Broncos show they’re now truly the boss of the AFC West in turning back Mahomes, Chiefs

DENVER — One does not simply slam the door on the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs when just one yard separates them from the goal line in the final seconds of a one-score game.

These Denver Broncos did.

One also does not quickly overturn an 11-point deficit against that team in the fourth quarter after a hat trick of three-and-outs that left the home fans booing ever more vocally with each passing offensive failure, frustrated by the poor run of form after halftime and bedraggled by the cool autumn rain that descended upon Empower Field at Mile High as darkness shrouded the venue and the third quarter became the fourth.

But it took just 11 plays on two series for Bo Nix, Jonah Coleman and the Broncos offense to make it right and turn another two-score second-half deficit into a lead and a win, just as they did against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams earlier this season.

It was hard to discern which side of the ball had the more heroic conclusion: the one that reversed its fortune and hit fifth gear after being stuck in neutral, or the one that put up the stop sign against the offense led by the most accomplished quarterback of his generation just 36 inches from paydirt.

“That’s what we’re capable of doing, man,” left tackle Garett Bolles said a short while after the 28-24 result went final. “Our offense was rolling tonight. Our defense made plays in the final minute when we needed to make (them). …”

“That’s just what we do, man. We piggy-back off of each other.”

Added cornerback Riley Moss: “It’s the hard-to-kill mentality. You can get shot a couple of times. But we’re still going to be crawling; we’re still going to be trying to finish the job. It was fun.”

Given the consequences of a loss — which would have made winning the AFC West an unlikely outcome, given that the Chiefs would have had a two-game lead in the loss column — the Broncos faced the highest regular-season stakes for such a singular moment in years, against a foe which to that point had outscored them 55-23 over seven quarters of play this season, and delivered with a fourth quarter that was the product of their experience in such contests.

In the Broncos’ last 16 one-score games with Nix at quarterback, they have 16 wins. And their 15-straight wins in such games in the regular season is the most by any team in 17 years.

“Nobody blinks in those moments,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “Obviously we don’t want to do what we did in the third quarter, but being able to continue to stay the course and put points on the board when we needed them is really, really cool.”

In the huddle when the offense stepped onto the field in the wake of its three-and-outs, the demeanor was composed.

“It’s just, ‘Keep on keeping on,'” McGlinchey said. “That’s all it was. It’s just, you’re looking for answers. You’re looking for ways to get first downs — and we kind of knew that if we could just get that first first down, it’s cliché, but once you go open up the one (first down), you can get moving and get into a rhythm and we were able to do that in the fourth quarter.”

And within four snaps, the Broncos sprinted from their own 20-yard line into the Kansas City red zone, with Coleman’s 10-yard run launching it and then Adam Trautman’s 22-yard catch-and-run providing a needed explosive play — with a 15-yard penalty adding to the damage at Kansas City’s expense.

JUST LIKE THAT, IT WAS ALL HAPPENING AGAIN FOR THE BRONCOS

At that point, anyone who watches the Broncos on a regular basis knew what was happening. Once again, the Comeback Express was at full speed, roaring down the tracks.

A few years ago, the words “Here we go again” in a Broncos game meant something was going wrong. That’s what happens when you pile up seven-straight losing seasons. These days, it means something completely different.

“That’s what we’re capable of doing, man,” left tackle Garett Bolles said. “Our offense was rolling tonight. Our defense made plays in the final minute when we needed to make (them). …”

“That’s just what we do, man. We piggy-back off of each other.”

That carried over to the defensive side, which had to get the Chiefs off the field twice in the final five minutes of the game — first holding them to a field-goal attempt, and the second time keeping them out of the end zone after Coleman’s touchdown run left 1:56 on the clock — which, in the Mahomes Era, might as well be an epoch.

Even as the Chiefs approached the goal line, the defense was cool and composed. And before the last snap, when the unit huddled, it was all business. What was said?

“Nothing,” Moss said. “Get the call in, and laser-focused: finish it.”

The offense, meanwhile, so steely and calm when action was needed and delivered? That’s a different matter when they’re on the sideline, unable to do anything but watch.

“I was saying a few Hail Mary’s on the sidelines,” McGlinchey said. I was praying to some guardian angels, and they came through and our defense did, too, and it was an unbelievable stand there.”

But McGlinchey could still look and watch. Bolles couldn’t.

“I don’t know if I was really watching. I think I had my head in my helmet, just praying to the good Lord it’s our time; please, please, let us prevail.”

His prayers were answered.

“It is our time,” Bolles said. “The last four years, we’ve just gotten better and better. This team has stuck together. We brought some pieces in — the pieces that we needed. But we never give up on each other, and it’s all about the brotherhood that we have in this locker room.”

The next nine weeks and the postseason beyond will show if it’s the Broncos’ time to seize every spoil the sport allows.

But Sunday’s rally and final stand was the product of all of the comebacks, all of the late-game heroics the Broncos have accumulated over the last three-plus seasons.

From the first win of the Sean Payton era — when Denver overcame a 28-7 deficit in the final 16 minutes — to the narrow comeback wins over the Jaguars and Rams earlier this season, to the defense’s pair of late interceptions that allowed the Broncos to turn away the Seattle Seahawks despite the offense collapsing for most of the final three quarters, the Broncos stacked one tough win after another.

There were even the excruciating losses too, at Houston in 2023, at Kansas City and Cincinnati a year later, even the walk-off defeats in back-to-back road games early last season — all of it gave the Broncos the reservoir of experience and confidence into which they could tap to pull out a win that most teams wouldn’t be able to complete, against a foe used to coming out on top in such situations.

That was the modus operandi for the Chiefs over nearly all of the last decade. Not anymore. And the sight of Patrick Mahomes on the ground, brought down by Malcolm Roach as the clock struck zero late Sunday afternoon was the visual evidence of that.

Now, in the AFC West, the Broncos are THAT team, the one that finds paths to victory that leave opponents bewildered, befuddled and bearing the weight of questions they struggle to answer.

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