KC Chiefs win streak over Denver Broncos ends at 16 straight

It turns out that 17 was the magic number.

The Denver Broncos came into Week 8 hoping that Sunday was finally the day they would reverse their fortunes against the Kansas City Chiefs—a longshot, of course, given their miserable losing streak against them. As it turned out, after 16 consecutive games in which they went home as the losing team, they finally enjoyed a victory against their division rivals in their 17th game.

The Broncos and Chiefs face off twice each season in the AFC West, but somehow Denver has come up empty-handed in the division each and every time as far back as 2015. It was the longest active streak in the NFL in terms of one team's dominance over another, and now the Broncos can finally breathe a little easier knowing such a monkey has been removed from their backs.

The Chiefs are still the class of the division and even now are well on their way to winning an eighth consecutive AFC West title (yes, eight straight). Despite their divisional dominance, the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders have at least proven capable of taking the occasional game against K.C. from year to year. As for Denver, they've come up shooting blanks each time.

For first-year head coach Sean Payton, this provides him with his first signature win as the Broncos' new leader despite the overall misery in 2023 so far. Will this keep Denver from selling at the deadline? Does this give them confidence going forward? They are still in the divisional basement with multiple games standing between them and the Chiefs (three to be exact).

There are future hours to give to such considerations, however. For now, the Broncos can call themselves winners in this series for the first time since Barack Obama was POTUS and David Letterman waved goodbye.