Chiefs lose ground in AFC as one-score woes continue in loss to rival Broncos
A 10th straight AFC West title is in real doubt after another red zone turnover, late game missed opportunities, and sloppy play cause the Chiefs to stumble to 5-5.
The Kansas City Chiefs (5-5) find themselves in a precarious situation following an intradivision loss to the AFC’s current number one seed, the Denver Broncos (9-2).
The 22-19 loss slid them down to ninth place in the AFC with losing tie breakers to the Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Chargers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. 11 weeks into the season, the Chiefs have yet to beat a playoff team or win a game decided by one score.
“When you’re playing good teams, whether it’s myself making a call or the players playing, you’ve got to do the right things, put the guys in the right position, and guys have got to make plays when given an opportunity, both sides of the ball, special teams,” head coach Andy Reid told reporters after the game. “We’re all in it together.”
With the Chargers losing big to the Jaguars in Week 11, the Chiefs had a prime opportunity to get back into the thick of things. They could have been within a half game of Los Angeles and a game and a half behind Denver with a win over one of their biggest rivals.
Instead, they are one game behind the Jaguars for the AFC’s final playoff slot, whom they must finish with a better record than if it comes down to it. With seven weeks left to go, they are three and a half games out of first place in the AFC West. With the loss, a 10th straight divisional title is in doubt.
“Obviously, it’s going to be tough to get back in the division race, but at the end of the day, the goal is to get into the playoffs and try to make a run at it,” Mahomes told reporters. “All you can focus on is next week. We have to learn from this one as much as possible, knowing that we’re going to get a great opponent coming into Arrowhead this next week. We’re kind of at that point where we have to find a way just to win football games, and we have to keep moving forward. That’s what this league is all about.”
So, how did we get here, and what went wrong against the Broncos?
The first half was a battle between two defensive heavyweights. Each team went a combined 0-4 in the red zone, causing a 6-6 tie heading into the half.
A third-down sack by defensive tackle Chris Jones and a batted pass by linebacker Leo Chenal forced each of the Broncos’ two field goals.
A pass interference by Denver cornerback Riley Moss and a big run after the catch by Hollywood Brown put the Chiefs in scoring position on each of their scoring drives before ultimately being unable to punch it in.
Looking back, six first-half points were never going to be enough against arguably the NFL’s best defense, even with two touchdowns in the second half.
“It wasn’t there,” Reid told reporters. “They’re the number one defense in the National Football League. We were fighting, and then we had some where we were going backwards and kind of self-inflicted things, so we’ve got to take care of that.”
The Chiefs seemed primed to take control of the game at the start of the second half, trickling the ball deep in Broncos territory. On a third and 14 from Denver’s 21, quarterback Patrick Mahomes faced heavy pressure rolling to his right. He seemed to have running back Elijah Mitchell open in the end zone near the pylon, but he did not muster up enough to throw beyond cornerback Ja’Quan McMillan, who picked him off.
“I didn’t throw it high enough, and he (McMillan) jumped up and made a good play,” Mahomes told reporters. “I’ve made that throw before, but at the same time, with the type of football game we’re in, don’t put the ball in harm’s way. Take the three points and move on to the next possession.”
The Broncos made the Chiefs pay in a big way. Quarterback Bo Nix and the offense marched the ball completely down the field in just over six minutes for an 11-play, 89-yard drive to take the game’s lone seven-point lead.
The Chiefs took the momentum back when, just three plays later, Mahomes found wide receiver Tyquan Thornton deep down the middle of the field for a 61-yard completion. Three plays after that, running back Kareem Hunt tied the game at 13, rumbling in for a two-yard touchdown.
Things were looking up for Kansas City, even after Denver drove down to take a 16-13 lead. Another Moss defensive pass interference put the Chiefs in a strong position to take their first lead.
That is when tight end Travis Kelce, who led the Chiefs in receiving with nine catches for 91 yards and one touchdown, put his mark on the game. The future Hall of Famer caught a pass over the middle, evading defenders before lunging into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown.
He also put his stamp on Chiefs history as the touchdown was his 84th of his career, breaking a tie with former running back Priest Holmes.
“He deserves it, the work that he puts in every single day,” Mahomes told reporters. “Obviously, people watch the game play, and the game days, and playing on the field and stuff like that, but he’s a leader. He’s someone who comes to work every single day and puts the time in, so it just speaks to the person that he is that he’s able to go out there and break that record. That was a great play and a big moment in the game, and that’s when he usually makes his big plays.”
Kicker Harrison Butker had his extra-point attempt blocked, to make it a 19-16 lead, and unfortunately, that was the last time the Chiefs added points to the scoreboard.
Kansas City had the ball up three with a chance to extend its lead, as well as when it was tied at 19, but Denver’s vaunted defense forced a three-and-out both times. After the game, Mahomes broke down the final offensive drive and took responsibility.
“Just having an opportunity at the end of the game and not coming through,” Mahomes told reporters regarding what stands out to him the most. “Getting the ball back with four minutes and all you need is a field goal is a spot that we’ve been in a lot, and we’ve been able to do that.
