-Michael Irvin goes crazy Chargers come away with a 19-16 win over the Broncos in OT on MNF

It felt like neither team's offense wanted to win it, so it comes down to special teams as the Chargers win a thriller 19-16 in overtime over their arch-rival Denver Broncos. Hello and welcome to NFL Game Day Final alongside my buddies Adam Rank, three-time Pro Bowler D'Angelo Hall, I'm Omar Rees, and Dustin Hopkins, your old buddy D'Angelo, kicked 31-yard field goal, 35-yard field goal, 37-yard field goal, and the game-winner, 39, all with a bum leg. That's one of your old teammates in Washington, wasn't it? Oh, yeah, Omar, I mean, Dustin was just, I mean, he's always been a class act, but just a great teammate. And you heard the way he led that interview off, giving his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the glory. I mean, that's just who Dustin Hopkins is, and I'm just so excited to see him go out there, and really, I mean, the dude scored 12 of the 19 points, and every kick was just busted down to his knees in pain, thriving, so I'm just extremely excited for a guy like him. Couldn't happen to a better person. Yeah, so many times we see the kickers, you know, the object of scoring and everything like that, so to see him come through like that, we're rooting for him, you know, we want to see them come through, and so it was great seeing him battle through the pain to be able to do that. Well, no, really, we don't give kickers credit for their toughness, but certainly Dustin Hopkins is showing it off tonight. Meanwhile, let's put some points on the board. Of course, Chargers beating the Broncos 19 to 16. Points on the board, number one, D'Angelo lead us off, looked like Russ was cooking there early. I mean, Omar and Adam, for a second, I thought this is vintage Russ, this is what I signed up for with Nathaniel Hackett. I mean, 10 for 10, finding different guys down the field, look, exploiting the coverages, I mean, patience in the pocket, moving his feet, and then the second half in overtime happened, and then I was scratching my head again, like, where does Denver go? Their defense is really, really good, but man, with an offense like that, I just don't see where the help's going to come from. You know, that play right there, right before half, I was excited to watch Russ start to cook, move the pocket, extend the play, man, I don't know what happened in the second half. They got to figure things out in Denver, though. I cannot wait to hear the postgame presser. Let's see if Russ finish it off with less ride. D'Angelo, what was some of the glaring differences that you noticed from when he started off 10 of 10, hitting nine different receivers in his first nine passes to the rest of the game when he went five of 18? Well, I think he was decisive in the pocket, right? He was making throws, getting the ball in and out of his hands. When it wasn't open, he was moving the pocket, right? Like, we aren't, you know, at this point in Russ' career, we don't need Russ running around running read options all day, but we do need Russell Wilson extending the play because that's why you love mobile quarterbacks. It's because they can, if that one guy's free in the blitz package, he can just extend the play, make that guy move, move his feet, and just keep guys going. We know guys on the back end in coverage, we hate having to cover guys while that quarterback's moving. It makes it extremely difficult. And you saw some guys free up in coverage because Russ was moving early. The quarterback on the other side threw for more than 50 passes just the second time in his career. Justin Herbert did not throw for a touchdown. Adam, your point number two. Well, when are we going to actually see the real Justin Herbert again? I don't know if this is an extenuation of his injury from a couple of weeks ago. If he hasn't really recovered completely, there were times in this game, especially in overtime, where those passes did not look good, did not look crisp. I don't know if he was being harangued or what was happening, but he does not look like the Justin Herbert of old. And even that, the read that he made on that completion or the, yeah, I guess it was a completion to Horvath. When he didn't hit Gerald Everett, what was he seeing? What is going on? Is it a lack of protection? What is it? So at some point, I think this Chargers offense needs to come back together and really go back to being the vintage Chargers offense that we expected coming into this season. I don't know if that's Keenan Allen or not, but something's amiss there. Yeah, third and one that you, he threw short of the sticks and even a lot of his long passes known for that cannon of an arm or wobbly misfire. The Hail Mary was short. Obviously that rib cartilage injury still affecting him. Other Chargers quarterback Chase Daniel, who is one of our analysts, will be joining us a little later in the shows who will get his perspective from the sidelines here in studio. Of course, that game across the street here at SoFi Stadium, D'Angelo Hall, point number three about that Broncos defense. Oh my goodness. Hey guys, they were out there hunting, man. I mean, Browner was out there making play after play, harassing the quarterback, was able to get that interception on the tip ball. I mean, you know, Adam, you talked about Justin Herbert not looking comfortable because that defense was in his face, nonstop with pressure. And it's hard to get comfortable to offensive line for the Chargers weren't comfortable because they knew that it was a lot of speed coming off the edges. They were never able to really get Austin Echler going with that ground game. And you know, I just think his head soft to that Broncos defense. And I'll tell you what, pass her tan. We didn't get to see what we thought was going to be an explosive matchup right in the passing game because I wanted Justin Herbert to challenge search and a little bit because even great corners, man, any, any given time out there, you can give up a play. You saw one that was close on the sidelines that, you know, if I'm Brandon Staley, I'm probably challenging that call because my team needed a spark and Mike Williams almost got those feet in on pass or tan a second. But you know, that Broncos defense, man, they were playing ball and they should, they are a top five ranked defense in this league. And you know, if just that offense can get something going, Broncos fans, they know that defense going to come out there and play ball for him. Yeah. That defense playing well enough to win led by defensive coordinator is Euro Evero point number four, Adam. All right. If you want to give the Broncos defense credit, D'Angelo, what about the chargers? The chargers were out there playing great defense too. And a big reason why is Khalil Mack, who has been a really good acquisition for them this season, six sacks in six games. He made his presence felt here. And I think too, one of the things that's great about Khalil Mack now, obviously getting pressure on the quarterback, getting to that ball right there, but we saw other plays too, where there were opportunities for some of the other defenders of the LA chargers to get in there, to get huge sacks because the offensive line is still preoccupied with Khalil Mack. And it's good to see him go out there and play that well, once again, and one of those other chargers that got a huge sacks on third and six drew tranquil who joins our Bridget Condon across the street. Take me through that last play. Your team is punting. You're getting ready to go back on the field during overtime. You get the muck punt. You guys recover the ball. What are you feeling there on the sideline as a defense? It's incredible execution by the whole punt team. JK hits a sky bomb, almost hits the jumbotron. Absolute excellent execution. Jha goes down, makes an incredible, guy's a rookie and makes a heads up play, pushing the gunner into the, into the returner and we're, you know, headsy enough to jump on the ball and get the ball. Dustin ices it. Man, what a night. What a night. Two sacks for you. This defense kept this team in the game the entire game. Russell Wilson started out hot 10 for 10. What changed? What were you able to see there? We didn't have our best stuff in the first half and we got together in the, in the locker room and said, we got to turn this thing up, man. We're not, we're not going out this way and I'll tell you what, guys came to play in the second half. I think the most important thing, everybody just did their job and when we do our job, we can play really good defense. Through all the adversity, all the injuries that this team has suffered, you're now four and two tied with the Chiefs, the top of the AFC West. What does this say about this team moving forward? Oh, we're coming for the AFC West. We want it. Guys are hungry. It's next man up mentality and we're deep. We're deep. We got guys to come in, guys to play and I just can't say enough. Top to bottom, vets, rookies, everybody in between. It was a great team win tonight. Thanks so much. Thank you so much.