Three observations from the Broncos loss to the Chiefs in Week 14

The Denver Broncos were back at home in Week 14. Originally slated to be a showcase game for the NFL, the game was flexed out of Sunday Night Football because the Broncos are so bad. The Kansas City Chiefs are one of the league’s marquee teams, but the Broncos stink so much the NFL did not want to put fans through another bad game in prime time.

It turned out not to be a bad game.

The Chiefs could be the best team in football. The Broncos are almost the worst team in the NFL, so this was never going to be an even matchup. However, the Broncos showed a ton of heart and competed at a high level against the Chiefs. They ended up falling to their division rival by a score of 34-28.
Broncos head coach (for now) Nathaniel Hackett was proud of his players for their effort against the Chiefs after falling behind early in the game.

“The goal is to win. We all know that. But to watch these guys when you’re down 27-0—everybody had a choice on how they wanted to continue that game. I’m so impressed with all those guys—defense, offense, special teams. They didn’t blink, they stayed together. Defense came through with a big play for an interception and offense was able to play complementary football and score and continually score after they got another interception and then another one. That’s all, it’s great. It was awesome. We have to finish. We had opportunities to continually win that game. I appreciate that, and that is kind of that moral victory, but we want to win the game. We had a chance to. But the fight that these guys have is awesome,” Hackett said.

Here are my three biggest observations from the loss to the Chiefs.

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Bend But Don’t Break

Over 49 percent of Kansas City’s drives this year on offense have resulted in points. On their first drive, the Chiefs had no problem getting into field goal range. Their drive faltered, and they ended up settling for a field goal. Against a high-powered offense like the Chiefs, that must be considered a ‘win’ for the Broncos defense.

On the Chiefs’ second drive, they once again had to settle for three points. Another ‘win’ for the Broncos defense. Then, the Broncos defense really got after the Chiefs’ offense when they started getting turnovers. Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes ended up throwing three interceptions that kept the Broncos in the game. Two of the interceptions were thrown to inside linebacker Josey Jewell, and one interception was thrown to Patrick Surtain.

Jewell did a good job of making plays after the interception to gain some yards. Surtain did a great job diving for the interception, and all three of these turnovers led to points for the Broncos. They were playing a bend-but-don’t-break defense, and then they took advantage of mistakes by the Chiefs. That sounds like a good plan, but in the end it fell short. However, we need to praise the effort from this team as they never gave up.
After the game, Hackett praised the performance of his defense and of Jewell.

“He’s been great. Obviously, he has the green dots, so he runs the whole thing. We call the play into him, and he keeps those guys together. It’s a testament to him, with the defense—the whole defense, as a group being able to get out there, communicate, play very, very good offense, getting down by that much and still battling through it, being in the right place at the right time. So our coaches did a great job—I mean, to pick off Patrick Mahomes three times, is impressive. Pat got his first one, which was great to see also. Which gave us a chance to get some points. It was a great job by both guys. They did a great job,” Hackett said.

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Just Keep Fighting

Broncos’ starting quarterback Russell Wilson was knocked out the game with a concussion. Before he went down hard to the turf, Wilson was showing a lot of fight. It didn’t start out that way, as Wilson and the offense were struggling early. However, after the first interception by Jewell the team started to erupt.

Wilson was back to vintage Wilson. We’ve seen that kind of play for a few times here and there this season, but Wilson has not been consistent with his throwback effort. Instead of running when defenses give him a lane, too often this year Wilson is holding onto the ball looking to make plays from the pocket. Against the Chiefs, Wilson was inspired and had plenty of fight to his game.

He was knocked out late in the game with a concussion, but even on that play Wilson was giving it his all. Hopefully he’s able to work his way through the league’s concussion protocol this week and get back out there against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 15.

Hackett had nothing but praise for Wilson’s performance.

“He was fighting the whole game. I give him so much credit and you see it, day-in and day-out. No matter what the situation is, just watching him there in that third-down situation to be able to break the pocket, and he was using his legs a lot. He obviously ended up getting a concussion. I think our medical team did a great job of getting him in here. He’s in the concussion protocol now. So we’ll go through that step-by-step process and do it the right way. But he played really well,” Hackett said.

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Showing Some Heart and Explosiveness

Some say the Broncos were embarrassed in the first half against the Chiefs. While that may be partially true, I like the heart the team showed late in the second quarter. That’s when the team was sparked by their defense to respond on offense. This was the team’s Super Bowl, and they did not go down without a fight.

On defense, the Broncos showed plenty of heart. Guys were out there battling against some of the league’s biggest superstars. They were able to pick off Mahomes three times, and TE Travis Kelce was slowed after a hot start in the first quarter. The Broncos defenders should be proud of their efforts – even in the loss.

On offense, the Broncos had some explosive plays. It was a lot of WR Jerry Jeudy getting by defenders, but RB Marlon Mack chipped in with a big catch-and-run to score as well. We haven’t seen many plays like this from the Broncos. The Jeudy plays were due to his route-running ability and skill after the catch. Mack’s catch-and-run touchdown was a well-designed play that was called at the right time. The Broncos tried to go back to that type of screen play later in the game, but the Chiefs were ready after getting burned by Mack.

Like he often does, Hackett says he needs to look at the film before determining why his offense played better on Sunday.

“Well we get to look at the tape and we’ll be able to dive in a little deeper. I think that we were able to make some explosive plays. I think we were able to find Jerry. We were able to get a big one on the screen. The guy’s kind of felt the rhythm. I thought Russell did a great job using his feet. Whenever he’s able to break the pocket and run. He had some explosive runs there, which got us some good rushing yards and move the ball. We got the third down conversion. I think we’re good at the red zone, the third down all those things, all the things that we have planned on it. It’s just about execution. It’s about building a good game plan and then executing that, even when you’re down. If you have both those things, you always have a chance,” Hackett said.

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