Broncos Win, 31-14, as the Charger Offense Offers Little Challenge

For the fifth straight week, quarterback Dan Fouts and the San Diego offense went pffft , enabling the Denver Broncos to win easily, 31-14, and improve their record to 6-0.

The Broncos, the only unbeaten team in the AFC, played ball control on Sunday with an efficient mix of running and passing that allowed them to maintain possession for almost 39 minutes.

With quarterback John Elway passing for 242 yards and the running game adding 156 yards, the Broncos dealt San Diego a fifth-straight loss and opened a two-game lead on Seattle in the AFC West.

The Chargers (1-5) scored on their first series, then played erratically until adding a meaningless touchdown late in the fourth quarter. The loss left the Chargers demoralized and almost surely laid any playoff hopes to rest.

The Chargers had not scored a second half touchdown since the season opener until Buford McGee crossed the goal line with 1:29 left.

“I hope we broke the ice with that one,” Fouts said.

The Charger quarterback, who entered the game ranked 24th among the league’s quarterbacks, was contending with various theories as to what caused his, and the team’s, slump. Among them: A tired arm, conservative play calling, excessive turnovers, a shortage of big plays by receivers.

This time, the Chargers were determined “to shoot all our guns,” according to Coach Don Coryell. They did so on their first series, as Fouts fired a 40-yard pass to Wes Chandler and then dumped a short scoring pass to Gary Anderson.

“Our idea was not to hold back on anything,” assistant head coach Al Saunders said. “We tried to be as aggressive as we could be.”

The results were hard to distinguish from recent weeks. Even though Fouts completed 26 of 40 passes for 352 yards, he threw 2 interceptions to Denver defensive back Tony Lilly and was victimized by sloppy catching by his receivers.

Most notable was a bungled catch by Anderson on what likely would have been a second quarter touchdown.

“I was in full stride,” Anderson said. “I just mistimed it. I was just thinking of getting six points and I missed the ball. That doesn’t usually happen to me.”

Although numerous Chargers admitted to being seriously discouraged, none questioned the commitment to remain with Fouts at quarterback.

“We’ll live and die with him,” tight end Kellen Winslow said. “Most teams would go to another quarterback in the same situation, but we’ll ride Dan until we can’t ride him any longer.”

As bad as things have gotten for the Chargers, the opposite holds for the Broncos.

“Our team has a lot of confidence,” Coach Dan Reeves said. “They feel they can move the ball against anyone, and they are doing it. We kept the ball a long time, and that was a key factor. It’s really important to do that against a team that can strike as quickly as they can. We were scared to death coming in.”

The Broncos, following the script that has grown familiar to San Diego fans in the past month, put away the Chargers in the second half with three touchdowns, two of them the fruit of long, time-consuming drives.

The Chargers were powerless to take the ball away, and unable to do anything when they had it.

The Chargers appeared to be in the game at halftime, trailing 10-7. Sammy Winder scored on a one-yard run and Rich Karlis kicked a 21-yard field goal for the Broncos’ lead.

In the second half, Denver pieced together two long, patient drives, one eating up 89 yards in 12 plays, the other consuming 82 yards in 15 snaps. When all that marching was over, Denver led, 24-7.