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Jeff Legwold
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In what became a grind-it-out 20-13 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night that ended a losing streak in Arrowhead Stadium that had almost reached a decade, the Denver Broncos kept themselves on track for the AFC West title as well as the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
And Broncos coach Sean Payton said almost everyone in and around the team knew what was at stake in the Christmas night affair. Well, everyone except senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt.
«Joe Vitt didn’t [know], he spoke to the team [Wednesday] night and he went on and on about clinching [the AFC West title] and no one said anything and I’m thinking, ‘C’mon, Joe,»’ Payton said. «[After the win] they had made a little hat and a T-shirt with tape and poured a little champagne on Joe. Obviously, we know, everyone kind of knows.»
What the Broncos (13-3) know is that with the win over the Chiefs they can clinch the AFC West title, their first since 2015, if the Houston Texans defeat the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Saturday. But if the Chargers win, the Broncos would be able to clinch both the division title and the AFC’s No. 1 seed with a win against the Chargers in the regular-season finale in Denver.
Thursday night’s win also ended a losing streak in Kansas City that dated back to a Broncos 31-24 win on Sept. 17, 2015, in Hall of Famer Peyton Manning’s last NFL season.
«Those are someone else’s demons,» Payton said of snapping the losing streak. «I heard that all the time in New Orleans — ‘You never won a playoff game’ — you can’t fight those other demons.»
Payton was also asked if it would feel «strange» to clinch a division title — what would be the Broncos’ first since that ’15 season and the first division title the Chiefs have not won in that span — watching from home with no game to play this weekend.
«Nah, it would be relaxing,» Payton said.
«We have to play the final game and take care of it,» Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said. «Some other team could help us along the way, but at the end of the day it’s going to come down to us versus [the Chargers].»
The Chiefs, with a long list of regulars, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes, on injured reserve, certainly didn’t make Thursday’s task an easy one for the Broncos. Instead of the usual pressure looks Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo tends to throw at the Denver offense, the Chiefs elected to drop plenty of help into coverage with a steady diet of zone looks — «soft zones,» as Payton put it.
It forced Nix into a test of patience. The Broncos didn’t have a play over nine yards until Nix scrambled for 14 yards with 5 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first half, and they didn’t have a pass play of over nine yards until just before the two-minute warning before halftime.
«We just did what we had to do,» Nix said. «… This was one of those games, as you were playing it, you knew you weren’t going to throw for a lot of yards, just see how many completions you can hit in a row … you knew you were going to put a lid on it.»
As a result, the Broncos found themselves still in a tie game in the final minutes even though their defense had surrendered all of 95 yards to the Chiefs at that point. And things really didn’t get decided until the Broncos had a fourth-and-2 at the Chiefs’ 9-yard line with two minutes to play.
The Broncos lined running back RJ Harvey up in the shotgun — in the Wildcat — with Nix lined up wide as a receiver. Harvey lifted his leg, as if in a silent count, and guard Quinn Meinerz gave the cadence, though none of the Broncos moved and the ball was not snapped. Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones jumped and was flagged for a neutral zone infraction to give the Broncos a first down.
The Broncos ran three more plays and finished the drive off with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Nix to Harvey with 1:45 to play.
«We were going to take a delay of game, we didn’t have a play,» Payton said. «… Meinerz is barking the cadence out. … That changed the complexity of the clock, it was a big play.»
Payton added that since the play resulted in a penalty, Meinerz had earned each of the offensive linemen new Jordan sneakers.
