KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Last week in Baltimore, the Broncos got punched in the mouth.
Sunday here at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the Broncos suffered a gut punch.
“A punch in the gut. I was standing there on the sideline and the soul kind of leaves your body,'' said Broncos' tight end Adam Trautman. "It’s a pretty terrible way to lose.’’
It was a perfectly executed game plan for Sean Payton, Bo Nix and the Broncos.
Down 16-14 with 5:57 left in the game, Nix and another rookie, running back Audric Estime, led a wondrously methodical drive that put kicker Wil Lutz in position for an easy, 35-yard field goal with 1 second left in the game. Essentially an extra point and Lutz is 19 of 19 on extra points this year.
Make it and the Broncos would have knocked off the undefeated Chiefs, on their home field no less, and put themselves two full games clear of all comers for the AFC's final playoff spot.
But Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenel blasted through Broncos' blocker Alex Forsythe and blocked Lutz's kick.
Chiefs' superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes II exuberantly ran on the field in celebration of his team once again hanging on by the skin of their arrowhead to defeat the heartbroken Broncos, 16-14.
On an otherwise brilliantly bright and pleasant early November Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium, there was stunned dejection on the visiting sideline. There was also something more.
"There was penetration from the left side,'' said Broncos coach Sean Payton in explaining the blocked kick.
“That’s not for me to say,'' Lutz said when asked about the penetration. "Our job as a field goal unit is to put it through the uprights and it didn’t go through.”
Did the Chiefs detect a weakness in the Broncos' field-goal protection?
"We did, but it’s also something that we work on like crazy so – it normally doesn’t work quite like that but that one, we had a couple different guys,'' said Chiefs coach Andy Reid. "George (Karlaftis) was in there too I believe. I haven’t had a chance to look at the replay but it looked like we had a couple different guys in there."
The Broncos lost their second in a row to fall to 5-5. While the Broncos still hold the No. 7 AFC playoff seed, one game clear of the Bengals and Colts, they could have moved two games ahead with seven remaining. The Broncos have both the Colts and Bengals to play on their remaining schedule.
Those dang-blasted Chiefs, perhaps the luckiest team the NFL has seen since the Patriots' dynasty, are 9-0 with seven of their wins by one score or less.
This was a much more difficult defeat for the Broncos to absorb than last week's 41-10 shellacking they took from the Ravens in Baltimore. The Ravens were the better team last week. On Sunday at Arrowhead, the Broncos were the better team. And they still lost.
“I felt like we outplayed them,'' Payton said. "We had an opportunity right at the end. Had control of the ball. We’ve got to be able to finish. That one will take a while. It’ll sting.”
The Broncos led 14-3 in the second quarter, 14-10 at halftime and 14-13 entering the fourth quarter.
“It’s tough to lose like this, I ain’t going to lie,'' said cornerback Pat Surtain II.
“I don’t even know what to say. I’ve never lost a game anything like that,'' said Denver defensive end Zach Allen, who returned to his dominant self with a sack, three quarterback hits and a pass deflection he wishes he could have made a close-range interception. "That’s a tough one.”
Nix was 22 of 30 for 215 yards in a valiant performance in defeat. His biggest completions in the second quarter -- a 6-yard scoring strike to rookie Devaughn Vele and a perfectly thrown deep ball to veteran Courtland Sutton for a 32-yard touchdown.
The Broncos’ rookie didn’t blink in his matchup against the great Patrick Mahomes II, who was also terrific, completing 28 of 42 for 266 yards and a 2-yard touchdown bullet to tight end Travis Kelce that came on fourth and goal from 2 with 1:44 left in the half.
“I believe if a team trusts you and believes in you and they put you on this level, you have the right to go out there and feel like you belong,'' Nix said about his mindset entering his matchup with Mahomes. "I feel like every player that goes out there on any team, you’re at the pinnacle of football, you’re at the top, you’re here and you have a right to go out there and play with confidence and play like you belong on this stage or if not they really will destroy you and you won’t have a chance.
"You’ve got to play with ultimate confidence. We’re playing with confidence. We’ve just got to find a certain way throughout the game, whoever it is just making a play. But I felt confident going into the game, we had a real good plan, we executed it early but I was excited to go toe-to-toe with the great (Mahomes). Nobody else had that opportunity today but I did so I wanted to go out there and do my best at it. I appreciated it.”
It was actually Mahomes who blinked on his final pass, missing a wide open Kelce in the back of the end zone in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs had to settle for a go-ahead, chip shot field goal with 5:56 remaining.
The four-point missed throw should have come back to cost Mahomes and the Chiefs their first loss of the season. But because of a blocked field goal with 0:00 remaining, it didn't.
"I was just sick that last drive because I missed that touchdown throw that would’ve given us the chance to make it where they had to score a touchdown,'' Mahomes said. "Put our defense in a bad situation. I thought our defense stepped up in that second half and did a great job. I was just happy. I was happy that we ended with that block and Leo got through there. It was just joy after that.”
There was anguish on the other sideline.
“It doesn’t hurt you if you don’t care,'' Nix said. "It doesn’t you if it doesn’t mean anything to you. It doesn’t hurt if you don’t put in work and want the good results. Everybody in that locker room is hurting because we do all that stuff. We put in the energy and the effort. We’re out there practicing and it’s hard and it’s difficult. Eventually it’s going to go in our favor but right now it hasn’t."
