DENVER — Emmanuel Sanders waited six long weeks to join the list of players who have caught a touchdown pass from Peyton Manning. Now, he has four in less than a week.
Manning and Sanders connected for a trio of touchdowns Thursday night in the Broncos’ 35-21 victory over the Chargers.
With the Chargers’ banged-up secondary double-teaming red-hot receiver Demaryius Thomas, Sanders caught TD throws of 2, 31 and 3 yards. The last one followed Chris Harris Jr.’s interception of a flustered Philip Rivers.
“Every week we don’t know where the ball is going to go,” Sanders said. “The defense really dictates that and what Peyton is seeing. And tonight was just my night.”
Rookie running back Juwan Thompson added two TD runs as the Broncos (6-1) tightened their grip on the AFC West over the Chargers (5-3), who lost their second straight game.
Manning was 25 of 35 for 286 yards. Sanders caught nine passes for 120 yards, and Ronnie Hillman added 109 yards on 20 carries.
Sanders’ speed, combined with Hillman’s second gear, is the juice general manager John Elway had in mind when he said the Broncos could be better this year than they were last season, when they became the first team in NFL history to top 600 points in a season.
“John Elway and his staff went out and wanted to increase our team speed in all phases of the game and I think we’ve done that,” coach John Fox said.
One of Elway’s prized free agent acquisitions last offseason, Sanders called this “wide receivers’ heaven” when he joined the Broncos in the spring. He spent his first five games in a Broncos uniform piling up the yards — 473 of them — but wistfully wishing to become the 45th player to catch a touchdown pass from Manning.
He finally did it by hauling in the first of Manning’s four TD throws Sunday night when the five-time MVP broke Brett Favre’s career touchdown throw total (510 to 508).
Each time Thompson scored, Rivers and the Chargers responded with 80-yard drives that ended with touchdown catches by tight end Antonio Gates.
His two scores gave him an NFL-best nine, tied with Denver’s star tight end, Julius Thomas, who was held out of the end zone for the second straight game.
Gates’ first score was a 4-yard grab on fourth down, his second a 10-yard catch with 9¹/₂ minutes left that made it 35-21.
Rivers finished 30 of 41 for 252 yards with three TDs and two interceptions.
Broncos safety John Boyett was released from the practice squad a day after he was charged with assault, theft and harassment. Police said Boyett, 24, assaulted a cab driver, stole a shovel from a construction site and tried to hide from officers by covering himself in mulch early Wednesday, according to court documents. Police said Boyett drunkenly head-butted and punched a cab driver who had been hailed for him after he became belligerent at a bar.
Authorities said he also repeatedly slammed his head into a patrol car window while yelling and spitting after telling arresting officers to contact his boss, GM John Elway.
