Broncos Rally To Best Chiefs 35-28

The Broncos and Chiefs had a huge showdown on Sunday in Arrowhead Stadium with the AFC West lead on the line. Both teams came in at 9-2, and the winner would have a clear path to the division title and possibly the #1 seed in the conference. The game itself was more entertaining than the prior contest these two teams played a few weeks back, and the Broncos had to rally from a 21-7 deficit to win the game 35-28. The game was a classic Peyton Manning game as he finished the game with 5 touchdown passes to take control of the game. With the win, the Broncos are now 10-2, and control the AFC West with their sweep of the Chiefs. It was as big of a win the Broncos had all season, and it will be one of those signature wins when the season ends. Here are my thoughts and observations about the game…..

1)    What a fast start to the Chiefs. They go right down the field on the opening drive, but Wesley Woodyard bailed out the Broncos with a huge interception of Alex Smith in the endzone. That was a tremendous play by him to save Denver on the opening drive.

2)    After that interception in the endzone, the Chiefs completely dominated the game. Also, Denver was lucky to survive this onslaught, and if they didn’t have Peyton Manning as their quarterback, then they would have lost this game convincingly.

3)    Here were the next few drives after that redzone pick: Interception by Manning, KC drives for a touchdown, a Manning to Eric Decker bomb for a touchdown, a KC kickoff return for a touchdown, another Manning pick, and another Alex Smith touchdown pass for a 21-7 KC lead. This game could have turned out very bad for Denver after that start.

4)    A key point in the game was when Dexter McCluster fielded a punt at his own 3 and was tackled immediately. The Denver defense forced a punt and they were able to get the ball back to Manning and the Denver offense. The Broncos scored on the next drive to cut the lead to 21-14.

5)    The story of this game after the early deficit was Manning. He was vintage Peyton. He finished 22-35 for 403 yards with 5 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The real story here was how well he threw the ball down the field. Manning’s throws were on target, crisp, and just perfectly thrown each time. It was another clinic put on by Manning, and it will shut up some of his critics for at least a week or two.

6)    How about Eric Decker? He had somewhat disappeared the last month, but yesterday he was tremendous. He routinely beat Marcus Cooper, and Manning found him every time, and Decker finished with 8 receptions for 174 yards and 4 touchdowns. It was a great performance. The best part was how he was constantly able to get behind Cooper and the Chiefs secondary. Each of Decker’s four touchdown passes were pretty unique. The first one was a 41-yard catch on a post with a perfect throw from Manning. The second one was a 37-yarder on another play action pass by Manning. The third one was a skinny post from 15 yards in which Manning zipped it between two defenders, and the fourth one was a fade in which Decker beat Cooper off the ball and Manning put the pass in the only spot he could. All four plays were a thing of beauty.

7)    Montee Ball was also key in this game with 117 yards on only 13 carries. Ball made some big runs during the stretch in which Denver scored touchdowns on four out of five possessions. His 28 yard run late in the game put the game away for the Broncos. We need a running game in these big games, so it is always a good sign to get one of our backs running well.

8)    The Denver defense continues to boggle my mind. They are about as streaky of a group as I have seen in a while. The bottom line is that everytime I think they are playing consistent, they seem to look really bad in big spots. On Sunday, after giving up a few scores early, they settled down and forced five straight punts. Up 35-21, they then let the Chiefs go down the field and score another touchdown to make it 35-28. On the last drive of the game, they let KC move the ball from their own 8 yard line to the Broncos 13 before Mike Adams broke up a fourth down pass.  Chris Harris played his best game of the season, and I thought that Von Miller was spotty. Malik Jackson filled in nicely for Derek Wolfe, and Wesley Woodyard played pretty well too. It seems like one week one guy plays great, but someone else doesn't. Champ Bailey looked really rusty coming back from injury, and DRC was out with a shoulder injury, so the secondary was pretty banged up. Just like their first meeting, the Chiefs helped out the Broncos by dropping a lot of passes. I just don't trust this defense. Everytime I start to feel good about them, they disappoint me and get beaten like a sieve. 

9) By the way, how about Kayvon Webster's awful attempt at knocking down a pass on the Chiefs last drive? It looked like Rahim Moore from last year's playoff game all over again. Can the Broncos defensive backs coach work on playing the ball better with these guys?

10) Overall, it was a huge win. It gives Denver essentially a two-game lead over KC in the West because they have swept them. It was a fun game to watch. It was a big game on the road in Arrowhead Stadium to finish off Thanksgiving weekend. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms were doing the game in the main doubleheader window on CBS. It was just one of those big games late in the season that you get so pumped for. This win will hopefully propel the Broncos to the #1 seed and homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.