Defense, Kelce propel Chiefs to victory over Broncos
Tyler Brown
The Kansas City Chiefs’ (5-1) defense held the Denver Broncos’ (1-5) offense to zero points for nearly 54 minutes Thursday night. Though they did not shut the Broncos out, they made their presence felt in a big way holding Russell Wilson to just 94 yards passing and forcing three Denver turnovers.
The Chiefs' offense sure exploited the NFL’s 32nd-ranked defense in football, posting 389 total offensive yards, but they went one for five in the red zone. Because of that, it was a busy night for Harrison Butker as the Chiefs defeated the Broncos 19-8 to seal their 16th straight victory over their divisional foe.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “Just obviously red zone, some third downs, we did not execute at a high enough level … Luckily for us, our defense is playing great, so we can go through these growing pains and try to get better and better.”
There were many standouts along the Kansas City defense. Cornerback Trent McDuffie caused his third forced fumble of the season and linebacker Willie Gay recovered it as Denver started their last desperation drive down 11 with under two minutes to go.
After missing the last three games, linebacker Nick Bolton read Russell Wilson beautifully and picked off a pass intended for Jerry Jeudy on the second drive of the game. Safety Justin Reid hauled in his first interception of the season and in his two years as a Kansas City Chief after Gay deflected the pass near the line of scrimmage.
Star defensive tackle Chris Jones kept his over a sack per game pace bringing down Wilson on Denver’s last drive of the first half. Justin Reid and linebacker Drue Tranquill each tallied a full sack on key third downs when Wilson attempted to bail the pocket and scramble for the first down. In total, the Chiefs finished with four sacks.
The Broncos came in and left as a one-win club, but their offense had not been bad this season. They had averaged over 24 points per game and Wilson was 11th in the league in passing yards. Kansas City was just over six minutes away from pitching a shutout and held them to under 200 total yards Thursday night. The defensive backs were sticky once again holding Denver receivers Courland Sutton to 46 yards and Jeudy to 14.
“We keep trending in the right direction,” linebacker Nick Bolton said. "Our guys are getting more comfortable playing with each other and executing the game plan. Guys are being in the right spot at the right time. Everybody’s flying to the football and most importantly, we’re having fun what we’re doing. We keep that up every week, we’ll be special.”
Aside from their red zone woes, the Chiefs offense was clicking tonight between the 20’s. They nearly doubled the Broncos yards and controlled the ball for more than 10 minutes longer than Denver. Two of those failed red zone attempts were from failed fake field goal attempts and a poor decision from Patrick Mahomes that ended in a pick.
Rather than keeping the ball in Mahomes’ hands, head coach Andy Reid decided to line up the kicking unit before rushing tight end Noah Gray to line up at quarterback to attempt a quarterback sneak. Gray was stuffed for one yard on the fourth and two. While the decision was entertaining, taking the ball out of Mahomes' hands inside the opponent's 10 was a curious one.
“Offensively, we got to take care of business in the red zone,” Andy Reid said. "Had a lot of yards, positive yards, but you can’t stall down there. You can’t have penalties. And the fake field goal, we probably want to have that one back on the QB sneak … I shouldn’t have called that. I mean it was two yards right there and probably went too far. We were trying to stay aggressive with it. Probably want that one back.”
On the lone interception Mahomes threw, the Broncos had his ankle wrapped up before he attempted to throw it away, but the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage. Denver’s Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons nabbed the interception that fell right into his lap.
“Obviously I can’t throw the interception, even if it is tipped,” Mahomes said. "I was trying to throw the ball away. But (I need to) find a way to get the ball away maybe shorter, find another person to throw it away at.”
Other than that blemish, Mahomes was stellar on Thursday night, completing 30 of his 40 passes and racking up over 300 yards for the second time this season. His one touchdown was to wide receiver Kadarius Toney in what resembled their touchdown connection in Super Bowl 57.
Perhaps the most positive development in week six was star tight end Travis Kelce looked like his old healthy self for the first time this season. Even though his ankle that was sprained last Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings was heavily wrapped, he was open and breaking free all night.
Kelce finished with nine catches on nine targets for 124 yards. Andy Reid said after the game that his tight end took advantage of the soft zones the Broncos were running. He even had a little fun, tossing back a hook and latter to Gray early in the game for a first down. Kelce is back where he is used to being, leading the Chiefs in receiving yards with 346 on the season.
The Chiefs might have found their number-one wide receiver in rookie Rashee Rice. After slowly gaining momentum all season, the rookie finished with four catches for 72 yards, which is a career-high. Rice now leads all Chiefs wide receivers in yards with 245 on the season.
“He’s been getting better every week,” Reid said. "I think you guys see that. He’s explosive, strong after the catch. That’s why (he saw more snaps this week).”
One thing that cannot go unnoticed in a game where the Chiefs offense did not execute in key situations, was the dominant performance Butker put on display. He was four for four in his field goal attempts and converted his one extra point opportunity. The most notable kick was a 60-yarder as time expired in the first half that he pushed through the uprights. Butker has not missed a kick this season.
“It really does start in the offseason developing a good foundation,” Butker said. “If I know where I want my steps to be and what I want my technique to look like in the offseason when I get to the season and big kicks I can kind of get outside my body a little bit, just rely on my mechanics and not have think a ton and hopefully the balls are going straight through. Thankfully this season, I’ve had a lot of kicks where the balls are going right where I want them to.”
Running back Isiah Pacheco tallied 98 total yards on the ground and through the air to keep up his steady production. He is on pace for a 1,000-yard season. Second-year wide receiver Skyy Moore hauled in two receptions after getting shutout last week, while Marquez Valez-Scantling finished with no catches after recording just one in the previous three games.
Wide receiver Justin Watson was the only player Reid mentioned after the game regarding injuries. Watson left the game with an elbow injury, but Reid did confirm it was not broken.
The Chiefs will have 10 days to prepare for a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on October 22nd at 3:25 CDT. The Chargers (2-2) will face the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football this week ahead of the matchup with their division rival.
