Chiefs Escape Broncos' Rally for 10th Win of Season, But Questions Remain
Breaking down all the angles following the Chiefs' 34-28 win over the Broncos on Sunday afternoon
The Kansas City Chiefs (10-3) beat the Denver Broncos (3-10) Sunday afternoon at Mile High Stadium by a score of 34-28 in a game that finished much different than it started.
After racing out to a quick 27-0 lead, the Chiefs were outscored by the Broncos 28-7 in the games’ final 33 minutes. Turnovers, poor tackling and the offense seemingly taking their foot off the gas were all valid complaints by fans following a game that didn’t feel like it should have been that close.
Despite the second-half struggles, this was the Chiefs’ 14th-straight win over the Broncos - dating back to the 2015 season.
Here’s Kent Swanson, Craig Stout and Matt Lane’s takes on the Chiefs’ victory on Sunday:
The Chiefs currently have a bottom five turnover differential in the NFL. They’ve given the ball up six times more than they’ve turned the opponent over in the first 13 games of the season.
The Chiefs lost the turnover battle against the Denver Broncos in surprising fashion. For only the third time in his career, Patrick Mahomes threw three interceptions — setting up short fields for the Broncos to help them mount a comeback that would put the game from a comfortable 27-0 to a one score game.
The defense was able to turn over the Broncos twice — both interceptions. Russell Wilson threw a pick six to Willie Gay Jr. on a 4th and 1 attempt to extend their drive. Late in the game, Chris Jones made an impact play with the Broncos in Chiefs’ territory — forcing an errant throw by hitting the arm of backup quarter Brett Rypien.
Both sides of the ball share some blame in the margin. The Chiefs are bottom third of the league in both giving up and taking away the football independently for the season. How do you improve it?
On defense, this is partially the byproduct of playing with such a young group. It’s harder to be as exotic with a young defense — forced to play more static coverage. It can make it more difficult to heat up the quarterback with exotic pressures. The hope has to be that more experience as the season goes on will allow for defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to get into his bag of tricks. We just haven’t seen it much yet.
Offensively, there aren’t going to be a ton of games where Mahomes is going to put the ball at risk like he did today. There have been some timely interceptions, no doubt, but I’m not banking on him making those mistakes in the biggest game. He was very good against the Bengals.
Special teams plays a role in the turnover differential as well and Skyy Moore’s issues have been addressed by removing him from the equation — something that’s good for his development and for the team.
Improving the turnover differential could be a sign of progress as the Chiefs head to the most important months of the season. Today was a step back, but there’s still time and answers for improving it.
7 - Explosive Plays Generated by the Chiefs Offense
Most will remember Patrick Mahomes’ three interceptions, the three-and-outs, or some fourth and short yardage situations left on the field when they think about the Chiefs offense against the Denver Broncos. While that’s fair, that’s doing a disservice to the positives that the Chiefs offense put on tape – especially when it came to big plays. The Chiefs posted 6 20+ yard passing plays on the day and 1 10+ yard run, bringing their season-long explosive play total to 94 – good for fourth in the league.
Furthermore, the Chiefs offense leads the league in explosive passes with 60 (yes, with a comfortable lead over the Miami Dolphins). This Broncos Defense – ranked second in the league in points – was one of the league’s best at keeping explosive plays under wraps. While Mahomes and company had their share of flaws on the day, the explosive plays they put on the Broncos defense – including the final, angriest run by Isiah Pacheco – were the keys to beating a division rival on the day.
9 - Drives the Chiefs defense forced a punt or an interception
The Chiefs defense is going to get a lot of heat this week, and rightfully so. This Broncos offense was one of the very worst in the league, and after building a 27-0 lead – off of an incredible defensive interception by Willie Gay Jr – the Chiefs allowed the Broncos to rattle off three straight touchdown drives, opening the door for a nail-biting second half of the game. Two of those drives came off of Mahomes interceptions, but it was the rapidity of the scoring drives (1:18 and 0:57, respectively) that allowed the Broncos to score twice before the half despite there being just 2:53 on the clock. The third touchdown drive was just as bad (1:57) due to a 66-yard screen pass early in the third quarter.
Those three drives – and the long fourth touchdown drive in the fourth quarter – could completely overshadow the nine stops they got on the day. Those nine stops tied for their season high (Tennessee) and the majority came with the Chiefs holding a one-score lead. They tied their game-high in interceptions for the season and set their high in sacks for the season. They even allowed their second-lowest yards per play of the season on defense.
The story was the same on both sides of the ball this week: the highs were high, and the lows were low. The question becomes, can they smooth out the lows while still keeping the highs – especially on defense?
It wasn’t always a fun watch, it wasn’t a statement game, and it certainly didn’t let fans feel comfortable at any point, but the Chiefs did come away with a victory over the Denver Broncos Sunday night. After jumping out to an immediate 27-0 lead, everything began to just unravel. Uncharacteristic turnovers committed, very characteristic defense being played, and all of sudden the game wound up being 27-21 early in the 3rd Quarter.
The two teams traded a pair of punts each and then needing to muster some form of offense, the Chiefs’ got the ball back again. The Chiefs quickly move the ball 60 yards down field and find themselves inside the Broncos’ 10 yard line. After picking up a few yards on a run - and a penalty - the Chiefs were facing 3rd and Goal from the 4 yard line and really needed to punch it in.
Patrick Mahomes makes just the play the Chiefs really needed at that moment. The Broncos only rushed four but a different four than expected and while the Chiefs’ pick it up, it did seem to rattle the cage. Mahomes gets on the move and starts trying to scramble and create something on a second reaction play.
First he tried to run but saw the lane get cut off. He spins back into the pocket avoiding the initial rush and knows he’s about to take a big hit in the middle of the pocket. He keeps his eyes downfield and sees a receiver breaking open at the last second.
Juju Smith-Schuster is the recipient of this Touchdown and his part is equally as important as Mahomes’. He’s working across the field on a Drag route but the Broncos have it zoned out really well and he’s forced to just settle into space and try to work open. He’s trying to match Mahomes’ movements while finding space and when he sees Mahomes’ spin back into the pocket he knows exactly what to do.
Like Mahomes, he spins out and works towards the back end line of the end zone seeing it’s been vacated by Broncos’ defenders. He then works away from any potential help defenders and the man trying to match him to continue to open the throwing window. Mahomes sees all of this happen and despite having a player wrapping up his legs and two other players converging on him, he is able to deliver a perfectly placed pass.
Smith-Schuster makes the easy catch and this puts the Chiefs up 34-21. The TD was paramount because the Broncos immediately went down and scored a TD as well. The lead remained at 6 points after all of that but it was still a lead. The game was hardly over at that point as the fourth quarter had more ups and downs, but this final TD gave the Chiefs the points they needed to come out on top.
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