The Broncos can’t let an utterly devastating loss derail their season

The Denver Broncos loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday was one of their worst regular season defeats ever.

When the Chiefs blocked Wil Lutz’s 35-yard field goal at the buzzer, you could almost hear the entire Mile High City throw their remotes in disgust.

People are sad now, given that nearly 48 hours has passed, but the most overwhelming emotion in the moment was anger. That was devastating. There’s no other way to slice it.

The Broncos being unable to convert what essentially mounted to a glorified extra point felt like amateur hour. High school teams routinely boot 35-yard kicks in with ease. It’s a play that has to be made at the pro level.

Especially after rookie QB Bo Nix did what he did. Nix converted three third-downs on a nearly six-minute drive, used the whole clock and made Kansas City burn all of its timeouts. Denver had it, they really did. And by now you know offensive lineman Alex Forsyth got absolutely demolished and the Chiefs blocked the kick.

Head coach Sean Payton said on Monday the horrendous mistake is more on the coaches than the player. After all, Forsyth had gotten pancaked many times in the last few weeks on field goals and extra points.

Payton isn’t wrong, but that makes it almost even worse. How does it take a bunch of media members identifying what was happening? These coaches make millions of dollars to watch hours and hours of film, and no one saw it? CEO Greg Penner has to be just as sick as the fanbase about that gaffe.

But here’s the thing: the Broncos can’t let this derail their season.

Nope, it wasn’t a playoff loss that will sting all spring and summer. This was a regular season game, and Denver gets to play next Sunday.

At 5-5, the Broncos are still the No. 7 seed in a very weak AFC. It’ll likely come down to them and the Bengals for the final postseason spot in the conference. There’s still plenty of winnable football games ahead of them, and they have to flush what happened in Kansas City. There’s simply no other choice.

The pitiful Raiders and Browns are still on the schedule. So are the Colts, who are currently undergoing a QB crisis. And yes, there’s a trip to Cincinnati in Week 17 that may very well decide who makes the dance and who goes home.

This defense is too special and Nix is making too many big strides for the 2024 season to go down the toilet thanks to an awful play at the worst possible time.

The question becomes, do the Broncos have the leaders in the locker room to truly move on? This is a young group, without a lot of winning experience at the NFL level. Everyone can say what they need to say in front of microphones this week, but rebounding on Sunday against the Falcons is an entirely different matter.

And that’s the beauty of sports. We’ll know over the next seven games whether or not Denver let what happened against the Chiefs ruin the rest of the year. The evidence will be on the field, certainly not during a press conference.

Life isn’t fair, and the Broncos found that out the hard way at Arrowhead. Now they have to prove they’re a resilient bunch. If not a playoff drought that has tortured the fanbase since 2015 will continue.

Everyone has a right to feel angry, disgusted and depressed because of what happened against the Chiefs. But the players in orange and blue have to move on faster than Broncos Country.

That’s their responsibility when they put on that jersey, and emotions will calm down in a big way if Denver can get to 6-5 this coming weekend.