After winning their first five games of the 2026 NFL regular season, the Kansas City Chiefs saw their undefeated campaign come to an end this past Sunday night, as they took an abysmal 20-3 defeat at the hands of the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
Losses in this league happen, and the Chiefs simply have to find a way to fix what went wrong against the Seahawks, which was a lot, and attempt to bounce back in a battle with the Denver Broncos. If we're being honest, Week 8 seems far too early for a second matchup with a division rival, but the schedule is what it is.
If you recall, the two teams squared off to close out Week 1 on Monday Night Football, with Kansas City scoring an easy 31-10 victory. The big storyline in that game, of course, was how Patrick Mahomes would fare in his first game action since suffering a severe knee injury last December, and the two-time NFL MVP ultimately fared well enough, completing 15 of 27 passes for 184 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. But the big star that night was new running back and reigning Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III, who rushed for 173 yards and a touchdown and added another 18 yards and a score on three receptions.
The Broncos have played far better football in the weeks since, taking five of their last six with wins over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Seahawks, and the Arizona Cardinals, with their only loss coming to the San Francisco 49ers, who, like Kansas City, just dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten this past Sunday with a loss to the Atlanta Falcons.
It's obviously impossible to know exactly how this second matchup between the longtime rivals will play out, but what we do know is that since Mahomes took over as QB1 in 2017, the Chiefs have fared extremely well in these second games against the Broncos.
Chiefs have lost the last three second matchups to the Broncos, but the last two come with asterisks
Here's a quick look at every game the Chiefs and Broncos have played since the start of the 2017 season. We opted to include the first game in the series from each campaign as well to show just how dominant Kansas City has been in this rivalry over the last decade.
Season | Game 1 | Game 2 |
|---|---|---|
2017 | Win, 29-19 | Win, 27-24 |
2018 | Win, 27-23 | Win, 30-23 |
2019 | Win, 30-6 | Win, 23-3 |
2020 | Win, 43-16 | Win, 22-16 |
2021 | Win, 22-9 | Win, 28-24 |
2022 | Win, 34-28 | Win, 27-24 |
2023 | Win, 19-8 | Loss, 24-9 |
2024 | Win, 16-14 | Loss, 38-0 |
2025 | Loss, 22-19 | Loss, 20-13 |
2026 | Win, 31-10 | ??? |
As you can see, from 2017 to 2022, not only did the Chiefs win every second matchup in the series, but they won every single game in the series. And what isn't even shown here is that they also won the three games leading into the start of this table, taking the second matchup in 2015 and sweeping in 2016.
That said, it's impossible not to notice that in the last three years, Kansas City has lost the second game against Denver each season. But asterisks come with the last two.
Why the Chiefs' recent losses to Denver deserve context
There's no excuse behind the 2023 season, though. After winning the first game in Week 6 by a score of 19-8, the Chiefs lost the second, oddly enough in Week 8, by a score of 24-9, as Mahomes had a horrendous day, throwing zero touchdowns and two interceptions while Russell Wilson threw three TDs and no picks to help the Broncos break their long losing streak to Andy Reid & Co.
In 2024, however, the only reason Denver took a 38-0 win was that the game was played in Week 18, and Kansas City, holding a record of 15-1, had already wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the AFC and was sitting starters.
And in last year's second meeting, which took place on Christmas Day at Arrowhead, Mahomes had suffered his injury 11 days earlier and obviously wasn't playing. Taking the snaps instead was Chris Oladokun, who threw for all of 66 yards. Even so, Denver still needed a late touchdown pass from Bo Nix and a defensive stand to sneak away with a 20-13 win. So, again, put an asterisk on that one.
To be fair, though, the Broncos did win the first game in Week 11 with a healthy Mahomes in the Kansas City lineup, with Nix leading a 10-play, 58-yard drive in the final minutes to set up Will Lutz's game-winning 35-yard field goal as time expired.
Asterisks or not, the Chiefs are obviously hoping to end this little second-game losing streak to the Broncos, and we'll find out soon enough if they can make that happen.
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