An obvi­ous key to any come-from-behind win: Stop giv­ing up big plays defensively.

As they built an 18-point lead Sun­day over the Bron­cos, the Los Ange­les Charg­ers had six plays of at least 22 yards. Some­thing had to change … and it did.

The Charg­ers led 21–3 and had first down at the Bron­cos’ 34. Time to put the game away, right? Nope. Four defen­sive plays helped pro­pel the Bron­cos to a 31–30 win.

1. First down from the Bron­cos’ 34. Defen­sive end Shel­by Har­ris pres­sured Justin Her­bert into a throwaway.

2. Sec­ond down: Cor­ner­back A.J. Bouye broke up a 14-yard pass intend­ed for receiv­er Mike Williams.

3. Third down: Coach Vic Fan­gio called a sev­en-man pres­sure (against sev­en-man pro­tec­tion) and Her­bert threw incom­plete. The Charg­ers kicked a field goal for a 24–3 lead, but Phillip Lindsay’s 55-yard touch­down run on the fol­low­ing series made it a ballgame.

4. And now the biggest play. Drew Lock had just been inter­cept­ed and the Charg­ers had third-and‑5 from the Bron­cos’ 19 and a 24–10 lead. Time to put the game away, right? Nope. Her­bert looked for Williams in the end zone, but cor­ner­back Bryce Calla­han made a ter­rif­ic inter­cep­tion. That kept it a two-pos­ses­sion game.

Here is the rest of our review of the Charg­ers-Bron­cos game:

Offense

Sit­ting back. The Charg­ers should be kick­ing them­selves in the shins for not send­ing more rush­ers at Lock. They rushed five or more on only three of his 47 drop-backs (6.4%). The pre­vi­ous low rate this year was Kansas City in Week 7 (20.9%) and the sea­son rate enter­ing Sun­day was 42.2%. The Charg­ers still totaled two sacks, three knock­downs and sev­en pres­sures for 12 total dis­rup­tions. Right guard Austin Schlottmann was booked for six dis­rup­tions (one sack, two knock­downs, three pressures).

Deep shots pay off. Lock mis­fired on his first four down­field throws (at least 16 “air” yards). But three of his final five attempts were pos­i­tive plays. He con­nect­ed with receiv­er Jer­ry Jeudy for 43 yards (21 yards post-catch) and receiv­er Dae­Sean Hamil­ton for a 40-yard touch­down (17 yards post-catch). And his final throw was 18 yards into the end zone that allowed tight end Albert Okwueg­bunam to draw a pass inter­fer­ence penal­ty to set up the win­ning score.

Penal­ty prob­lems. The offense had a sea­son-high six penal­ties (includes off-set­ting fouls, but not declined flags). Left tack­le Garett Bolles was called for ille­gal block in the back (need­less penal­ty), false start and an off-set­ting hold­ing. Also flagged were Jeudy, Hamil­ton and the offense (ille­gal shift). On the plus side, Lind­say (late hit) and Okwueg­bunam (two pass inter­fer­ence calls) drew penalties.

A screen pass (almost). The Bron­cos cracked open the play­book in the first half for, wait for it, a screen pass! Left guard Dal­ton Ris­ner and cen­ter Lloyd Cushen­ber­ry got on their col­lec­tive horse to get down­field, but Charg­ers defen­sive end Uchen­na Nwosu locked up run­ning back Melvin Gor­don and Lock had to scram­ble for one yard. Two plays lat­er, the Bron­cos used a tight end screen to Noah Fant that gained three yards (he caught it six yards behind the line).

Lindsay’s long run. A play before Hamilton’s touch­down cut the Charg­ers’ lead to 27–24 with 7:30 remain­ing, Lind­say rushed for 20 yards (plus 15 for a late hit by safe­ty Nasir Adder­ley). Ris­ner pulled right to block. Right tack­le Demar Dot­son walled off line­backer Ken­neth Mur­ray and Fant made a down­field block.

