Denver’s perfect start to the season continued with a 34-23 win over the San Diego Chargers on Monday, but rookie coach Josh McDaniels insists his unbeaten Broncos can get even better.
Eddie Royal returned a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns as Denver joined Minnesota as the NFL’s only 6-0 teams. The win extended the Broncos’ lead over San Diego (2-3) in the AFC West.
“We’re far from perfect, we know that, there’s a lot of football still to be played,” McDaniels told reporters. “We want to win every week. We’re going to prepare hard every week and we want to keep it going. We have a lot of good guys who work hard and we’ve got a lot of guys who care about doing things the right way.”
The last time Denver had a 6-0 start to a season was 1998, when they went 13-0 on their way to winning their second Super Bowl in a row.
Royal returned a kickoff for 93 yards and a punt for 71 yards for touchdowns as the Broncos rallied from 20-17 down at the half. The receiver became the first Bronco, and 11th NFL player, to return a kickoff and punt for touchdowns in the same game.
With San Diego leading 3-0 in the first quarter, Royal took a kickoff at the seven-yard line, burst through a big hole around the 35, cut inside at midfield and raced down the sideline for his first score of the night.
In the second quarter, with the score tied at 10-10, Royal fielded Mike Scifres’ punt and outraced everyone to the end zone to give Denver a 17-10 lead.
“Man, it was a great feeling,” he said. “The guys did a great job of blocking. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit. You want to kind of give a boost to the team on special teams. We were able to do that today.”
Tony Scheffler caught a 19-yard pass from Kyle Orton in the third quarter for Denver’s first offensive touchdown of the game. That put Denver ahead 24-23 before a Matt Prater field goal and a five-yard touchdown catch by Brandon Stokley sealed the win. Scheffler caught six passes for 101 yards.
The Charger’s Darren Sproles returned a punt 77 yards for a touchdown to give San Diego a 20-17 lead at halftime.
The Broncos sacked San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers five times, three times in the fourth quarter. Rivers also connected with Vincent Jackson in the first quarter for a three-yard score.
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