What a surprisingly wild game!
The Kansas City Chiefs were able to overcome the Denver Broncos in their Week 17 match-up and pick up their 4th consecutive win and 9th in the past 10 games in the process. The Chiefs are now 13-3 on the season and continue to be one of the top teams in the AFC. With just a single game left in the regular season, they are still alive for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
The game wasn’t always pretty, but the Chiefs were able to pick up the win thanks to some big plays from Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill.
Chief Gets the Last Laugh
The Kansas City Chiefs couldn’t have asked for a better start in the first quarter of their game against the Denver Broncos. Not only did they ride a three-and-out defense to march down the field for a touchdown, but punter Tommy Townsend was set to extend the lead with an extra-point conversion.
Unfortunately, Townsend fumbled the snap and threw off any hopes of a 14-3 lead, then disaster struck again when Patrick Mahomes’ endzone interception gave Denver the ball back. However, Karadrius Toney’s costly fumble set up Marlos Wilson for an easy 16-yard touchdown run – handing over what seemed like an insurmountable 10-6 lead that left the Chiefs on their heels at halftime.
The Kansas City Chiefs showed resilience, taking a 13-10 lead at halftime while the Denver Broncos responded with a determined six-play drive to take back the advantage 17-13. However, the Chiefs clapped back quickly, scoring two in consecutive possession to give themselves a ten-point lead with less than thirteen minutes remaining.
The Broncos fought back hard and narrowed the result to 27-24, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. While this was an exciting match, it was certainly bittersweet for Denver who had their hopes of the equalizer snuffed out by another interception by L’Jarius Sneed that put the game away.
KC Chiefs win but it didn’t cover the double-digit spread on DraftKings and FanDuel sportsbooks, while the total has gone over.
Mahomes Wants More
Despite putting up a stellar 3 touchdown passes and 328 yards during the game against the Broncos, Mahomes remains dissatisfied with his performance. He recognizes that throwing an interception alongside three touchdowns can still be seen as an outstanding performance.
However, as one of the top quarterbacks in the league, he not only holds himself to a higher standard but also realizes each mistake is just another opportunity to improve and grow. As per Mahomes:
“I don’t know if it impacted it at all.”
“I lost my mechanics in that second half and I was trying to find a way to get back into them. I think you saw on some of the incompletions, I felt like my feet weren’t in the right spot and I was kind of throwing off my back foot. I think whenever I get in that mode is when I can struggle. I have to be better at kind of correcting that stuff in-game,” he added.
With one game left in the season, Mahomes plans on taking this experience as a learning opportunity to further develop into one of football’s premier signal callers.
Up Next
After their 7th loss in the last eight games, the Denver Broncos will have their final game of this NFL season at home, hosting the Los Angeles Chargers (10-6). Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Vegas to meet the Raiders (6-10).