The Broncos have to beat the Chiefs if they want to win the division

The Broncos host the Chiefs on Sunday at 5-2, and the 104.3 the Fan morning show sees the rematch as a chance to erase the memory of the 31-10 loss in the opener.

The Broncos have called a few games this season “the biggest one yet.” Sunday’s matchup with the Chiefs may be the first one where that’s true. Kansas City comes to Empower Field at Mile High with first place in the AFC West on the line, and the result will go a long way toward deciding whether Denver can win the division for the second straight year.

The first meeting set the tone for the Broncos’ rough start. In the season opener on Monday Night Football at Arrowhead, Kansas City won 31-10. Bo Nix threw an interception and fumbled three times. The offense never got going in Davis Webb’s debut as play caller. The defense, which carried this team last season, couldn’t tackle and couldn’t slow down the run.

Denver has looked like a different team since then. The Broncos started 2-2, then won three straight to get to 5-2. The Chiefs are 5-1. Their only loss came against Seattle, a team Denver beat in overtime.

On a recent edition of “Stokley and Evans, with Mark Schlereth” on 104.3 The Fan, Schlereth said plainly what Sunday means.

“If you’re gonna win the division, you gotta win this game,” Schlereth said.

He explained why.

“You can’t go 0-2 to Kansas City and be behind by 2 games,” Schlereth said.

A loss would drop Denver to 5-3 with Kansas City at 6-1. The Chiefs would have a game-and-a-half lead plus a sweep of the season series, which works out to about two games because they’d hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. With more than half the season left, that’s not impossible to overcome, but it’s close. A win would move Denver to 6-2, drop Kansas City to 5-2 and even the series.

Schlereth isn’t expecting the Chiefs to fade if Denver falls behind.

“They’re a good football team right. They are, and they’re gonna win, they’re gonna win a bunch of games. So I just believe that this is a game you have to win. Especially, you’ve gotta rectify, and you kinda gotta put that taste out of your mouth that happened on the opening night, Monday night, where you just didn’t, especially the defense that has led you, your defense just didn’t show up. And one player, Kenneth Walker, had more total yards than your entire offense did,” Schlereth said.

Walker’s night is what Denver’s defense has to answer for. He ran 23 times for 173 yards and a touchdown as Andy Reid kept the ball out of Patrick Mahomes’ hands in his first game back from a torn ACL and LCL. Walker nearly matched Denver’s entire offensive output by himself. For a unit that ranks third in the league in sacks and has bailed out the offense for much of the season, that game still stings.

This time, the defense will face a different version of the Chiefs. Mahomes is seven games removed from his return, and Reid is unlikely to lean on the run quite as heavily. Denver still has to start with tackling, setting edges and keeping Walker from controlling the game again. If the Broncos can make Kansas City one-dimensional, their pass rush gets a chance to go after Mahomes.

The offense has its own score to settle. The opener was one of the more lackluster performances of Nix’s career, and the weeks since haven’t fully ended the talk about his struggles. A steady performance against the same opponent, at home, would help more than anything else he could do right now.

Schlereth believes the Broncos are ready for that.

“This is one of those, get right, get back games, and I believe that the Broncos are prepared to do exactly that,” Schlereth said.

It isn’t technically a must-win. The Broncos would still have nine games left after Sunday. But if Denver wants to win the division again, Schlereth thinks this is the game where it has to happen.

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