Broncos’ Tremon Smith laments “dumb” penalty that led to fair-catch free kick for Chargers

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Tremon Smith placed himself on the wrong side of history in Denver’s 34-27 loss to the Chargers on Thursday night at SoFi Stadium.

Lined up as a gunner with eight seconds left in the second quarter, Smith raced upfield after Riley Dixon’s punt. But rather than pull up after the Chargers’ Derius Davis signaled a fair catch, he grazed the returner’s leg and caused him to fall to the turf.

The result: A 15-yard interference penalty that gave the Chargers an untimed down at Denver’s 47-yard line

“The returner did a good job of selling it, just running into me even though he wasn’t going to catch the ball,” Smith said. “… Dumb penalty.”

What followed hadn’t happened in nearly five decades.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh took advantage of an obscure rule and attempted a fair-catch free kick. Los Angeles’ special teams trotted onto the field and kicker Cameron Dicker drilled a 57-yard field goal that by rule Denver wasn’t allowed to try to block — the first successful fair-catch free kick since 1976.

What could have been an 11-point halftime lead was instead whittled down to 21-13. Los Angeles then went on to outscore the Broncos 21-6 in the final two quarters to secure the win, snap Denver’s four-game win streak and put the Broncos’ playoff hopes temporarily on ice.

Broncos coach Sean Payton said Smith’s penalty “wasn’t smart.”

“The penalty put them in field goal position,” he added. “So it’s disappointing.”

According to Rule 10, Section 2, Article 4 of the NFL Rulebook, after a fair catch is made or is awarded as the result of fair catch interference, the receiving team has the option of putting the ball in play by a snap or fair catch kick (drop kick or place kick without a tee) from the spot of the catch or succeeding spot after enforcement of any applicable penalties.

Smith’s penalty gave Harbaugh an opportunity to put three points on the board. Dicker entered Thursday’s divisional matchup 8 for 9 (88.8%) on field goal attempts from 50-plus yards this season and 15 for 18 (83.3%) in the last two years. Without having to worry about Denver trying to block the ball, Dicker made his game-changing kick with ease.

“That’s something we talked about in our special teams group,” wide receiver and returner Marvin Mims Jr. said. “We all knew that was going to happen and (the Chargers) executed to perfection.”

There were a handful of reasons Denver lost to Los Angeles for the second time in 2024. The run game disappeared after an inspiring start. And the defense left receivers running open in the secondary multiple times, including Chargers rookie Ladd McConkey, who finished with six catches for 87 yards. But Denver’s seven penalties, especially the one from Smith, were the tipping point of Payton’s frustration.

Smith’s penalty wasn’t even the only flag that directly led to Chargers points.

Linebacker Justin Strnad hit a sliding Justin Herbert on third down in the red zone, drawing a roughing penalty that gave the Chargers first-and-goal at the Denver 5-yard line. Gus Edwards ran in a touchdown one play later to pull L.A. within five at 24-19.

One possession after that, the Broncos committed three penalties on a 7-play, 78-yard Chargers scoring drive that put them ahead 27-24 in the fourth quarter. That included Jonathon Cooper’s horse collar tackle of Herbert on a seemingly doomed play-action pass that gave L.A. the ball at midfield.

“It keeps continuing,” said Payton, who’d previously intimated that the team’s penalty numbers were problematic coming out of the bye week. “We gotta do a better job coaching because it’s not like it’s new.”

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