Play­ing time. Out of 65 snaps, Hamil­ton led the non-quar­ter­back skill posi­tion play­ers with 61 snaps, fol­lowed by Jeudy 58, KJ Ham­ler 52, Fant 51, Gor­don 36, Lind­say 29, Okwueg­bunam 16, tight end Nick Van­nett 11 (he left with a foot injury), full­back Jere­my Cox (six) and receiv­er Fred Brown (five).

Defense

Heavy four-man rush. Despite Her­bert being a rook­ie, the Bron­cos didn’t try and over­whelm him — they sent five or more on 12 of his 47 drop-backs (25.5%). Her­bert was 6‑of-12 pass­ing for 82 yards, one touch­down and one inter­cep­tion against extra rush­ers. Besides the sev­en-man rush, Fan­gio dialed up three oth­er good third-down pres­sures in the sec­ond half, know­ing time was run­ning out. He rushed six (Jackson/Johnson) on third-and-10 (three-yard pass), rushed five (cor­ner­back Duke Daw­son) on third-and‑5 (Calla­han inter­cep­tion) and six on third-and‑7 (incom­ple­tion). In all, the Bron­cos had 10 dis­rup­tions (two sacks, two knock­downs and six pres­sures). Out­side line­back­ers Bradley Chubb and Malik Reed had three dis­rup­tions apiece.

Play­ing time. The defense played a sea­son-high 87 snaps, eclips­ing 81 snaps in the Week 1 loss to Ten­nessee. Calla­han, safe­ty Justin Sim­mons and inside line­backer Alexan­der John­son played all 87 snaps, fol­lowed by safe­ty Kareem Jack­son (86) and inside line­backer Josey Jewell/cornerback Michael Oje­mu­dia (80 apiece). Replac­ing nose tack­le Mike Purcell’s snaps were DeShawn Williams (31) and Sylvester Williams (24). Out­side line­backer Jere­mi­ah Attaochu played 20 snaps in his return from a quad injury.

Tack­ling briefly dis­ap­peared. The Bron­cos had six missed tack­les and four came on the Charg­ers’ final pos­ses­sion. Oje­mu­dia had three dur­ing the dri­ve and cor­ner­back Essang Bassey the oth­er. Also miss­ing tack­les were cor­ner­back A.J. Bouye and out­side line­backer Antho­ny Chickillo.

High­light plays (besides the afore­men­tioned four plays). Sim­mons was play­ing cen­ter field on the Charg­ers’ open­ing dri­ve when he inter­cept­ed Her­bert 34 yards down­field and his 46-yard return set up a Bron­cos field goal. … On fourth-and‑1 from the Bron­cos’ 25, defen­sive end Dre’Mont Jones wedged inside of right tack­le Bryan Bula­ga to stuff Kel­ley for no gain. … Johnson’s four-yard tack­le for loss forced a Charg­ers field goal (27–17).

Defend­ing run. The Charg­ers rushed 38 times for 210 yards, both sea­sons highs allowed by the Bron­cos. The Charg­ers had four rush­es of at least 18 yards, but the Bron­cos totaled eight run “stuffs” (gain of one or few­er yards). John­son had three “stuffs” plus one in the pass­ing game.

Special teams

Touch­backs help cov­er­age. The Bron­cos didn’t mess around with their kick­offs — Bran­don McManus had four touch­backs in five attempts and the lone return was 26 yards. The Charg­ers did have a 30-yard punt return when KJ Hill got out­side and the Bron­cos couldn’t keep containment.

D. Har­ris’ big tack­le. Gun­ner Davon­tae Har­ris made a fine play in the first half when he beat his man down­field and stopped Hill for a one-yard loss. In the sec­ond quar­ter, Har­ris was duped by Hill’s fair catch sig­nal, los­ing track of the foot­ball and result­ing in a touch­back (61-yard punt).