Arrowhead Pride
The Kansas City Chiefs’ closely contested 22-19 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday dropped the team’s record to 5-5, keeping the team outside of the AFC playoff picture and giving Denver firm control of the AFC West.
For the Chiefs’ fans, this was a bitter loss that washed away a decade’s worth of dominance over the Broncos — and put Kansas City behind the eight ball in the AFC West for the first time in a long time.
The game was tied at three different points — and was eventually defined by each team’s final offensive possession.
Kansas City got the ball back with over four minutes remaining in the game; the offense appeared to be in position for a vintage late-game drive captained by quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Running back Kareem Hunt had turned in a productive day — averaging 4.5 yards per carry with a touchdown — but the Broncos had no fear of the run due to Hunt’s light usage: just 13 carries. That made play-action designs much less effective — so when the Chiefs tried it on first down, it didn’t materialize.
Here, we see Mahomes attempt to fit a throw into tight end Travis Kelce’s hands, but the ball is behind him — and nearly leads to an interception. This stops the clock and brings up second-and-10.
The Chiefs needed to create forward momentum and get their playmakers involved. The next play-call did anything but that.
Even though veteran tight end Robert Tonyan had played only seven snaps in the game, Kansas City here attempts to sneak a pass to him out of 13 personnel: one running back and three tight ends.
There is nothing wrong with the heavier personnel, but the Chiefs use Kelce (and tight end Noah Gray) as shallow decoys; Tonyan works a deeper route behind them. Even more questionable: running back Kareem Hunt aligns wide, while wideout Rashee Rice starts from the backfield. Neither player has any impact on the play; Rice is just a decoy.
Tonyan is open briefly, but it will take a perfect pass to get the ball past the linebackers. So Mahomes scrambles — nearly completing a miraculous throw to Kelce — but the pass is ruled incomplete.
That brought up a critical third down and an obvious passing situation.
Here, Kansas City uses a form of big-on-big protection to counter Denver showing six at the line of scrimmage; the five linemen are picking up the most dangerous rushers.
On the snap, one of the two linebackers who is threatening to blitz drops — along with a defensive tackle. Center Creed Humphrey initially steps right to take the blitzer to that side, but he redirects when that linebacker drops — possibly indicating that Humphrey intends to leave the one on his left for Hunt in the backfield.
So when edge rusher Nick Bonitto loops inside — grabbing the attention of left tackle Josh Simmons — there is a free rusher coming from...
