Less than a week until Christmas Denver Broncos missed the chance to secure their first playoff berth since 2015, losing 34-27 to the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

Instead of giving Broncos Country an early gift of new postseason opportunities, Denver earned the dreaded lump of coal in its stockings, smothering two separate 11-point leads Football on Thursday evenings‘s division tilt. The Chargers’ primetime win capped off their clean sweep of the Broncos in the 2024 regular season and also ended Denver’s four-game winning streak.

So while the Broncos will be forced to lick their wounds over Christmas and the nine days leading up to the game Cincinnati Bengals As of December 28th, they still have a clear path to the playoffs with an 86% chance of clinching an AFC Wild Card spot.

The Broncos are only allowed to win or draw one more game. With remaining biases against the Bengals and Kansas City ChiefsIt will be an uphill battle after this disastrous performance by a Broncos team that will be left wondering what could have been.

What did we learn on Thursday evening? Let’s rip off the Band-Aid and begin the healing process with three takeaways from the Broncos’ embarrassing loss to the Chargers.

The Broncos deservedly lost this football game as both the offense and defense were reckless and undisciplined, drawing a total of seven penalties that cost them 61 yards. After Chargers QB Justin Herbert threw a costly interception in the first half, it seemed all but certain that the Broncos would go into halftime with a 21-10 lead.

Instead, Denver’s offense was forced to punt after failing to capitalize on the remainder of the first half despite scoring three touchdowns on their first three possessions. Broncos shooting guard Tremon Smith was stopped for fair catch interference on the ensuing punt, leading to Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh exploiting a historic and little-used NFL rule.

LA kicker Cameron Dicker elected to take the 15-yard penalty and hit a 57-yard fair-catch free kick as the first half expired, cutting Denver’s lead to 21-13 at halftime. This was the first fairly caught free kick in the league since 1976 and sent the Bolts on a run of doom early in the second half.

Broncos linebacker Justin Strnad, who led 24-13 later in the third quarter, was charged with unnecessary roughness after making contact with the sliding Herbert, leading to an LA touchdown and cutting the lead to just five points. Just one series later, Broncos rush linebacker Jonathon Cooper was also flagged for an illegal horse-collar tackle on Herbert, resulting in another 15-yard penalty and a complete momentum shift in LA’s favor

Not to mention a Broncos offensive line that was constantly warned about false starts and penalties, particularly left guard Ben Powers and freshman left tackle Garett Bolles. However, it is mind-boggling that LA entered this contest as the 10th-most penalized team in the league, only having two penalties against them for a whopping eight yards.

Instead of making excuses for awkward, punitive flags and a big bad pass interference call against Marvin Mims Jr. in the third quarter, the Broncos need to put some thought into how they handle the final two games of the season that will determine whether they make it into the season Make the playoffs or start the off-season vacation earlier.

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In a bizarre tale of two halves, Broncos head coach Sean Payton’s offensive plan appeared to go overboard after Denver scored three touchdowns early in the game. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix orchestrated an offense that showed the will and ability to finally run the football, kicked off by fellow rookie Audric Estime’s three-yard touchdown run, the first of the game.

Nix later connected with fullback Michael Burton for his second straight touchdown in consecutive weeks before finding another fellow rookie in Devaughn Vele midway through the second quarter. But instead of using a healthy running game to throw medium-to-deep passes, Payton took the safe route with his greenhorn signal-caller, allowing the Chargers to outscore and outscore the Broncos in the second half.

While Nix finished the game with 29 of 40 yards for 263 passing yards and two touchdowns, the bulk of the yards came from yards after the catch in a very limited Denver offense that allowed the LA defense to pick off the rookie QB and firing him twice.

Accordingly Next Generation StatisticsNix finished the night with a measly 3.3 air yards per attempt, his second-lowest total this season in 20 attempts (minimum). For reference: Carolina Panthers Quarterback Bryce Young, ironically, recorded just 3.0 air yards per attempt against the Chargers in Week 2.

Perhaps it was Nix’s three interceptions last week and two the game before that that made Payton wary of using his strong-armed and fearless quarterback to sling the ball downfield. If so, then that was a serious mistake.

The Broncos’ leading receiver was wideout Marvin Mims Jr. with three catches for 62 yards and the longest play of 53 yards for Denver. Courtland Sutton was limited to just five receptions for 50 yards, while running back Javonte Williams was by far the Broncos’ most targeted receiver (11).

The old adage “Fear doesn’t make money” easily applies to Nix’s effort, but it applies even more to Payton’s responsibilities as Denver’s offensive game manager. Payton, usually willing to live and die by his own sword, was uncharacteristically overtaken and unable to extricate himself from Los Angeles, a flexible primetime game he embraced and burned by way to go.

Any chance of Broncos outside linebacker Nik Bonitto winning Defensive Player of the Year was likely dashed by the Chargers’ comeback win. Chargers fullback Scott Matlock, a former defensive lineman, was successfully deployed as the sixth offensive lineman to tackle Bonitto and contain his bubbling pass rush, continually beating the Broncos’ sack leader from close to Herbert.

LA’s effectiveness in pass protection led to Bonitto recording just two tackles with no sacks. Denver, which is currently still the No. 1 team in total sacks, was able to post two sacks on Herbert thanks to Dondrea Tillman and Drew Sanders, but the defense was largely ineffective when it came to containing the Pro Bowl QB The Chargers’ pressure and score finished the game 23 of 31 for 284 passing yards and two touchdowns, connecting with 10 different receivers and being picked off once.

Additionally, Herbert was able to rack up 28 rushing yards on eight attempts with a long run of 18 yards, proving he could operate at will against a Broncos defense without ever becoming flustered or truly uncomfortable despite playing with a bad ankle.

One of the most demoralizing aspects of this Broncos loss came from the fact that the Chargers scored more points in the second half alone, outscoring them 21-6. From three touchdowns in the first half to just two field goals in the second, it’s no wonder the Chargers averaged a whopping 6.2 yards per play on offense.

Instead of forcing Herbert to feel Denver’s defensive wrath, led by sacks and takeaways, the strength of this Broncos football team retreated into a hollow shell of itself. Here’s hoping this game is an isolated incident and not a nightmare foreshadowing the final two games of the regular season.

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