In a season of giveaways, the Denver Broncos finally came together — only to have a win snatched away

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It seemed as if the Broncos made it their New Year’s resolution to play competent football in Jerry Rosburg’s debut as interim head coach.

Mission accomplished.

In their 27-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the offense played sensibly and controlled the pace. The special-teams unit had its finest game this season — and perhaps longer.

The Broncos lost. But they came within factors beyond their control of doing so much more.

Yeah, it was a loss.

But if not for a call that Courtland Sutton diplomatically called “interesting,” the streak could have ended.

More on a day when the Broncos played with pride, had a sensible game plan and nearly pulled off the upset of the year in Jerry Rosburg’s debut: pic.twitter.com/LrKwTctWt3

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 1, 2023

OK, so bad calls happen all the time. With many, one hand washes the other. But they are not always the same. So, try as Chiefs Kingdom might to both-sides this one, it will fall victim to the false-equivalency fallacy.

If one side receives a fully-loaded, brand-new Lexus and the other gets a pair of socks and a kicking tee, both sides got gifts. But they are not the same.

And Kansas City, a team that needs and wants for nothing except larger video boards above its end zones, saw some unexpected, belated presents land under their red-and-yellow Christmas tree.

The Chiefs can consider themselves fortunate to escape. At times, Patrick Mahomes looked mortal. He opened the second half with six consecutive incompletions. And their defense left underneath gaps that Russell Wilson patiently exploited.

All of that ensured that for a moment late third quarter, the Broncos had perhaps the biggest upset in franchise history in their grasp.

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AN “INTERESTING” CALL

The Broncos haven’t won a game as at least a 12-point underdog since they joined the NFL in 1970. But when Courtland Sutton nabbed a 44-yard, third-and-11 pass from Russell Wilson down the right flank with 4:10 remaining in the third quarter, even the most audacious of outcomes seemed realistic.

Then flew the flag.

“I had two guys there. Caught the ball, saw a flag was on the ground. I thought it was going to be DPI [defensive pass interference],” Sutton said.

Instead, it was on Sutton, for contact on Chiefs safety Bryan Cook.

Their arms became tangled, with Cook’s left arm appearing to initiate contact. Sutton’s arm rose, and then the two had arms lock before separating. Cook fell back, Chiefs cornerback Jaylen Watson contested the pass, and Sutton came down with it.

Courtland Sutton, on the third-quarter pass-interference call: “I thought it was going to be DPI. It turned into OPI. Interesting. But, happened.” pic.twitter.com/gLr1Bciy0F

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 1, 2023

“Interesting,” Sutton mused. “But, happened.”

A moment later, he added: “When I asked the official that threw the flag, he said that I pushed the defender in the chest to make the catch, and that’s where the flag came from.

“But you guys can watch the film and see what happened.”

Jerry Jeudy concurred.

“Yeah, man, that ain’t no pass interference,” Jeudy said. “They (the officials) re going to hear from the league for that later on during the week. But that nothing I can control. But everybody else knows that wasn’t no pass-interference call.”

“How do you get a pass-interference call with two guys on you?”

He laughed.

“Yeah, I seen the replay. He ain’t even touch him at all,” Jeudy said. “But it’s all good. Sometimes, there’s just missed calls. It is what it is. Out of my control.”

That call was bad enough. But it became worse as it turned into the obvious turning point. It turned first-and-10 at the Kansas City 40-yard line into a punt. Six plays after that, Mahomes hit Blake Bell down the middle for a 17-yard touchdown catch, and Denver never saw the lead again. L’Jarius Sneed intercepted Wilson on the next play from scrimmage. The Chiefs found the end zone 17 yards and four plays later.

Just like that, it had all come apart.

Two plays after the Chiefs took a 27-17 lead, Kansas City CB Trent McDuffie blasted Kendall Hinton down the right seam. It appeared to be a clear example of hitting a defenseless receiver. That’s usually a 15-yard penalty. No flag came. An incensed Sutton yelled at the official near the Broncos sideline.

Courtland Sutton, on the officials not calling the Chiefs for a hit on a defenseless receiver on the play when Kendall Hinton got tricked: “I would like to get the same protection that the other guys (the Chiefs) were getting, for my guys (the Broncos) out there.” pic.twitter.com/YU0RwY2Irp

— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) January 1, 2023

“I would like to get the same protection that the other guys (the Chiefs) were getting, for my guys (the Broncos) out there,” Sutton said.

Alas, the Broncos had no breaks forthcoming.

“OK, so, I’m the interim head coach, right? But I know how the NFL office works when it comes to coaches criticizing officials,” Rosburg said. “I thought, ‘That’s a fine crew, and there’s a lot of good officials and this is a hard game to officiate.’ It doesn’t mean that I can’t have my disagreements.

“So, what’s the word that’s kind of innocuous — unfortunate, perhaps? That’s pretty harmless. So, yeah, there’s an unfortunate no-call during that game that I disagree with.”

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STILL, THEY FOUGHT BACK

And in the final moments, the Broncos had possession with a 3-point deficit and all three timeouts remaining.

When the Broncos’ final fourth down failed, Rosburg’s temperature was as hot as the coals in countless grills in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot before kickoff Sunday. It appeared as if Kansas City’s Frank Clark might have jumped the snap.

“I thought that somebody jumped,” center Graham Glasgow said. “I thought that we were going to get a free play out of it, so I pulled the ball, and, it turns out, he didn’t jump.

“As I said, I made a mistake there. And unfortunately, that was the game.”

And afterward, in the bowels of Arrowhead Stadium, Rosburg remained diplomatic.

“Unfortunate. The word of the day. Highly, highly unfortunate.”

But there were other moments. At the end of that failed fourth down, Kansas City’s Chris Jones rag-dolled Wilson to the ground. No flag flew. There were others about which there were more doubt — including a Wilson fumble just before halftime.

The Broncos aren’t a team that has a margin for error.

But usually, the errors that seal their fate are of their own doing.

By and large, that wasn’t the case Sunday.

This wasn’t one that got away from the Broncos. It was snatched from them.

“It wasn’t good enough. And I’m heartbroken for those guys,” Rosburg said. “Because they deserved a win.”

The Broncos’ effort deserved better.

But in this train-wreck of a season, it figured they would have a game in which they played well enough to beat one of the league’s elite — only to see it taken away.

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