FULL BOX SCORE

1. Herbert overcame his ankle injury and led his comeback against the Broncos. Justin Herbert entered Thursday with a painful left ankle injury and was still sore from Sunday’s flogging at the hands of the Buccaneers. The Chargers were desperate for a win and things weren’t looking good when the Broncos took a 21-10 lead – and the Chargers’ defense offered no resistance. That’s when Herbert donned his Superman cape and challenged his team to a thrilling victory. Herbert was already pretty sharp in the first half, even throwing an interception, but he upped his game even further in the second half, completing 11 of his 16 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns. His touchdown pass to Derius Davis was an incredible performance from Herbert, and Josh Palmer helped with a great performance on the two-point catch. Herbert also had two gutsy scrambles, first for 18 yards in the third quarter and then for 16 more on a third-and-10 run. That helped set up the touchdown that gave the Chargers a two-score lead late — and a much-needed win against a division opponent.
2. The Broncos came out offensively but failed. Sean Payton threw an early heater and the Broncos led. As if the Broncos wanted to prove they could run the ball, they ran it seven times on their first 10-play TD drive – with four different runners. Then they went more into the air on the next two drives, and both ended with points. They had the chargers in the spin cycle, but everything fell apart. After two punts to end the first half, the Broncos drove to the Chargers’ 23-yard line on their first drive of the second half, but Payton settled for a fourth-and-3 field goal, putting them ahead, 24-13 The Broncos’ next score was a field goal with 57 seconds left in the game that cut Denver’s deficit to seven points. The Broncos totaled 70 yards on their next four drives Bo Nix couldn’t generate big passing plays and the running game seemed to be on hold. After that seven-run opening drive, Denver only managed it 14 more times for the rest of the game – and three of those were nix scrambles. With about six minutes left, Nix also took a huge sack that killed a late chance to take the lead.
3. A fairly caught free kick was a cool moment for soccer nerds out there. Is it stupid to admit that watching it gave me goosebumps? Cameron Dicker Take a 57-yard free kick at the end of the first half? It’s so rare – the Halley’s Comet of football games, actually – that Dicker’s mark was the first since 1976. At my last job I wrote a whole story about that pre-Super Bowl LI game between the Patriots and Falcons and how Bill Belichick prepared his players for extremely rare plays. Of course, when I asked Belichick about the fair catch rule, he immediately recalled a case 15 years ago where it happened almost happened. The story was fun to write, but I almost fainted when I watched the game two days later and, damn it, it almost happened. Go back and watch the final 30 seconds of regulation time and you’ll see Belichick rushing to Julian Edelman to tell him to fairly catch the Falcons’ punt from their own 27-yard line . Unfortunately, this attempt would have taken place from a distance of 75 meters. If Belichick had Dicker, he might have tried. Dicker’s 57-yarder made it with a lot of the leg and brought the Chargers back into the game.
4. The Broncos’ defense also collapsed. To the Chargers’ credit, they found an offensive rhythm, but the Broncos’ defense seemed to go from being effective after halftime – as it has been for most of the season – to pretty terrible. Denver did nothing on its only turnover, a pick-by late in the second quarter Kris Abrams Draineand the Chargers scored three touchdowns and gained 70, 78 and 90 net yards on their first four possessions of the second half. The Broncos couldn’t get Herbert to sack on his TD pass to Davis and had trouble generating a pass rush against a Chargers offensive line that’s broken and has had its issues. As a result, Herbert killed the Broncos in game play all night long. Nik Bonitto made a great play stopping Herbert on the two-point attempt, and Zach Allen had a big TFL to force a field goal in the first half, but there just weren’t enough big plays like this. Penalties were a big problem, especially in the second half, as they gave the Chargers free yards and conversion opportunities. But the tackling continues Hassan HaskinsThe 34-yard touchdown catch (the first throw of his career) was pretty terrible. Haskins fended off at least two tackles and ran straight into the gut of the Denver defense for the game-winning goal.
5. The Chargers defense ended their long losing streak. Midway through the second quarter, the Broncos had scored three touchdowns on their first three drives, extending the misery of the Chargers’ defense, which had just been crushed by the Bucs on Sunday and pushing the scoring streak against them to 37 points. At that point, the Chargers hadn’t forced a punt since the third quarter of Week 14, but starting halfway through the second quarter, it was like flipping a switch. Suddenly there was a pass rush. Tackling and gap adjustment have been improved. The Broncos had to sweat a little. The Chargers forced the Broncos to punt five times in six series – including three three-and-outs – contributing to the comeback. Joey Bosa‘s sack in the second quarter seemed to ignite a little fire, and Bud Dupree had a huge hit as the Chargers defended a three-point lead with less than seven minutes left. You’ve done just enough to last, including Tarheeb StillNix’s pass was defended for 40 yards further downfield. That probably should have been a touchdown.

Next-Gen Stats Insights for Broncos-Chargers (via NFL Pro): Justin Herbert used play-action on a career-high 47.2% of his dropbacks against the Broncos, finishing 12 of 15 for 155 yards on play-action dropbacks. Herbert consistently found open receivers outside of play, averaging 5.9 yards per target (80% targeted a receiver 3+ yards away and zero tight windows). This season, Herbert ranks second in the NFL in passing yards on play-action dropbacks (1,339), fewer than only Jared Goff (1,539), who is on the list for the remainder of Week 16.

NFL Research: Cameron Dicker’s 57-yarder was not only the league’s first free kick since Ray Wersching in 1976, but also the longest such field goal in NFL history. The previous mark was 52 yards, set by Paul Hornung for the Green Bay Packers in 1964.