The Denver Broncos once again came up short, this time to the Los Angeles Chargers, which drops them to last place in the division.

Although that’s certainly disappointing, a lot of good came out of the game as well. Let’s take a closer look at that good, as well as all the bad that came out of this game.

Stock Up

Melvin Gordon

One can still debate as to whether or not the free-agent acquisition of Melvin Gordon was a good one — as his early-season struggles are certainly still worth noting — but over the past six weeks, he’s been incredible.

If you remove the weird game against the Saints from that span, which negatively skews all of Denver’s offensive numbers, Gordon has tallied 477 total yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns on 6.1 yards per carry. That brings him to an average of 95.4 yards per game during that stretch.

Against the Chargers today, Gordon was able to take some of his revenge, but the Broncos were too quick to abandon the ground game. He gained 79 yards on 16 carries — just under five yards per — but he was running all over Los Angeles before Denver inexplicably stopped looking his way.

DaeSean Hamilton

Make no mistake about it, DaeSean Hamilton’s roster spot is in question. If the season was to end after Week 15, he would not have made the 2021 roster.

His performance today made him remaining on the roster slightly more likely. He had one less reception than Jerry Jeudy and Noah Fant, but led the team in yardage.

Also on the final drive, Hamilton made the catch of the season off a deflection from Chris Harris Jr. The play was incredibly reminiscent of Julian Edelman’s famous catch in New England’s Super Bowl 51 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

It was a play that would have lived in Broncos lore forever had the following Hail Mary been successful.

Stock Down

Special Teams

Even against one the NFL’s worst special teams units, the Broncos’ special teams appeared to be woefully outmatched.

It got started on the first play of the game, when Chargers return man Nassir Adderly tore off an excellent return that allowed Los Angeles to start the game on Denver’s side of the field. The Broncos defense quickly made a stop, but the damage was already done, and the drive ended with a Charger field goal.

Then on the ensuing kickoff return, Denver was flagged for holding, which forced them to start their opening drive already in a hole.

Later, on the Broncos’ second offensive possession of the game, the team was in range for a 42-yard field goal, which Brandon McManus sent off the upright. Fortunately, an offsides penalty on Los Angeles gave him a second try, this time from 37 yards. Unfortunately however, McManus sent that try off the upright as well.

On the Broncos’ first drive of the second half, they were once again forced to punt, but Sam Martin delivered a perfect punt that would’ve flipped the field. Unfortunatley, the punt coverage unit was completely fooled by Los Angeles’ punt returner, who called for a fair catch several yards away from where the ball was actually landing.

As a result, the coverage unit didn’t react to the punt’s actual location until it was too far gone, which cost the team 20 yards.

Frankly, it’s absurd and unacceptable the Broncos’ special teams is as bad and self-damaging as it is. Special teams coordinator Tom McMahon was nearly fired after each of the last two seasons, but now, Denver should finally pull the trigger.

Like, right now. Before the flight home from Los Angeles.

Denver’s special teams is Pro Football Focus’ lowest-graded special teams by 15.3 points, meaning the team’s overall special teams grade is just 76.5% of the second-worst special teams unit. The difference in grade between the Broncos and the second-lowest-graded special teams unit (Tennessee Titans), is the same as the difference between that second-lowest-graded special teams unit and the 16th-lowest graded special teams unit.

The NFL recently lifted some of the COVID-related restrictions on coaching interviews, so the Broncos should be quick to fire McMahon if they want to hire the best available candidate.

Jerry Jeudy

Rookie wide receiver Jerry Jeudy is still continuing to struggle with drops unfortunately.

That issue was most apparent in the season-opener against Tennessee, but it’s re-emerged in recent weeks, and reached its peak against the Chargers this week.

On the surface, Jeudy’s box score isn’t too problematic. He totaled 61 yards on six receptions, tying him for the team-lead in receptions and putting him 16 yards behind the team-lead in yardage.

However, that hides just how inefficient he was. All those receptions and yardage came across 15 targets, six more than the second-most targeted Bronco. That also means he made the reception on just 40 percent of his targets.

He had two back-breaking drops, one of which came in the corner of the endzone, and the other came on a perfectly-placed deep ball on the Broncos’ final drive of the game, leading to their loss.