NFL sundae: Chargers blank rival
Shutout ‘is cherry on top’ of L.A.’S triumph
CARSON, Calif. — When the cannon sounded and thousands of orange-clad fans in the Stubhub Center crowd trudged to their cars, Joey Bosa and his teammates celebrated a few milestones with their half of the home crowd.
For the first time since Dec. 18, 1960, the Los Angeles Chargers won a home game.
And they did it by sending their archrivals from Denver to their first shutout loss in nearly a quarter-century.
“That’s a cherry on top,” Bosa said. Travis Benjamin returned a first-quarter punt 65 yards for a touchdown and caught a 42-yard TD pass in the fourth, and the Chargers played a dominant defensive game in the first home victory of their relocation season, 21-0 over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Bosa and Chris Mccain each had two of the Chargers’ five sacks. Los Angeles’ defense forced three turnovers and flattened Trevor Siemian and the Broncos (3-3), who hadn’t been blanked since a 24-0 loss to the Los Angeles Raiders on Nov. 22, 1992.
Philip Rivers passed for 183 yards in his 100th victory, hitting Austin Ekeler for an early TD and Benjamin for the late clincher, but even the veteran quarterback was a grateful spectator.
“It was fun to watch our defense play,” Rivers said. “Man, they were awesome.”
The Chargers (3-4) have won three straight under new coach Anthony Lynn following a winless opening month in their first season back in Los Angeles after 56 years in San Diego.
“We feel like it’s wide open,” said Lynn, whose Chargers are on their first three-game winning streak since November 2014. “We dug a hole for ourselves, and we’re just climbing out of the hole.
“We know we’ve got a hill to climb. Today, we just took more steps. It’s starting to pay off for us.”
The Chargers had lost seven consecutive home games since last November, and they hadn’t won a home game as the L.A. Chargers since the final game of the AFL’S inaugural regular season, after which they lost the championship game to the Houston Oilers and then moved south.
But the Bolts largely dominated the Broncos, who have lost three of four with a flagging offense that has managed three touchdowns in four games. Los Angeles also avenged its season-opening loss in Denver on a blocked field goal at the end.
Siemian passed for 207 yards, but Denver lost to the Chargers for just the third time in the AFC West rivals’ past 14 meetings — and did so in historic fashion.
“You can’t lose two games straight and not have any issues,” said Von Miller, who sacked Rivers twice. “So we’ve obviously got issues that we need to address from the top down. I strongly feel we’ll get this corrected.”