Despite a Christmas win, the Broncos narrowly escaped a depleted Chiefs. They must elevate their play to secure the AFC's top seed.
The Denver Broncos just find ways to win close games, and that happened again on Christmas night against a depleted Kansas City Chiefs team at Arrowhead Stadium. The Broncos survived with a 20-13 win to stay alive for the AFC No. 1 seed, but it was a tie game late in the fourth quarter before Bo Nix put Denver ahead for good with a rushing score.
Now, the Broncos are in wait-and-see mode, rooting for teams such as the Los Angeles Chargers to lose and other things to happen to win the AFC West and/or AFC No. 1 seed. Despite that, there are some concerns with the way the Broncos played on Thursday night.
Eric Edholm of NFL.com wrote some things we learned from the win, and one of them was obvious: Denver must play better. Here's what he wrote about that one:
"The Broncos are well-positioned to win the AFC West and clinch the AFC’s No. 1 seed, but this one was a little too close for comfort. Coming off the disappointing two-TD loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Broncos were heavily favored against a Chiefs team down two QBs with a first-time starter and missing two of their top receivers. The Broncos defense held the Chiefs to 139 yards, but Kansas City was one or two more plays away from potentially tying or winning the game late. They had only one sack in the game and had some painful penalties in the second half, including a 27-yard defensive pass interference call against Patrick Surtain II to give the Chiefs some life. After two red-zone failures, the Broncos finally converted with two touchdowns down there, but it was a tighter game than it should have been considering the circumstances. There’s still a potentially significant game left against the Chargers, assuming Los Angeles beats the Houston Texans this weekend. The Broncos will need to sharpen up with so much at stake."
Yes, the Broncos won again, and that's a promising sign after losing the week before to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
However, the Chiefs were playing third-string QB Chris Oladokun in his first-ever NFL start, and they were without others including Rashee Rice.
Yet, the Chiefs hung around the entire game, even driving down the field in the final minute with a chance to tie the game up.
The Broncos have been in plenty of close games this season, and while they have won the games more often than not, they need to improve going into the postseason.