INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Justin Strnad couldn’t believe the yellow laundry on the field.
He pleaded with the Thursday night officiating crew on the field after he was flagged for unnecessary roughness on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, but to no avail.
After the game, he tried to hold his tongue when asked about the critical third-quarter penalty that turned what would have been a fourth-and-4 at the Broncos’ 11-yard line into a first-and-goal at the 5 because Strnad made contact with Herbert while he was sliding down to the ground.
“I don’t really have any comment,” Strnad said after Denver’s 34-27 loss. “I don’t think it was a penalty, but, yeah.”
He just couldn’t quite help saying a little more.
“I think I barely hit him,” Strnad allowed. “He’s a huge quarterback, I’m getting ready to tackle him, he slides last second. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do.”
Tough situation for a defender, isn’t it?
“I really don’t know what else to do in that situation,” he said.
Did the brutal hit Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence took a couple of weeks ago make referees quicker on the whistle?
“Again, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he said.
Here’s what the Chargers did: They scored a touchdown one play after the penalty to draw within 24-19. It might have instead been 24-17. Or perhaps the Broncos get a fourth-down stop and retain a two-score lead.
Instead, Los Angeles drew within five. The Broncos offense went three-and-out.
The Chargers went back to work, mounting another touchdown drive featuring another three flags on the Broncos defense.
First, a 15-yard Jonathon Cooper horse collar tackle.
Then a Zach Allen offsides.
Then Dondrea Tillman offsides that the Chargers declined.
That drive ended in a 17-yard Justin Herbert completion to a wide-open Ladd McConkey and a 19-yard, off-balance missile to Derius Davis for a go-ahead touchdown.
“That go-ahead drive, what were there, three? Three penalties in the go-ahead drive,” head coach Sean Payton said. “It keeps continuing. We’ve got to do a better job coaching because it’s not like it’s new. And it’ll cost you. It’ll cost you games.”
Until that point, the Broncos had been in control of this game.
Then in the span of two touchdown drives, sandwiched around a do-nothing offensive possession, four defensive penalties crippled Denver’s defense.
“Just dumb (stuff) to let them back in the game at a point where we could have just finished it,” Allen told The Post. “You get a three-and-out and the offense keeps momentum going, and then you get to really pass-rush for two quarters. It’s tough to break it all down right after, but it’s like, somebody messed up here or there.
“It just was never like 11 guys did their job. There was always something, which you can’t do against a playoff team like that.”
The Broncos had seven accepted penalties on the night for 61 yards, including five for 51 from the final play of the first half onward. They had three others declined.
Denver entered Week 16 in the middle of the pack, tied for No. 14 in terms of penalties incurred (89) but with the eighth-most penalty yards (804).
“On defense, we play an aggressive style of defense, so when we get penalties on the back end and stuff like that, it’s something we kind of know (is going to happen) because we play so much man coverage,” defensive lineman Malcolm Roach said. “But it’s something we’ve got to clean up.”
On this night the back end of the defense didn’t draw any flags.
Yet, the issue proved pivotal in the Chargers going from down two scores to in full control.
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