With the victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs did something they haven’t done since Manning arrived in Denver. They won a game against Manning. Not only did they win against Manning but they dominated the game from the outset and as surprising as it was, had Manning needed 40 yards to break the yardage record he wouldn’t have got it.
Let that sink in for a minute. The Chiefs defense kept Manning to under 40 yards passing on the day. While it has come out after the game that Manning may have been too injured to play that doesn’t take anything away from a defense that picked off Peyton not once, twice, or even three times, but four times on the day.
Kansas City’s offense may have scored 29 points but they were far from being very effective on the day. While I would have preferred to see more TD’s putting points on the board when they got in field goal range made the Denver comeback near impossible late in the third quarter.
The Chiefs offensive line has been shuffled around so much this season to see it only give up two sacks to what was the best defense in the NFL was a pleasant surprise. Hopefully in the next week or two Ben Grubbs will be able to return to LG and allow Allen to move back to right tackle and shore up the position as that is where most of the heat is coming from.
While the Chiefs won and the game never was really that close as the Broncos didn’t reach the Chiefs side of the field until the third quarter, Reid’s play calling left a lot of points on the field. Smith missed a couple of throws including two potential touchdowns that became field goals but Reid wasn’t helping the situation going back to calling plays behind the line scrimmage more against the Broncos than in recent weeks. The Broncos defense has too much team speed to be successful starting on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage and that is how it played out throughout the entire game.
Jeremy Maclin and Travis Kelce were underutilized throughout the game and need to become fixtures on the the offense moving forward. Charcandrick West had a good game catching the ball but was held to under 3 yards per carry which can be partially attributed to the stout Broncos defense. Reid must find a way to get all three of the Chiefs main offensive firepower going in each and every game.
Tight end and wide receiver screens didn’t work against Denver and their speed but could work moving forward if they aren’t used as often as Reid has employed them. Slants to Maclin and Kelce utilize their ability to wall off defenders, create separation from the defenders and keep the throwing lanes open.
Kansas City sits at 4-5 and in full control of their own destiny moving forward. Winning out isn’t a necessity at this point but would obviously put them in the playoffs. With news breaking today that Manning has a torn plantar fascia it sounds like Brock Osweiler will get starts moving forward. If that is the case the Broncos will no longer be in the drivers seat up only three games on both the Chiefs and Raiders with seven games to play. Denver takes on the resurgent Bears in week 11 in Chicago and could easily find themselves on a four or five game losing streak with games against the Patriots and at San Diego following the game in Chicago.
If Denver loses two of their next three they may lose the division lead as they still have games vs. Oakland, at Pittsburgh, vs. Cincinnati, and again against the Chargers to close the season. Osweiler may get his chance to show if he is the future at the quarterback position or not.
Kansas City meanwhile sits behind Pittsburgh, Buffalo and the Jets in the wildcard race. The Chiefs will have the tiebreaker over the Steelers and play the Bills in two weeks which could easily have wildcard implications at the end of the season. While the Chiefs still have more losses than wins, the combined record of their final seven opponents in 21-43.
With games against the Bills, Raiders the Chiefs have the chance to put themselves on track to make the playoffs even with a 9-7 record. It will be very interesting to watch down the stretch as the Chiefs have continued to play better on both sides of the ball.