Jerry Jeudy responded to Vic Fangio’s challenge in the best possible way on Sunday

DENVER — Jerry Jeudy’s first trip to Los Angeles as an NFL player was more like a nightmare than a Hollywood story.

In Week 16, the Denver Broncos first-round pick had a career-high five drops, including a potential game-winner. It was a game he’s never had before in his entire football career.

“He’s got to comeback from it—[it] could be a defining moment in his career,” Vic Fangio said after the Broncos 19-16 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in week 16. “He’s got to come back, have a great week of practice, catch a bunch of balls, and then show up on Sunday when the balls are thrown to him, he’ll catch it.”

The Broncos’ head coach set the stakes incredibly high for the rookie. The next week was a potential defining moment in the 21-year olds career.

The rookie delivered in spades in Denver’s season finale on Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Jerry Jeudy led the Broncos in receptions with five.

Jerry Jeudy led the Broncos in receiving yards, and yards from scrimmage for that matter, with 140.

And Jerry Jeudy made a trip to the end zone.

Oh, on top of that, the rookie had potentially the play of the season for Denver’s offense in crunch time.

With 6:43 left and the game all tied up at 24, the Broncos were facing a 3rd-and-10 from their own 8-yard line.

Lock looked Jeudy’s way on the all-important third down and connected with him 22 yards downfield. Denver had secured the first down. But Jeudy had his sights set on more. Way more.

“Once I caught the ball, I saw the open space and I just said, ‘Hey then, let’s go,’ That’s all I was thinking about, was score,” No. 10 said after the game.

That’s exactly what he did. Jeudy exploded across the field and down the left sideline 70 more yards into the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.

The 92-yard touchdown catch and run was the longest reception by any player in the NFL all season.

“It means a lot,” Jeudy said about his strong finish to the season on Sunday. “You don’t want to finish off the season with a bad game, so I made sure this game I did everything in my power to make plays and finishing strong.”

Jeudy’s 140 receiving yards wasn’t just a career-high, but his 71 percent catch rate was the best of the year as well.

“Today I was just thinking, make sure I don’t have a week like last week,” Jeudy said following his five-catch performance. “I did everything in my power to make sure I catch everything my way, let the ball in and then execute my play.”

Despite the enormous pressure on the rookie’s shoulder coming into the final game of the season, he had “no doubt” he would have a bounceback game to close out the season.

“The way I’m wired, I knew last game was going to be one of the last bad games I have my whole life,” he stated firmly. “I learned a lot from that game. Coming into this game I was just a lot more focused, a lot more focused on the details and just catching the ball.”

Despite five drops the week before, Drew Lock looked Jeudy’s way on the very first pass of the game. It was a seven-yard completion that picked up the first down.

“I knew Jerry can come out and do this. I knew he was going to come out and do this,” Lock stated. “He had a rough one against the Chargers and we knew he’d come back out here. There was no doubt in my mind I was going to zing the ball right to him in this game. There was no hesitation with it. I trust Jerry with the ball and I’m always going to.”

Lock backed up his words with his actions as Jeudy ended the game with another team-high seven targets.

“Very happy for Jerry that he bounced back the way that he did,” Fangio said after the Broncos 32-31 loss to the Raiders on Sunday. “I thought he would. I thought last week’s game, like I said, could be a defining moment for him that he needs to come back from and he obviously did that. So very happy for him.”

Thanks in part to the best game of his career on Sunday, Jeudy ended his rookie season with 52 receptions (second-most on the team), 856 receiving yards (most on the team) and 113 targets (most on the team). His three touchdowns on the year were tied for second-most on the team, only trailing Tim Patrick.

“My rookie season, it was a good start, but I feel like there’s a lot more I need to work on,” Jeudy said, evaluating his impressive first year in the NFL. “It could have been better, but we’re going to see what the future holds.”

In the Broncos’ season finale on Sunday, Jerry Jeudy didn’t just have the best game of his NFL career, he bounced back from the worst game of his career and made a statement doing it.