Broncos hold off Chargers
Shelby Harris got a hand on Younghoe Koo’s 44-yard fieldgoal attempt with a second left, and the host Denver Broncos began the Vance Joseph era with a 24-21 win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night.
Moments earlier, Koo had nailed the kick, but Joseph called a timeout to ice him.
On the redo, Harris — who made the team because of a rash of injuries along the D-line — sliced through the line and got his right hand on the kick.
It was reminiscent of last year’s opener, when the Broncos escaped with a 21-20 win over Carolina when Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field-goal try with four seconds left.
Denver took a 24-7 lead into the fourth quarter but had two turnovers that were converted into touchdowns, a missed field-goal try and a punt.
Before those fourth-quarter foibles, Trevor Siemian threw two TD passes to Bennie Fowler and ran for another score.
The Broncos held Philip Rivers to 115 yards passing through three quarters but let him engineer a comeback when Siemian threw an interception and Jamaal Charles fumbled on plays that were upheld despite video evidence that had the crowd of 76,324 convinced they should have been overturned.
Safety Adrian Phillips intercepted a pass that went off cornerback Desmond King’s leg as King was tackling Fowler while the ball was still in the air. A review upheld the turnover and L.A. cut its deficit to 24-14 on Keenan Allen’s 5-yard TD catch with eight minutes left.
Less than a minute later, Charles fumbled, although replays showed his left elbow was down before the ball was ripped away by Korey Toomer. Cornerback Casey Hayward recovered. One play later, Rivers hit Travis Benjamin for a 38-yard score to make it 24-21.
Two sacks of Siemian set up a 50-yard field-goal try that McManus pushed right. Koo’s late miss loomed larger.
Beth Mowins became the first woman to call an NFL regular-season game since NBC’s Gayle Sierens in 1987 when she handled play-by-play on the doubleheader nightcap alongside Rex Ryan, who made his debut as an ESPN analyst.