Chiefs 28, Broncos 24: The Good, the Bad and the Soggy

Shawn Sorter

Coming into the game the Chiefs were working on a couple of streaks. The first was 12 straight against the Broncos. They have not lost to the Broncos since 2015, the year the Broncos won the Super Bowl, and they almost swept them that year, oddly enough. The 2nd streak is 13, and that’s the number of road wins in the division without losing. The Broncos were playing for nothing, and their season was over, so for them and their fans, this was their Super Bowl. I’m so glad I’m on this side of that emotion the past few years, when all you could hope for was to weaken your opponent, and nothing you could do would really make you relevant.

Patrick Mahomes ran all over the place today, starting with a key scramble on the Chiefs first drive to convert a 3rd down. Running Patrick is Playoff Patrick. Get ready for Playoff Patrick going forward. I was impressed with the announcers. Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler normally do college games, it seems. They were all over penalties and who committed them faster than the officials were, and did much better in that regard than most announcers. Jerick McKinnon really impressed me today. On his touchdown catch-and-run he made 2 guys miss. I didn’t think he would even make the first down when the play got going. He ran tough, and had great awareness of when to stay in bounds and I loved how he lowered his head to get extra yards when he knew the run was over.

I don’t recall hearing anything on the broadcast, but I’m betting Darrel Williams must have gotten banged up as we didn’t see him late in the game. McKinnon also had an amazing catch late on a ball I was sure would end up in the dirt.

Melvin Ingram made 2 huge plays to start the 2nd half, a sack and a tipped pass on successive snaps.

Melvin Ingram also made the play of the game jarring the ball loose from Melvin Gordon, causing the fumble, that turned the momentum allowing Nick Bolton to make a long hustle touchdown. It was neat to see the two Melvin’s talking after the game. Long time teammates and clearly friends, but what a play. They both played superb today.

Special Teams were once again our weakest spot today.

Aside from Harrison Butker who was really on despite struggling with footing, Mecole Hardman was being Mecole Hardman: Fielding a punt on the 5-yard line that would have surely bounced into the end zone was one mistake. No Broncos were close and it was a really poor decision.

Thankfully Patrick Mahomes drove us down the field anyway.

I’d be fine if we cut Zane Anderson. I’ve heard his name twice this year and both times it was for major mistakes. He single handedly helped us lose last week by wiping 7 points off the board, and today his bone head punt block attempt led to 7 points for the Broncos. Why in the world would a player go for a punt block running straight at the punter? Anyone knows you need to come from the side at an angle. He wasn’t even close to getting the ball, and just smacked right into the kicker. He caused a 14 point swing over the past 2 weeks.

Finally Marcus Kemp trying to down a punt deep, but totally unaware of where his foot was. I would not think that’s so hard if you practice it all the time.

Twice on the first drive Mahomes got onto Pringle for running the wrong way. I yearn for us to get a number 2 receiver who knows where to run on the field.

Our defense let Drew Lock run at will. The really embarrassing part was his 2nd touchdown run where at least 3 Chiefs defenders including L’Jarius Sneed decided not to even attempt to tackle him. We just allowed way too many big runs in general. They ended up with 191 yards rushing.

Demarcus Robinson had a 10 yard gain at one point and decided to continue carrying the ball in one hand like a loaf of bread. I pray that it will never come back to bite us. At least he didn’t run backwards for once.

I can’t help but wonder if Tyreek Hill hurt himself pregame with acrobatics. From one highlight it appeared he was doing a bit of showing off. I hope that’s not the case.

Josh Gordon had one chance to make a big play, and dropped the ball on a 3rd down. I don’t see a future for him, I just think he would have shown it by now.

Our defense twice late in the game decided it was ok to let running backs have wide open swing passes in the 2nd half. It looked more like how our linebackers played a year or two ago than how we have played this year. I think the truth of our defense is somewhere between the horrible we saw at the beginning of the season and the middle stretch prior to the Bengals game.

Even when blitzing we could not seem to get pressure on Lock. Maybe it was the slow field, or maybe we just got manhandled for the most part, but we made Lock look pretty good.

Charvarius Ward had tight coverage all night long, but for some reason he just can’t seem to make the plays often enough when the ball is thrown his way. It would almost remind me of the woeful Steven Nelson, but at least Ward turns his head around before getting beat. These past 2 weeks our corner backs seem to get beat deep way too often in 1 on 1’s.

Kelce came up gimpy at the end after a fantastic play. I sure hope he and Hill are healthy next week in the likely event that we will be playing.

The Denver field was dreadful. Don’t all NFL teams cover their field during snow and rain prior to games? The Chiefs were slipping all over the place in the 1st half, and the Broncos seemed to have a much better feel of the footwear to have on. Either the Chiefs equipment people were not well prepared or something unusual must have happened that really threw them for a loop.

The late hit by Bradley Chubb on Patrick Mahomes was pretty dirty. It was well after the play was over and he just went and smacked Patrick in the mouth. It was a roughing the passer no doubt, but it almost seemed like just a random hit to the face after a play. Getting the boot would not have surprised me.

All in all getting a win against a hated division rival is great. When it seemed like the game was in doubt there was almost a part of me that was ok with a loss. Losing would likely help us avoid a game against the Chargers in the first round. They are the team I least like the matchup with. But regardless, it’s great to keep the winning streaks alive.

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Shawn Sorter — ArrowheadOne

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