the field position they gave up. Special teams needs to step thier game up.
The main point, This team has a LONG way to go. Why because it was just the chargers. The chargers in my opinion SUCK. All they have beaten this year are horrible teams … and I mean horrible. If we want to consider ourselves contenders we cannot struggle with guys like that (Though the falcons did with the horrible raiders). I was not as high as many on the team this year. Like every year tho I expect us to go to the superbowl even when i truly don’t think we are good enough. We are going to have to show one face, the 2nd half face if we want to hang with the big boys. Much like last year it is good to see our halftime adjustments remain consistent which is a credit to the coaching staff. But like I said last year, it takes more than a QB to fix all of this teams ails. It was easy to say “well if tebow could pass we would be this or that” no, the teams inconsistency are just as real as ever no matter if it TTs, Orton or PM under center. The belief was that “with PM we will always play from the lead and that will let our D do thier thing and we are going to the superbowl” Manning is not a cure all. Always takes a team effort.
Hope Von is okay, he gets to rest on bye week which is good (looked okay when sacking rivers lol). It was an enjoyable game to watch. To me the most exciting football we have played this year (also the most dreadful). Anyway, Happy with the outcome. Glad we pulled it off. Go Broncos!!
Later days,
TRB
Close call DO. nice one.
L8r days,
TRb
field position they gave us*
Wow.. What a game. From a downright embarrassment, to one of our proudest moments, talk about a football team with a split personality.. Let’s just hope that halftime last night marked our rock bottom, and that something clicked with this team, so we can finally put these crazy mistakes behind us once and for all. Part of me is concerned that this miraculous comeback win will overshadow the horrendous first half, sweeping the bad stuff under the rug. We clearly need to spend more time on fundamentals, including ball security and recovery drills..
I don’t understand why we don’t use the screen pass more. The only screen pass I saw in the first half was to McGahee, near our own end zone as an absolute last resort, that ended up going for 31 yards.. We had a great bubble screen to Decker for TD in the second half – we need more plays like this!
Last night marked the first time all year that we were on the positive side of the turnover ledger, with a +3 performance, cutting our deficit in half and putting us at a -3 turnover margin for the season.
If you watch Dumervil’s forced fumble on Rivers closely, Robert Ayers managed to get a hand on the ball while he was in the pile, knocking it back to the defense, ensuring the defensive recovery, and allowing Carter a chance to make a play. Great heads up play by Ayers, as this play really started the whole comeback, and his effort has been completely overlooked, as it wouldn’t have been possible without the “assist” by Ayers.
Speaking of Tony Carter, what a game the young man had, as well as Chris Harris. That’s two young undrafted CB’s making game changing plays folks. I was also impressed with Rahim Moore’s continued progress, as well as Derek Wolfe, who clearly belongs.
Good win, but no doubt a lot to work on, and I hope Fox doesn’t let them off the hook for that horrendous first half.. Rough start, but certainly a great ending to a perfect AFC West week!
“Speaking of Tony Carter, what a game the young man had, as well as Chris Harris. That’s two young undrafted CB’s making game changing plays folks.”
Harris is the man I hope he keeps it up. Tony needs to return our Punts he was fast as heck last night. Wow!
Go Broncos!!!
I have to thank Harris and Carter for making me look good lol.
I defended Carter since preseason and he really came through. Thanks Tony.
Chris harris played like he was suppose to, I dnt know what happened last week against welker. Tony Carter look like he got better from last year I was shocked. Good win for us!!!
The best game I never saw! Economics forced us to give up our dish. Having fractured t11 t12 vertebra going to the local theater or a sports bar was not an option. Our abc channel could have picked up the game but chose to show “jeopardy” instead. LOL Got to believe local advertisers were pleased with that choice by the decision makers at K2. I listened to the entire game as called by Dave Logan and Eddie Mac. They do a great job calling the game and though I would have loved to have seen as well a heard the game, I enjoyed it immensely! The emotion I felt when watching the games was conveyed verbally in wonderful fashion by Dave and ED. Thankfully, there are no more Monday night games as it’s unsettling to miss them and puts my undies in a bunch for the week before the game. I will tell you I will no longer force myself to listen to the likes of Phil Simms , from now on no more TV broadcast for me. I’ll put my tuner on Dave and Eddie Mac for the call and know I will enjoy the games that much more. Thanks to those two fellows I don’t feel like I missed much of the action without having a video presentation to watch.
