Broncos beat Chargers 24-21 in Joseph’s debut
Shelby Harris got a hand on Koo Young-hoe’ s 44-yard field goal attempt with a second left, helping the Broncos begin 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 the kicker.
On the re-do, Harris — who made the team because of a rash of injuries along the D-line — sliced through 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 the Carolina Panthers when Graham Gano missed a 50-yard field goal with 4 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 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. pulled to 24-14 on Keenan Allen’s 5-yard TD catch with eight minutes left.
Less than a minute later, Jamaal 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 touchdown that made it 24-21 and safety Darian Stewart hobbled off with a strained groin.
Back-to-back sacks of Siemian set up a 50-yard field goal try that McManus pushed wide right.
But Koo’s miss loomed larger in the final seconds.
The Broncos led 14-7 at halftime after Siemian threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Fowler and scored on a 1-yard keeper .
Los Angeles’ only touchdown drive was aided by a 40-yard pass inter- ference call on cornerback Bradley Roby before Rivers hit running back Melvin Gordon for an 11-yard touchdown toss. Safety Justin Simmons hit Gordon at the 2, but he just somersaulted across the goal line.
Rivers stayed away from the All-Pro tandem of Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr., instead targeting Roby and safeties Darian Stewart and Simmons, both of whom held up well.