The Kansas City Chiefs entered Monday night undefeated, and left with yet another win over their division rival.
On an unpredictable night at Mile High Stadium, the Kansas City Chiefs pulled out their fourth straight win to start the season in a 27-23 victory over the Denver Broncos.
The first half of this primetime AFC West tilt between the Chiefs and Broncos was a whirlwind. Patrick “Showtime” Mahomes, which apparently he wants to be called now, finished his first drive without a touchdown for the first time this season. The Chiefs settled for a field goal on their opening series and that knotted this game up at three. That drive saw Andy Reid elect to go for it on 4th and 1 at his own 34 yard line, down 3-0, and it paid off.
The Kansas City Chiefs defense was just dreadful, missing more tackles than anyone could count, and allowing Broncos quarterback Case Keenum to light up the team’s makeshift secondary. The lone bright spot from the worst defense in football, as pointed out by ESPN sideline reporter Booger McFarland, was the pressure generated by Dee Ford and Justin Houston. You read that right; do not adjust your screen. Both edge rushers collected a sack each.
The poor play by the Chiefs defense led to former Kansas City sports talk radio host saying this:
This #Chiefs defense (and its copious amount of missed tackles) is inching closer and closer each week to Greg Robinson/2003 territory. And that’s the worst thing I could ever say about a defense.
— Damon Amendolara (@DAonCBS) October 2, 2018
Ford was all over the field racking up three tackles, the aforementioned sack, and a few more pressures, including three quarterback hits.
Kendall Fuller did not have that same success that Ford did against the Broncos offense. The Washington Redskins transplant compiled tackles, but that was due to the fact he was getting burned like Sunday morning toast at your local hipster brunch joint.
The biggest turning point in this game came by way of that atrocious defense. During the Broncos first drive of the second half, in a 13-13 contest, Eric Murray streaked across the field and stole the ball from the intended Denver receiver. That pick got the ball back for Mahomes.
The explosive Chiefs offense, that some could deem the best in the NFL, did nothing on what should’ve been a momentum capturing drive. After a big play got called back for holding, and a false start flag on Eric Fisher, the Chiefs were forced to punt the ball back to the Broncos. That was a theme all night long as the Chiefs had a ton of pre-snap miscues due to the raucous crowd in Denver.
The Chiefs defense continued to be terrible into the second half, most notably in the running game, where guys simply did not want to tackle. Un-drafted rookie, Phillip Lindsey ran for 69 yards. As a team, Denver ran up-and-down the field on the Chiefs defense, going for 159 yards with two rushing touchdowns.
Mahomes took over with his back against the wall. The Kansas City Chiefs, down 20-13 at this point with two minutes remaining, needed a touchdown. The offense did not get it, in fact, they did not get another going on that drive and were forced to punt it away on 4th-and-1 down seven points entering the fourth quarter.
The worst defense in the NFL gave up another score at that point, which extended the Denver lead to 10 points, and with 12:52 to play, and how bad the Chiefs defense has been it did not seem likely a comeback was in store for the good guys.
Desperate for points, the Kansas City offense got nothing. After converting a huge third and six, a holding call made it 3rd-and 16. Mahomes rifled a dime into the hands of Tyreek Hill who was a yard short of the marker. The Chiefs did get the first down on 4th-and-1 which led to a touchdown! Mahomes shot the ball over to Kelce on a some what screen play, pulling the Chiefs within three.
After the Chiefs defense earned a three-and-out the Chiefs offense came onto the field with five minutes remaining down three. On Monday Night Football, on national television, against a division rival, this is where legends are born.
Here, Mahomes earned his nickname. The second year gunslinger drove the Chiefs right down the field, including a left-handed pass for a first down to Hill with Von Miller pulling him down.
The Broncos have not blown a 10-point forth quarter lead at home since 2007. Until now, at the hands of Patrick Mahomes, literally the left and right hands of Mahomes. He drove the Chiefs all the way down to the five yard line before Kareem Hunt bulldozed his way into the end zone to put Kansas City on top, 27-23.
The Broncos took over with over a minute to go. Rookie safety Armani Watts started the critical drive with a sack on Keenum, forcing the Broncos to use their last time out. On 4th-and-11, and no timeouts, the Broncos converted on an out route to Emmanuel Sanders who broke off Orlando Scandrick.
On 3rd-and-10 with 22 seconds left, Keenum over shot a wide open Demaryius Thomas who surely would have walked into the end zone. This set up a fourth down with the Broncos down four. Denver tried a hock and ladder after getting the first down. That resulted in the Chiefs pouncing on the football and walking out of Denver with an emotional win.
Mahomes earned his second career win in Denver on the night. Mahomes remains undefeated in his starting career going 5-0 for his career, 4-0 for this season. The Chiefs will have to come off of this emotional high in a hurry, as the Jacksonville Jaguars came to town to try to contain the high-powered offense in Week 5.