Patrick Mahomes leads Chiefs to 16th straight win over Broncos

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs won their 16th straight game against the Denver Broncos on Thursday 19-8. Kansas City’s defense nearly gave Broncos coach Sean Payton his first career shutout before quarterback Russell Wilson and the Broncos found the end zone in the fourth quarter.

Kansas City Chiefs

Travis Kelce made another compelling argument to become the Chiefs’ Most Valuable Player.

Kelce was instrumental in the Chiefs winning their 16th straight game against the Broncos, catching 9 passes for 124 yards in a 19-8 victory. Kelce played through a heavily taped right ankle he injured in last week’s win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Mahomes was 7 of 7 for 109 yards in the first half, throwing to Kelce as the Chiefs took a 13-0 lead. He was 8 of 16 for 53 yards thrown to other receivers in the first two quarters.

The Chiefs pitched a fourth-quarter shutout for the second time this season, but lost it on Denver’s lone touchdown with six minutes remaining.

Mind-blowing Next Gen stats: Kelce was clocked at 17.75 mph on his 19-yard catch and run in the first half. While that’s not flamboyant for many receivers, it’s not bad for a 260-pound, 34-year-old tight end with a severely taped right ankle.

Disturbing trend: Mahomes threw his fifth interception of the season with no one open. He forced a throw in coverage while a defender had him around his legs and Mahomes couldn’t get in on the throw. He is on pace to throw 14 interceptions, which would surpass his career-high of 13 in 2021.

Next game: vs. Chargers (4:25 p.m. ET, October 22)

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Courtland Sutton makes incredible TD catch

Courtland Sutton scores a nice touchdown early in the fourth quarter for the Broncos.

Denver Broncos

Sean Payton got his first look at the footage Thursday night.

That anchor that every Denver Broncos head coach since Gary Kubiak has had to throw into his lap. From Vance Joseph to Vic Fangio to Nathaniel Hackett and now Payton.

The Chiefs beat the Broncos Thursday night in Arrowhead because they always beat the Broncos in Arrowhead, Denver and would apparently beat them in Munich if the NFL asked them to play there.

That makes 16 in a row for Kansas City. And nothing sums up the Broncos’ current plight in football life better than the 28-year-old Chiefs quarterback completing pass after pass to his All-Pro tight end while the rest of the Chiefs supporting cast flourishes in the jetwash.

The Broncos actually wasted, especially in the first three quarters, a good effort from their beleaguered defense. But the Chiefs and Mahomes took short field after short field — their first five drives of the game started at the Chiefs’ 38-yard line or better — and took just enough.

The Chiefs no longer need to try their hardest to beat the Broncos, and it’s been that way for a long time.

Biggest hole in the game plan: As has been the case for much of the season, rookie wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. is spending too much time on the sideline watching an offense that needs his explosiveness. Mims entered Thursday’s game leading the Broncos with an average of 24.6 yards per catch. He has the team’s longest touchdown reception this season – 60 yards – longest punt and longest kickoff return. Still, the Broncos repeatedly worked with three wide receiver sets that mostly didn’t include him, especially in the first half, when the Broncos defense actually kept them in the game. At the start of the fourth quarter, Mims still had no goal. Coming in, Mims hadn’t played more than 21 snaps in the Broncos’ first five games, and he hadn’t played more than 17 snaps in four of those games.

QB breakdown: For much of the season, Wilson looked as if his comfort level on offense was increasing by the day. But that progress seemed stalled last Sunday in the loss to the New York Jets in a jerky 196-yard effort, and Thursday against the Chiefs also had a 2022 feel to it. Wilson looked unsteady against the Chiefs as he had overthrown passes, finding himself in trouble instead of away from it — two of the Chiefs’ three sacks before the end of the third quarter were on third down, another on a fourth-down attempt — and Wilson didn’t had not cleared 60 passing yards at the start of the fourth quarter. Before a push of too little, too late in the final minutes, including a one-handed touchdown run by Courtland Sutton, Wilson held the ball a little too long, like last year, and saw his footwork deteriorate as as the pressure mounted. And Payton needs to stop this regression soon, or the offense will continue to suffer.

Crucial game: Two crucial pieces, really. Trailing just 10-0, with the ball at their own 44-yard line with 22 seconds left in the first half and a timeout still in hand, the Broncos could have gained some much-needed momentum by scoring a couple points. No one will ever know, because Wilson took a sack for a 7-yard loss on third-and-5. Riley Dixon followed with a 29-yard punt and Denver rookie cornerback Riley Moss was penalized for illegal touching, so the Chiefs ended up with the ball at their own 39-yard line with two timeouts. After Mahomes finished and was later hustled, Harrison Butker kicked a 60-yard field goal to end the half. A demoralizing field goal, a 13-0 Chiefs lead at halftime and the Broncos never really pushed back the rest of the night.

Next game: vs. Packers (4:25 p.m. ET, October 22)