Hurt Humphries Watches Broncos Step on Chargers
The Denver Broncos knocked off the NFL’s only remaining unbeaten team, handing the San Diego Chargers their first loss in seven games, 20-15, Sunday before a sellout crowd of 61,626 at Jack Murphy Stadium.
“We made more mistakes today than we did all six games,” said Charger quarterback Stan Humphries, who watched his team’s final five plays from the sideline after suffering a freak ankle injury on the last drive. “It’s not nice to lose, but maybe a little pressure is off us now.”
The Chargers, who overcame a 17-point deficit to defeat the Broncos, 37-34, in their season opener, had a chance to pull it out, driving to the Broncos’ 31-yard line with 1:48 remaining. However, Humphries suffered a severely sprained left ankle when accidentally stepped on by one of his blockers, and reserve quarterback Gale Gilbert, who hadn’t thrown a pass in a regular season game since Dec. 30, 1990, threw four consecutive incomplete passes. Not that Humphries had enjoyed a stellar effort. He threw three interceptions, one more than he had thrown in the first six games.
“I hope he’s OK, but I felt a little better when Humphries went out,” said Bronco wide receiver Shannon Sharpe, who caught six passes for 121 yards, including a 43-yard touchdown. “They were bringing a guy in who had been sitting on the sideline the whole game.”
After connecting with running back Ronnie Harmon on a 14-yard pass play to the Bronco 31, Gilbert didn’t complete another pass. After misfiring on a pass to wide receiver Mark Seay on first down, Gilbert tried to hit wide receiver Shawn Jefferson in the end zone, but Bronco cornerback Ben Smith knocked the ball away. Denver ran out the clock after Gilbert misfired on two consecutive sideline passes to wide receiver Tony Martin.
“I thought Shawn was interfered with,” Gilbert said. “Everybody was running go routes on that one. And then on third and fourth I had Tony (Martin) on the sideline and I didn’t hit either one of them. I just missed him. . . . Shoot, I was warmed up. I was ready.”
Humphries, the AFC’s top-rated quarterback, had his worst game of the season, completing only 17 of 33 passes for 142 yards as the Chargers failed to score a touchdown despite starting two drives inside the Denver 21 after Bronco turnovers.
“They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect,” Humphries said. “We expected most of what they did. They played well today and we didn’t play well. We didn’t have the best football game we’ve played this year.
“We haven’t been making the mistakes and that’s why we’ve been winning, but today we made the mistakes.”
Humphries was hurt when Bronco defensive end Simon Fletcher pushed Charger tackle Stan Brock into Humphries’ left leg while trying to get to Humphries.
Humphries said he doesn’t think the injury will keep him out of Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.
“Right now, it’s just a sprained ankle,” he said. “I guess you could call it a severely sprained ankle. I’m putting a little pressure on it, but for a while it was real numb. Now that I’ve taken the tape off, it’s a little sore.”
Off to their worst start in 30 years, the Broncos, who had lost three of their first six games by three points, including last Monday night’s 31-28 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, finally pulled out a close game.
“We’ve been in a lot of these (close games) every weekend and today we finally got over the hump,” said Bronco quarterback John Elway, who completed 22 of 31 passes for 241 yards with one touchdown. “We’ve got nine games left and I’m certainly not going to hang everything on just one game, but it’s nice to win.”
Added Denver Coach Wade Phillips: “Today we felt we were going to find out whether we had a good football team that’s had some bad things happen, or a bad football team.
“I hope we answered that.”