A well coached game and an amazing second half. I couldn’t be happier for the entire organization to see their visions for this team to take place before their very eyes. There is lots of football left to play but when a team knows they can over come almost any kind of adversity, I like their chances. I think it was Linsey of the Denver Post who wrote this game would be decided by the young guys on the team, how right she was. Of course it wouldn’t have happened without the veteran leadership and talent on the team, but it was great to see so many of our young players make big contributions to the final outcome of this game. Hats off to the Denver Broncos , they’ve restore that joy and pride that we have enjoyed though most of our years being Bronco fans. Without a doubt, the best game I never saw. Go Broncos!
Carter is very aggresive which can be good and bad depending on how he uses it. Either way he way he is developing quickly and he is fast as h$!!
I don’t fault Harris for what happened against Welker. The Welker/Brady connection is almost like telepathy and Welker is shifty and talented, almost no one can cover him in the slot.
What I also noticed this game was how much some of our younger players did. Trevanthan saw more playing time, Hillman has stepped up and is not higher on the depth chart than Ball (still patiently waiting for a breakout game from Hillman, it will happen in time), Wolfe has been solid all year but he is still growing into his role. Lots of postitives for the future.
Win as a Team Lose as a Team!! I posted before the game I had a gut feeling we would win. I was ready to lose everything in my gut to the toilet at half time. Then the Tum Tums kicked in and my Gut felt much better! I concur with Bay in that the O played the same time the D played for a great half of football. Rivers coughed up the sock I wanted put in his mouth. He also coughed up the ball! Thank you Rivers for making my night!
ILMSDB!!!!!!
FTR
Check out FTR I used concur.
LOL
FTR
I am curious as to what Peyton said to the ref after the botched offensive(!) pass interference call on Decker. He was giving him the business, and I am sure Peyton’s Mom called after his visible obsenity, although we were saying it or some variation. I do know what Norv Turner said to River’s after his turnover late ” Hey Philip, I just switched to Drew Brees on my Fantasy Team from now on..”. No one cries better than Rivers, maybe Cutler a close second.
It is still a long, tough season. Bye week coming at good time. Still wonder how the Defense would be with D Will, God Rest His Soul !
I’m curious if they caught the sniper that shot Decker last night !?!
TIME POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
RH709, knowshon is still listed as second on the RB depth chart. 4 weeks inactive but still listed as second.
NFL.com lists (23-Q.Jammer, 20-A.Cason).” Not one, but TWO, Chargers get credit for the “tackle” of Decker. LOL
Wow, what a game!
My wife says I should just come to bed after the first half. I said, no way……we score on our opening drive and we’ll come back. So glad I stayed up! lol
The first half of football was inexcusable. Those fumbles and then the “tackle by the grass” as PM said in the presser followed by the pick six were killers. But I so admire this team’s will and resolve to keep playing til the final whistle.
Fox said in the locker room that over the break the guys all need to think about how to put it all together for 60 minutes. And I think this comeback win will help them do this tremendously. Like OT said, sometimes you gotta hit rock bottom before you can reach the top and I think that’s what that halftime was………
When we actually put it all together for a full sixty minutes, we will be one heck of a scary team to face.
So proud of this team. Can’t wait to see us against the Saints. I think it’s going to be a long night for Drew Breese and company.
GO BRONCOS!
In the almost 50 years I’ve been Bronco fan I’ve never been as delighted with a win and so totally disgusted the way they played much of the game. Even in the second half they shot themselves in the foot bseveral times. Going from 3rd and 1 to 3rd and 16!!!! Inexcusable!!!! Thank gods the Broncos all all-pro calibre punter and kicker. The rest of the special teams totally suck and they have all year!!
Let’sa hope trhatr they get this essetial part of trhev game corrected during the bye week.
ALL HAIL THE NECK!!!!
DON’T WRECKK THE NECK!!!!