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. They then 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 down.
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.