Obviously, the first play, trying to get a completion to ‘Trav’ (Kelce), but probably should just hang in there, and I think Hollywood (Brown) opened up down the field, so just being better in that scenario. There are things here and there, but I think that’s the biggest one. That’s what you want. You want to get that opportunity at the end of the game, and I didn’t come through.”
That was the ball game. Their inability to move the ball when it mattered most was the most significant cause of the loss, in addition to the red zone turnover and the numerous penalties.
“On our side, I’ve got to make sure that we don’t go three-and-out with those last couple offensive series,” Reid told reporters. “Then there were a variety of things that went on that we all contributed to throughout both sides of the ball and special teams, and there were some good things. When you’re playing a good football team and you’ve got to cut back on your penalties, for sure, too many there.”
The Chiefs’ final punt was with just under three minutes left on the clock. With all three timeouts in hand, it was looking like Mahomes might get one more crack at it, but it wound up not being the case.
On a third and 15 from their own 21, Nix had plenty of time in the pocket to find wide receiver Courtland Sutton for a 20-yard gain. Another third-down conversion to Sutton and an additional 32-yard completion to wide receiver Troy Franklin allowed kicker Will Lutz to kick through a 35-yarder to put the game on ice at 22-19 as time expired.
“They out-executed us on a couple of plays there,” linebacker Nick Bolton told reporters of the final drive. “Give those guys credit, too. They found ways to keep the play alive, move around the pocket, and find ways to get guys open.”
The Chiefs scored on back-to-back drives on two separate occasions, but punted four times, turned the ball over on downs, and threw an interception on their other six possessions.
Despite the game being neck-and-neck and Hunt rushing for 4.5 yards per carry, head coach Andy Reid opted to hand the ball off only 13 times. Hunt finished with 13 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown.
Thornton’s 61-yarder was his lone catch and wide receiver Rashee Rice hauled in six, but just for 38 yards. Brown caught four passes for 40 yards.
Mahomes threw a season-high 45 attempts, completing 29 of them for 276 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked three times, twice by McMillan, who had a career day for the Broncos. This marked the third time this season that a red zone interception resulted in a loss.
It was a pretty evenly played ball game across the board. Each team scored on just one of its several red zone attempts, and they finished within 31 total yards of each other. They each had 10 penalties accepted against them in what was a ticky-tack, called game.
The Chiefs, however, went 5-for-13 on third downs and lost the turnover battle, which ultimately cost them. Statistics like that are what lose one-score games, something the Chiefs are 0-5 in this season after going 11-0 in 2024.
“It sucks, don’t get me wrong,” Mahomes told reporters. “You have to feel that, but you have to be able to kind of use that energy to push it into the next week and into the rest of the season. All you can focus on is the next game. You get another opportunity to go out there and prove yourself.
Obviously, we’ve been losing these close games recently, but we’ve played some good football in spurts. It’s just about being more consistent. Until we go out there and do it, all you can do is keep saying you have to keep practicing, and getting better and better, and push yourself to go out there and do it on gameday.”
The Chiefs’ defense played relatively well overall, but the three fourth-quarter field goal drives they allowed ultimately proved too much for the team to overcome. After limiting the Broncos to six in the first half, Kansas City allowed scoring drives on four of Denver’s five drives in the second half.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit bottled up the Broncos’ run game all afternoon, but both Franklin and rookie Pat Bryant eclipsed 80 yards receiving, while Sutton had 59 of his own.
Nix posted one of his better games of the season, going 24-of-37 for 295 yards, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions.
The second-year quarterback was sacked twice, once by Jones and once by safety Chamarri Conner. Conner also led the team in tackles, with eight. The defense played solidly, but no one individual had a spectacular day.
“Yes, it’s frustrating,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “I think we had a few plays where we kind of [shot] ourselves in the foot, just execution. You know, that’s what it came down to tonight, and after the game, I told everybody, ‘We can’t keep our heads down. We have a whole year ahead of us.’ Positivity is everything, and we just got to get back to work, you know what I mean. We just have to get back to K.C. defense.”
Sure, Mahomes has gone on to the AFC Championship game in all of seven previous seasons as the starter, and they have never been 5-5 before, but in 2019, 2021 and 2023, they had some significant stretches of adversity.
A wild-card spot in the playoffs would likely bring the challenge of winning three straight road playoff games to reach its final destination. Certainly, Kansas City has to get there first, and it will be a suspenseful seven-game stretch, but Mahomes believes his team is up for the challenge.
“It hasn’t always been just championships,” Mahomes told reporters. “We’ve dealt with adversity, and guys have learned and gotten better from it. Obviously, this is something that we haven’t dealt with so early in the season, but at the same time, I know the guys in that locker room and know how they’re going to respond. All we can do is stick together, and push ourselves to be even better and try to do what we can to win this next week.”
INJURIES
Left guard Kingsley Suamataia left the game with a concussion.
UPCOMING
The Chiefs will begin the most pivotal regular-season seven-game stretch of the Mahomes era next week when they return home to face the Indianapolis Colts (8-2). Kickoff is set for noon CT. in GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
