On the previous drive, Lock found DaeSean Hamilton for a pass that likely would've totaled at least 20 yards, but Hamilton dropped the pass.

"He's going to have to overcome that drop," Fangio said of Hamilton. "He can't have a hangover from it. He's got to get back on the saddle, be ready for the next one that comes his way and catch it. That's the biggest thing you worry about and he's got to acknowledge that he dropped it and move on."

The Broncos lost the chance to tally more yards and more points when they failed to convert a pair of short third downs earlier in the game.

In the second quarter, Denver's offense failed to pick up a first down on a third-and-2 from the Chargers' 13-yard line. Then, in the third quarter, Phillip Lindsay lost 3 yards on third-and-1 from the Denver 49-yard line.

Those calls — both of which were runs — didn't have to do with Lock, Fangio said.

"I think the opening up [the offense] thing and the so-called conservative label that I think some of you asked me after the game, you know, we had a third-and-1 and a third-and-2 that we thought the best way to go about it was running it," Fangio said. "When you don't make those, that is immediately what you start thinking. Whereas if you make those or at least one of them, now you can open it up. You establish some runs and you get a little play[-action] pass in there. I don't think we were conservative to the point of protecting him, you know what I'm saying?"

Fangio said the Broncos' offensive playbook wasn't all that limited in Lock's first start, but he acknowledged that the team managed what they asked Lock to execute.

"I don't think it was limited that much," Fangio said. "I don't think so. Obviously, we weren't going to have an expanded play list to where he had too much to learn in too short of a time. Not to learn — that's probably the wrong word because he can learn it — but execute. A little bit [limited]."