Chiefs' walk off blocked field goal defeats Broncos

The Kansas City Chiefs (9-0) defeat the Denver Broncos (5-5) at Arrowhead, 16-14 after linebacker Leo Chenal blocks a field goal as time expires.

The paws of linebacker Leo Chenal kept the Chiefs' undefeated season alive after he and a flurry of his teammates broke through on a Broncos field goal attempt with one second left. On the journey to 9-0, Kansas City has one just about every which way and they can now add a clutch special teams play to the bingo card after defeating the Denver Broncos (5-5) on the heels of it. Chenal pancaked the lineman in front of him, making way for a gang of Chiefs to have an opportunity at the blocked field goal. 

“Leo (Chenal) steps up and does what Leo does every week,” head coach Andy Reid said. “Somewhere he makes a play defensively, special teams, somewhere he steps up and makes a play and he did a great job with that … He's a great athlete. He’s a big strong kid, plays 100 miles an hour, he does it in practice, he does it during games, plays anywhere and everywhere, never says anything. He comes from a family (where) he's got like 40 brothers and sisters, so he's used to sharing, so he doesn't really care about who gets the credit and doesn't get the credit. He just goes.”

After kicker Harrison Butker kicked the go-ahead field goal to make the score 16-14 with just less than six minutes left to go in the game, Arrowhead Stadium, Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the offense must have felt helpless and hopeless as rookie quarterback Bo Nix and the Broncos inched their way down the field, expending all of the Chiefs timeouts and taking all of the time off the clock.

They marched clear down to the Kansas City 17 before Broncos head coach Sean Payton called a timeout with one second on the clock. It set up an easy 17-16 divisional upset on the road before the crowd at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium came to life when the seldom-seen blocked field goal came to fruition to make the second straight week with a walk-off victory. 

“Dude, he's (Chenal) extremely strong,” Mahomes said. “He's like the strength of a d-lineman but he plays the linebacker position. You don't want to be with that guy when he's working out. We call him John Cena, so he's a guy that gets after it and we've used him on offense because the way he's able to use his speed and athleticism with that power and he did it in the Super Bowl and he did it again today.”

The Denver defense came into the game a top-five defense in many defensive categories, and they gave the Chiefs all they could handle. Kansas City could not get anything going for much of the day, and when they did, they were held to field goals. After performing perfectly last week in the red zone, and near flawless the previous two weeks, Kansas City entered the red area four times this week and only came away with one touchdown. 

With the Chiefs offense not clicking, they also finished with a below 50 percent third down conversion rate for the first time in several weeks. The Chiefs could have potentially made the game 20-14 or 21-14 on their last drive before Butker made the field goal, but Mahomes missed Kelce in the back of the endzone. 

“I think more than anything I was just sick that last drive because I missed that touchdown throw,” Mahomes said. “That would have gave us a chance to make it where they had a score a touchdown. It put our defense in a bad situation, and I thought our defense stepped up in that second half and did a great job. I was just happy that we ended with that block and Leo got through there and it was just joy after that.”

Much of that had to do with Denver being able to slow down the Chiefs run game, something no team had done completely in several weeks. For the first time since week four, running back Kareem Hunt did not have 20 carries, but he was not able to do much with the 14 he did get, mustering just 35 yards, good for 2.5 yards per carry. While he did not gain much momentum on the ground, he was the Chiefs leading receiver, leaking out of the backfield well, totaling seven catches for 65 yards. 

It is not as if Mahomes had a bad game, but he was under duress for much of the afternoon, especially after left tackle Wanya Morris was forced to leave the game with an injury. Rookie left tackle Kinglsey Suamataia filled in for him, and while not all the pressure was allowed by him, the line as a whole allowed Mahomes to get sacked four times and was hit nine times, which is high for this unit. 

That, in combination with Patrick Surtain II blanketing wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for much of the day, the offense never got into a rhythm. They were able to get enough going to get the win though, outgaining Denver 300 to 260. Denver rushed for more, but Mahomes gritted his way to 266 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, while Nix finished with 215 yards and two touchdowns. Not only did Mahomes miss Kelce on the final drive, but he also missed rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy on a deep shot where he had his man beat for a touchdown. 

“They (Broncos) play extremely hard, they're well coached, they do a good job of mixing coverages and then they make you execute throughout the entire field,” Mahomes said. “Like I just said, we had chances. You had the one down the sideline – the Worthy that I throw out of bounds. There's chances but if you don't hit them, the drives stall out because they continue to play hard and so you got to execute and have to execute on those chances in order to be a good football team and we didn't do that today and we got lucky and found a way to get the win in the end anyways.”

With Surtain II keying in on Hopkins and holding him to four catches for 56 yards, it was tight end Travis Kelce who saw the more favorable matchups. Mahomes and Kelce connected eight times for 64 yards and scored the Chiefs’ only touchdown. The Chiefs did go two for two on fourth downs, one of which came on that Kelce touchdown. His touchdown tied Tony Gonzalez for most touchdowns in Chiefs history. Running back Samaje Perine once again gave Mahomes a good outlet, racking up 37 yards on just two catches. 

Payton took a page out of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' game plan and forced the Chiefs to cover side-line to side-line. They did hit a couple of explosive plays on their scoring drives, but for the most part, Nix was getting the ball out quickly, resulting in very little pressure getting put on him. He was sacked twice, once by Nazeeh Johnson and once by Nick Bolton, but both were on designed blitzes. 

Neither team turned the ball over, so this one really came down to who was going to be able to execute at the end of the game. With both defenses playing soundly, it forced both of the offensive units to just take what the defenses were giving them. At the end of the day, the Chiefs only allowed 14 points, and they did it by Johnson, safety Justin Reid and cornerback Trent McDuffie leading the team in tackles and flying all over the field.  

Next up is one of the biggest games of the season when it comes to playoff implications. The Chiefs will head up to Buffalo to face the Bills (8-2) in week 11. With Kansas City holding just a 1.5-game lead in the AFC over them, this game will likely have major consequences on whether or not the Chiefs will get the bye, and have the AFC run through Arrowhead. Kickoff is set for 3:25 p.m. CDT.