Arrowhead Pride
What is Arrowhead Pride Premier? Arrowhead Pride Premier is our tri-weekly newsletter, one that provides analysis and exclusive insights directly from Arrowhead Stadium, delivered straight to your inbox. Below is a preview of the latest edition.
BY PETE SWEENEY
The Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos enter Sunday involved in one of the more unique rivalries in all of sports when you consider the results of the past decade and change.
Following a Chiefs AFC West title in 2010, the Broncos won the division the next five seasons. Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith spearheaded the next Chiefs’ run in 2016, and Patrick Mahomes picked it up in 2018, never looking back in extending the current streak to eight.
The mutual contempt has always remained, but both sides would agree that it has a much better feel when it’s competitive.
On Sunday, Denver presents a 5-4 team against Kansas City in the Week 10 matchup, which marks the first time a Broncos team plays the Chiefs with an above-.500 record since Week 13 of the 2021 season. In that 22-9 win for Kansas City, running back Darrel Williams led the team in production with 82 scrimmage yards. You’d have to dig back to 2016 to find the next instance of a Denver team with a winning record taking on the Chiefs.
In other words, it’s been a while. Let’s dive into what to expect from this matchup.
Breaking the Chiefs’ undefeated streak won’t be easy, simply considering Patrick Mahomes has his swagger back.
From an individual statistical standpoint, Mahomes did not have the start to the 2024 season that he would have liked – and he admitted that – though he acknowledged that winning each and every week eased any concerns there.
In the last two weeks, however, he has looked much more like the two-time NFL MVP we have grown accustomed to watching. In the past two games, he is 61 of 82 for 553 yards, five touchdowns and a lone interception that stemmed from a bat-down at the line of scrimmage.
On Thursday, I asked his offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, why he believes the quarterback appears much more comfortable.
“You notice the last several weeks, we’ve been running the ball a lot,” said Nagy. “I feel like there’s an identity that’s being created here as we get to the middle of the season. Sometimes, that identity happens instantly, a couple weeks in. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer. I feel like maybe that’s the case of – not just for the offense, but for the team in general, how we feel like we can win this year. When you can protect the football, you don’t have turnovers, you don’t have penalties on offense and you score touchdowns like those three out of the last four drives we had last week, football, it can be fun on offense.”
In four consecutive weeks, the Chiefs have given Hunt 20-plus carries per...
