USA TODAY Sports
SAN DIEGO — Five days ago, the Denver Broncos were undefeated juggernauts defending their Super Bowl championship.
Today, they are on the brink of a perilous tailspin.
The Broncos' once-vaunted defense now insists on spotting its opponents a touchdown to get the game started. Head coach Gary Kubiak was forced to miss the trip because of a debilitating complex migraine condition, with Joe DeCamillis serving as interim coach Thursday.
Their offense, mediocre at best in winning times, now stinks.
And the Broncos have now lost two in a row after they fell to the San Diego Chargers, 21-13, here Thursday on an otherwise near-perfect, mid-October evening at Qualcomm Stadium.
It could have been worse. After again failing to meet the appointed kickoff, Denver’s D rallied to limit the Chargers on four consecutive red zone trips, holding them to field goals each time.
And the Chargers committed two turnovers that led to the Broncos’ only scores.
Denver went 0 yards on its first field goal drive, and after Rivers fumbled at midfield early in the fourth quarter with San Diego up, 21-3, the Broncos went 51 yards to finally score a touchdown on a 5-yard pass from Trevor Siemian to Bennie Fowler.
It appeared the Broncos could have drawn to within, 21-16, with a chance at a 2-point conversion to make it 21-18, when a sensational catch-and-run by running back C.J. Anderson was nullified by a holding penalty on left tackle Russell Okung and then a fumble by Demaryius Thomas.
The Broncos are now 4-2 while the Chargers improved to 2-4. The loss snapped the Broncos’ NFL-record 15-game road winning streak against division opponents.
Klis writes for KUSA, a TEGNA station.
PHOTOS: Best of NFL Week 6
Click here to view original web page at www.usatoday.com
