The Kansas City Chiefs did their duty in the battle for the AFC’s top seed in Week 18 in a 28:24 win at the Denver Broncos. The decisive play was provided by the defense. Now Patrick Mahomes and Co. have to hope for a mistake by the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
After a fruitless first series of attacks by the Broncos and an unsuccessful punt return, the Chiefs began at their own 7-yard line. From then on, however, things seemed to take their course, as the guests marched almost inexorably towards the end zone in 17 plays and were still lucky that backup cornerback Michael Ojemudia dropped an interception. Shortly thereafter, Patrick Mahomes tight end found Travis Kelce, who had previously faked a block, on a shallow cross route over 3 yards in the end zone for a touchdown.
After that, however, it was the Chiefs who made a critical mistake. They had apparently stopped the Broncos again, but then rookie safety Zayne Anderson granted a roughing-the-kicker penalty against punter Sam Martin, which brought the Broncos to 50 and kept the drive alive. Then they marched towards the end zone and quarterback Drew Lock himself scrambled over 5 yards into the end zone to equalize.
A sack from Shelby Harris against Mahomes led to the punt and gave the home side the ball back early, whereupon Denver dominated with its run game and finally came back to success. Lock found a hole via zone read and ran to a 23-yard touchdown. Until the break, the Chiefs only managed a 34-yard field goal from Harrison Butker, also because cornerback Kyle Fuller dropped a possible interception in the end zone.
After the break, the Chiefs turned up and finally the game with a screen pass to Jerick McKinnon, but Denver was not deterred and continued to play the run game. The reward: a 47 yard touchdown run by Melvin Gordon, who found a wide open gap on a run flash from the Chiefs and then walked up and away.
Broncos vs. Chiefs: Defense makes the decision
As a result, the Chiefs continued to struggle. They managed a 51-yard field goal by Butker, but the drive there saw some penalties against O-Liner as well as a number of imprecise and partly forged passes from Mahomes. In addition, their own defense did not really manage to stop the rather simple plays of the Broncos offense with short passes (slants and screens) and outside zone runs, also because they found it difficult to tackle their opponents. But deep in the red zone the defense made a play – Melvin Ingram sort of destroyed the hand-off between Lock and Gordon in the backfield and forced a fumble, which rookie linebacker Nick Bolton picked up and a surprising 86-yard touchdown -Return turned. The subsequent 2-point conversion was done by Mahomes himself to play KC with a sudden 28:21 lead with 7:42 minutes.
The Broncos responded with another good drive into the red zone, but contented themselves with a field goal from 31 yards by Brandon McManus on 4th-and-9 after Lock missed an open Jerry Jeudy in the end zone on 3rd Down. After that, the Chiefs downplayed the clock and brought home the win.
Due to the success, the Chiefs are guaranteed at least 2nd place in the AFC. A loss of the Tennessee Titans to the Houston Texans on Sunday would even give KC the top seed and a bye week.
Denver Broncos (7-10) – Kansas City Chiefs (12-5)
Result: 24:28 (7: 7, 7: 3, 7: 7, 3:11) BOXSCORE
Broncos vs. Chiefs – the most important statistics
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The Chiefs’ first drive in the game not only resulted in a touchdown, it was also the longest drive after plays (17) against the Broncos this season.
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Lock’s second touchdown run in the game was a 23 yard run. That was the longest rushing touchdown for Lock in the NFL.
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Lock is also the first Denver quarterback since 2011 to have 2 or more rushing touchdowns in a game. The last time Tim Tebow managed to do this was in a game against the Patriots (23:41) in December 2011.
- This was the Broncos’ 13th loss in a row to the Chiefs. The last win came in 2015 when Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was still under center. After all: In this game, the Broncos had a lead in the fourth quarter against KC for the first time since 2018.
The star of the game: Melvin Ingram (Edge Rusher, Chiefs)
It was certainly not a gala performance by the Chiefs-Defense, but in a close game, nuances and Ingrams Forced Fumble in their own red zone, which led to the decisive touchdown for KC, was the play of the game. In this respect, the newcomer was the decisive man.
Flop of the Game: Drew Lock (Quarterback, Broncos)
Yes, he scored two touchdowns and made few mistakes. But the core task of a quarterback is not to perform zone reads competently. The game through the air is far more important and here he again showed deficits when reading the defense and missed the chance to level the game again in the fourth quarter because he overlooked a completely open Jerrry Jeudy in the end zone and instead the ball in a narrow window wanted to force. That could also have been an interception. The Broncos offense worked in this game despite Lock and thanks to the run game.
Analysis: Broncos vs. Chiefs – the tactics board
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The Chiefs were doing what they’d been doing for weeks offensively – they took what the offense gave them. This resulted in many short passes, run plays at short short distances and one or the other scramble by Patrick Mahomes.
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The Broncos, meanwhile, played with varying coverages and both single-high and 2-high safeties. They mostly used zones and tried to prevent deep shots. However, it often left the middle open for underneath routes and said QB scrambles.
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Offensively, the Broncos decided early on to limit the passing game for the mostly imprecise Drew Lock and to bet on the run game against the Chiefs’ light boxes. More precisely: on zone reads, so that Lock was able to contribute through his athleticism.
- Late in the game, the Broncos then showed new variants and switched between 11-Personnel and Spread formations and 13-Personnel for better run-blocking. Again and again they achieved success with swing passes to the running back or slants as well as curls and comebacks to the receivers.
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