Defense takes responsibility, offense blames penalties after Broncos Week 3 loss

The Broncos let another late lead slip away, and afterward the message was split: defenders said the finish was on them, while the offense pointed to flags

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Sep 21, 2025, 6:50 PM

Follow on Google News

Watch: Broncos "Scrimmage" Reveals Camp Winners | Orange and Blue Today | 48 mins

The Denver Broncos let another late lead slip away Sunday, and afterward the message was split: defenders said the finish was on them, while the offense pointed to flags.

Los Angeles tied the game on Justin Herbert’s 20-yard touchdown to Keenan Allen with 2:44 left and won it on Cameron Dicker’s 43-yard field goal as time expired, handing Denver a 23-20 loss and its second straight walk-off defeat.

“It’s our job to close that out,” defensive end John Franklin-Myers said. “We didn’t get to the quarterback during that time. We didn’t get one in those two minutes, and sacks kill two minute (drills).”

The Chargers didn’t score a touchdown in the second half until those final moments. Denver’s defense almost allowed as many points in the final 2:44 (10) as they did the rest of the game (13).

“We go three and a half quarters playing good football; last drive, we can’t get a stop,” edge rusher Nik Bonitto said. “So I mean, it’s frustrating.”

On offense, the Broncos lamented self-inflicted mistakes. Denver was flagged 10 times for 90 yards, went 2 of 13 on third down, punted seven times, and finished with nine first downs.

“Our defense is doing what they need to do, and we’ve got to stop getting penalties,” left tackle Garett Bolles said. “Penalties are what’s hurting us right now. We had chances to win, we just didn’t capitalize.”

Quarterback Bo Nix said penalties derailed critical red-zone chances. Including late in the game, when two of the last three Broncos drives were derailed by flags.

“Penalty, penalty, penalty, penalty, moved us back,” Nix said. “You’re not going to score on a top red zone defense when you’re moving backwards. … Those things we just got to fix. It’s accountability on us.”

Coach Sean Payton, who said last week’s loss stung because of a late flag and missed execution, again zeroed in on discipline.

“We had too many penalties,” Payton said. He added the Broncos also must clean up alignment issues — including neutral-zone infractions on special teams — and a few dropped coverages, even as he praised the overall defensive effort. “Tomorrow’s an important day. Tomorrow’s more important than the game we just played, because we’re in this accelerated… we got to get better fast. And if we do, I think this will be all right.”

The Broncos (1-2) led 20-13 before Herbert answered. Nix and the offense went three-and-out after Allen’s tying score, and Herbert hit on all four of his passes on the winning drive to move the Chargers to 3-0 for the first time since 2002. Herbert finished 28 of 47 for 300 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Denver’s best stretch came around halftime. Trailing 10-3, the Broncos closed the second quarter with Nix’s 52-yard strike to a wide-open Courtland Sutton after a Chargers coverage bust, then opened the third with J.K. Dobbins’ 19-yard scoring run to take a 14-10 lead. After Derius Davis fumbled for Los Angeles, JL Skinner recovered, and Wil Lutz added a field goal. Lutz later tacked on another to make it 20-13.

Nix went 14 of 23 for 153 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He acknowledged he missed chances downfield but said the immediate correction is eliminating penalties that stall drives.

Payton, meanwhile, said the defense played hard. He said the officials were alright too, saying about the penalties, “we’ve got to clean these up.”

The Broncos host the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night in Week 3 — Los Angeles has an early chokehold on the AFC West, beating all three division foes already.