The Denver Broncos lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 30-27 last night in a game that had more twists and turns than a Colorado mountain road.
Even the game winning field goal wasn’t without drama, as the Cairo Santos‘ field goal ricocheted off the upright, before slipping inside the opposite post to give the Chiefs the improbable win.
The game featured five lead changes and incredible performances by a number of players. but in the end, the Broncos found a way to come up short in so many ways.
Denver now falls to 7-4, and with just five games remaining, they have some serious obstacles to overcome.
Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from a memorable loss.
The Good
The defense for the first 57 minutes
The Broncos trailed for a good portion of the game, but the defense wasn’t to blame. Denver held Kansas City to just 120 yards and 16 points through most of four quarters.
Overall, the Broncos racked up six quarterback sacks and eight quarterback hits. They held the Chiefs running game to just 83 total yards and limited the KC offense to just 5 of 17 on third down conversions.
We won’t talk about what happened after those first 57 minutes … yet.
Despite not getting much help from his offensive line, Trevor Siemian had his best game as a pro.
The first-year starter threw for 368 yards, three touchdowns and put the Broncos in a position to win the game late in the fourth quarter.
Starting at his own 4-yard line while holding a precarious one-point lead, Siemian drove the offense 96 yards, to give Denver a 24-16 lead.
There is plenty of blame to go around in a loss like this one, but Trevor Siemian actually played pretty well.
The first half in particular, was the Von Miller show.
While the Denver offensive line was making things extremely difficult for the Broncos offense to do much, Miller was wreaking havoc on the Chiefs offense.
For the game, Von logged 10 tackles, three sacks, four quarterback hits and defended a pass.
He was all over the field Sunday night, and his performance went far beyond just being a pass rusher.
It isn’t a coincidence that the Broncos defense struggled during the time that Talib was out with a back injury. But Talib returned to form on Sunday night, as he picked up five tackles and made it very difficult to throw anything in his direction.
Recently Pro Football Focus rated Aqib Talib the top corner in the game today.
He showed why against Kansas City.
The Bad
The outcome
The loss is a gut punch to a team that was hoping to get things back on track after the bye week.
Now, instead of looking to challenge the Raiders for the division lead, the Broncos find themselves sitting just outside the playoff picture.
At 7-4 they are currently tied with the Miami Dolphins for the final Wild Card spot in the AFC, but Miami would win that tiebreaker due to a better conference record.
The Broncos remaining schedule will be facing AFC foes with a combined record of 34-22.
With just five games remaining, this team has a tough road to get back into contention.
The defense for the final 18 minutes of the game.
After holding the Chiefs offense to just 120 yards through the first 57 minutes of the game, the Denver defense must have felt like they had earned a well-deserved break.
With just three minutes remaining Trevor Siemian found Bennie Fowler for a 76-yard touchdown to give the Broncos a 24-16 lead.
The Chiefs hadn’t done anything to make us think that they could earn much more than a first down or two, let alone a touchdown and two-point conversion, but there they went, driving 75 yards in 2:48 to score the touchdown, and pick up the conversion.
The Kansas City offense dinked and dunked right down the field, converting two third downs and a fourth down.
In overtime, the Denver offense managed to generate a 44-yard field goal to recapture the lead, but it would be another missed opportunity for the defense, as they allowed the Chiefs to drive 46 yards and knot the game up once again.
Maybe they were tired from carrying the team in the first half, or maybe KC simply out-executed them down the stretch, but for the first time in recent memory, the Orange Crush failed to deliver with the game on the line.
The Ugly
After being benched for his performance against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10, Donald Stephenson had to come back on in relief of right tackle Ty Sambrailo.
The former second-round draft pick was absolutely outmatched by Chiefs pass rusher Justin Houston, who was completely dominating the game, until he was slowed down by a shoulder injury.
Houston went inside, outside, over, under and through Sambrailo on his way to 10 tackles, three sacks and four tackles for loss.
It was the kind of performance that makes you wonder if the Broncos young lineman can bounce back from it.
The special teams gaffes
It was not a great night for the Broncos special teams, and it really had nothing to do with the kickers.
Sure, Brandon McManus missed a 62-yarder that would have won the game, but did we really expect him to break the NFL record for longest overtime winner? And punter Riley Dixon was solid all night, with a 45.2 average and three punts inside the KC 20-yard line.
No, this was more about the coverage units, which allowed rookie Tyreek Hill to return a kickoff 86 yards for a first half touchdown.
Then Chiefs returner De’Anthony Thomas got into the act, too, returning the Broncos overtime kickoff 41 yards from 6 yards deep in his own endzone.
And we haven’t even mentioned the two fumbles of Broncos punt returner Jordan Norwood.
The first one pinned the Denver offense inside their own 5-yard line and led to an eventual safety and the Hill kickoff return for a touchdown.
The second one forfeited the Denver offense with what would have been very good field position.
Add in a few penalties committed by this unit and it’s pretty clear that the special teams mistakes were crucial.
The coaching decisions
Gary Kubiak is now 4-5 as a head coach coming off of the bye week.
Who knows what this season still holds, but there were a few decisions that left Broncos fans scratching their heads after the loss.
Kicking the ball anywhere near the aforementioned Tyreek Hill was proven to be questionable at best.
It can be debated whether or not the Broncos should have gone for two points after the Siemian to Fowler touchdown. At worst, Denver would have held a seven-point lead. But in a best-case scenario, it would have been a two-possession game.
But attempting the 62-yard game-winning field goal on a cold windy night may have been the most confusing of the bunch.
The Broncos faced a fourth and 10 at the Kansas City 44-yard line with 1:08 remaining and when the McManus kick went wide, the Chiefs offense took over at the Denver 48-yard line.
Four plays later and the Denver season took a horrible turn for the worse.
There is plenty of blame to go around after this loss.
And this coaching staff is hardly immune.
