SAN DIEGO, Sporting Alert – The San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos 21-13 at Qualcomm Stadium on Thursday Night Football to start the NFL Week 6 fixtures.
Trevor Siemian returned to the starting line-up for the Broncos (4-2) after missing the defeat to the Falcons, but he was unable to get the offense going for the reigning Super Bowl champions who struggled to get going in the first half and paid for it.
On the other side of the pitch, Philip Rivers threw for 178 yards and one touchdown on his way to moving ahead of Hall of Famer Dan Fouts to become San Diego’s career passing leader.
Rivers completed 18 of 29 passes and threw a scoring toss to Hunter Henry, who had six total catches for 86 yards.
Melvin Gordon also carried the ball 27 times for 94 yards for the Chargers (2-4), who snapped a three-game losing streak with the win on Thursday, which may have eased some of the burdens off the underpressure coach Mike McCoy.
“There is nothing like winning,” said McCoy, who showed his emotions on every play throughout the night.
“Especially beating a good football team in front of our home fans. It was great.”
“This win meant a ton for Mike,” Rivers said. “It wasn’t talked about a lot on the team but veteran players … I felt it.
“Not that I expected it if it didn’t go well. I had no idea but you also you are not playing dumb.
“We knew we had to get this thing going in a hurry.”
Siemian was 30 of 50 on completed passes for 230 yards and threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Bennie Fowler.
Other than that, nothing particularly went the way of the Broncos, who were coached on the night by special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis after head coach Gary Kubiak was ordered to rest by doctors because of a migraine condition that mimics strokes.
“You have to give them credit,” DeCamillis said. “We know it would be a tough game because they have played a lot of close games and not won.”
Denver, which started with a 4-0 record, was losing back-to-back games this season, while Siemian was losing for the first time as the starting QB for the Broncos this term.