After the Mahomes' misfire to Kelce, another reliable Chief, kicker Harrison Butker, then made a near-fatal mistake of booting his kickoff short of the landing zone, giving the Broncos' starting field position at their own 40. A couple short Nix pass completions and strong running by Estime moved the Broncos to the Chiefs' 31 yard line at the 2-minute warning.
The Broncos then milked the clock and ate up the rest of Reid's timeouts when Nix came through with a clutch, third-and-6 conversion by completing a 13-yard pass to Courtland Sutton, who registered the last of his six catches and 70 yards.
Payton let the clock run down to 1 second and then. Disaster. Normally, when a field goal is blocked from the middle, it's because the kick was low. But Lutz said he thought he hit it well.
“Yeah, it felt good,'' he said. "But no moral victories. Our job is to put the ball through the uprights.”
The Broncos had every reason to walk off the field with their heads high after playing the two-time Super Bowl champions so tough. After going nearly eight years without belonging on the same field as the Chiefs, could the Broncos build on a game in which they not only belonged on the same field, but outplayed Kansas City?
"No,'' said outside pass rusher Nik Bonitto, who had a sack -- and would have had two had it not been for a duck of Mahomes Magic. "We should have won the game. There's nothing to build on -- we know who we are as a team. We just got to win."
The first quarter played out pretty much how the Broncos wanted as their defense came up big in forcing Mahomes and the Chiefs into two too-far punts for touchbacks by Matt Araiza off their their first two possessions.
While the Broncos also had trouble moving the ball on their first two possessions, they started moving the ball on their third possession thanks to a running back mix of Marvin Mims Jr. and Audric Estime.
Mims, a receiver by trade, took two handoffs from the tailback position and gained 18 yards in the first half. Estime ran for 26 yards on four carries between the tackles in the first half as Payton unveiled his new Mr. Outside-Inside rushing weapons.
The big play came with less than a minute left in the first quarter when Nix hit Trautman on a short middle pass. Trautman was so wide open he rambled for 34 yards to the Chiefs’ 11.
Two plays later, on third down, Nix connected with Vele for a 6-yard touchdown pass. Vele was wide open while sliding across the middle.
The Broncos were up 7-0 seconds into the second quarter.
The Chiefs drove downfield on their next possession but the Denver D stiffened and held the home team to a 36-yard field goal by Butker.
Nix and Mahomes then exchanged touchdown passes. Nix used play-action to freeze the Chiefs’ defense a tick before he calmly raised up and delivered to Sutton, who easily beat his man on a left side go route for a touchdown. It was 14-3 Broncos with 6:39 left in the first half.
But the undefeated champs weren’t about to go down easily. Reid opened up the passing game for Mahomes, who started throwing strike after strike. A controversial illegal contact penalty on Broncos' safety Brandon Jones -- the flag was thrown in the deep secondary a second or two after Mahomes was sacked by Bonitto for an 11-yard loss -- kept the drive alive until Mahomes converted a fourth-and-goal with the 2-yard strike to Kelce.
With his famous girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from above in a suite, Kelce had another productive game against the Broncos, catching eight passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. In 20 career games against the Broncos, Kelce has 124 catches for 1,536 yards and 7 touchdowns. If those are statistics of a Hall of Famer, they're at least enough to put Kelce on the Broncos' all-opponent team.
In defeat, the Broncos did make progress and offer encouragement to their fan base. Three rookies -- Nix, Vele and Estime -- played well in a big game against the mightiest of opponents.
In Nix, the Broncos have a quarterback who keeps making steady progress.
“Yes he does. At this point I’m not real surprised,'' Trautman said. "And I probably stopped being surprised after week 1. He’s very poised under pressure. You can make an argument this is the loudest place in the NFL, the rowdiest place and he handled it well and led the potentially game-winning drive.”
It looks like given enough chances in the future -- perhaps as soon as next week's home game against the Atlanta Falcons -- the Broncos can eventually win big with Nix as their quarterback.
Vele had four catches for 39 yards with the touchdown and Estime replaced Javonte Williams as the Broncos' No. 1 running back, finishing with 53 yards off 14 carries.
"It's definitely tough,'' Estime said of the loss. "But I think it's going to make me into a monster."
Bronco Bits
Nix's whirly escapes from sacks were well-scouted by the Chiefs and safety Nazeeh Johnson caught him for a 17-yard sack in the first half and linebacker Nick Bolton got him for a 16-yard sack that knocked the Broncos out of field-goal range on the final play of the third quarter. ...
The Chiefs lost left tackle Wanya Morris to a sprained knee early in the game and Bonitto, the Broncos' outside pass rusher, started abusing backup Kingsleyu Suamataia. Bonitto had one sack, had another wiped away be penalty, and a third that Mahomes slipped under another to convert and third-and-13 with a running completion to Samaje Perine, the former Bronco who gained 34 yards to set up a field goal.
“That one was the one that could’ve helped us out,'' Bonitto said. "Would’ve kept them off the board and not get a field goal. Instead they got the first down and was able to get points out of it.” ...
Jonathon Cooper, John Franklin-Myers and Allen also had sacks on Mahomes. Allen returned to his dominant self after he was held without a play on the tackle sheet last week at Baltimore. ...
Safety Brandon Jones led the Broncos with 9 tackles. Inside linebacker Cody Barton was next with 8 and safety P.J. Locke had 7 stops despite playing with a club-like wrap on his fractured left thumb. ...
Erstwhile No. 1 running back Javonte Williams had just 1 carry for 1 yard. No. 2 back Jaleel McLaughlin started for the second straight game but only had two carries, albeit for 12 yards.
