Drew Lock played one of his worst halves as a professional Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, completing just nine of 15 attempts for a measly 58 yards as his rookie counterpart lit it up for L.A.
The dichotomy of watching Lock and Justin Herbert on the same field didn't look good for Denver through two quarters. Luckily for Lock, games are 60 minutes long.
After a first half that generated two first downs, Lock got vocal in the locker room at halftime.
"I just got up in front of the offense and said, 'Listen, it's so easy for us to come in here and yell and scream and get mad about what we're doing bad, but we just need to man up, and when the plays come our way, we need to make them, myself included. I'm not yelling at y'all, I'm obviously talking to myself right now, screaming to myself right now,''' Lock said, via ESPN. "And that's exactly what we did.''
The Broncos roared back against a collapse-happy Chargers squad, scoring four second-half touchdowns, including three in the fourth quarter. Lock engineered a 14-play, 81-yard game-winning drive in 2:30, tossing the winning score with zeros on the clock.
It marked Lock's first game-winning drive of the season and the third of his young career. Two of the three game-winning drives have come against the Chargers.
After getting down 21 points early in the third quarter, Lock and the Broncos managed just the fourth second-half comeback of at least 21 points in Broncos history -- others: 1960 (vs Patriots), 1979 (vs Seahawks) and 2012 (at Chargers).
The 21-point fourth quarter was the most points Denver scored in a final frame since it had 22 against the Miami Dolphins in Week 12, 2014.
Lock guided Denver back into the game with the help of running back Phillip Lindsay (6/83/1). On the final possession, the Broncos got a defensive pass interference call in the end zone on a pass to TE Albert Okwuegbunam with one second remaining. The call led to Lock's game-winning toss to KJ Hamler as time expired.
Lock believes Denver's play in the second half is more indicative of the team it can become than the lethargic first half.
"Maybe people had opinions of us in six games, with three different quarterbacks, multiple O-lines, guys on defense getting knocked out,'' Lock said. "I think people just like to make opinions and jump to it quick, and I hope we can keep proving them wrong.''
The Broncos pushed their record to 3-4, and are 3-1 in their last four games, keeping them just on the outskirts of the AFC playoff picture.
"We're a bunch of fighters, OK? We play hard, we play physical, we play for each other, we're going to play as a team ... and we had to keep doing that,'' Broncos coach Vic Fangio said. "And we made a couple plays, got a couple stops and we got it turned. ... The best way you can get confidence is you have good play. You don't need to be sitting on some psychologist's couch to get confidence or read a book to get confidence, you've got to go out and play good."
With matchups against the Falcons, Raiders, Dolphins and Saints on tap this month, Lock will need to play like he did in the second half if Denver is going to push for a potential playoff spot.
