By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Chiefs blew an 11 point fourth quarter lead and fell to the Denver Broncos, losing their lead in the AFC West race, falling 28-24 at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado.
The Chiefs built a 24-13 lead through the first three quarters, before giving up 15 unanswered points in the final frame to the Broncos in the loss. Kansas City did have a chance late to score a go ahead touchdown, but on 4th and goal at the Denver one yard line, Patrick Mahomes was sacked by Malcolm Roach ending the game. It was certainly a dissapointing ending for the Chiefs, who controlled the tempo through most of the game against their AFC West rivals.
In the first quarter, after Will Lutz gave the Broncos the lead with a 39 yard field goal, the Chiefs moved ahead on the ensuing drive with Mahomes throwing his first touchdown pass in two weeks, finding Rashee Rice also playing his first game in two weeks for an 11 yard touchdown pass to take a 7-3 lead, which Kansas City held into the second quarter. Both teams exchanged punts following the touchdown, before Denver cut the lead to one with another field goal by Lutz, this time from 45 yards away.
Leading by one, the Chiefs extended their advantage after back-to-back drives ended with punts, a six play drive ending with Mahomes throwing a short pass to rookie running back Emmett Johnson, who took the ball 73 yards to the endzone for his first career touchdown. The Broncos though again answered on the ensuing drive, keeping the Kansas City lead at one on a one yard touchdown pass from Bo Nix to Jaylen Waddle. With 19 seconds remaining in the half, Harrison Butker nailed a 45 yard field goal, pushing the Chiefs ahead 17-13 at the halftime break.
The lone touchdown of the third quarter saw Kansas City extend the lead to 24-13 on a four yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Noah Gray. That capped the scoring for the Chiefs, who saw a series of mistakes in the fourth quarter lead to a blown lead, a rally by Denver that started with Nix throwing a two yard touchdown pass to Nate Adkins, then converting a two point conversion attempt to Waddle, cutting the Kansas City lead to 24-21.
"They made some plays there. I thought we could have," Head coach Andy Reid told reports following the game on the blown lead in the fourth quarter. "When I mentioned the tackling, we could have made some tackles. We were in position to do that, and we have to make those. Just like the other part of it is the penalties. You’re playing a good football team, so when you do these things, you’re not going to normally come out on the right end of it. We were in a position to win the game, and a penalty happened and we didn’t get the touchdown.”
The first miscue came following the touchdown after the Chiefs offense stalled on 4th and 8 at the Denver 36 yard line, sending Butker out for a 54 yard field goal in the pouring rain which would end up sailing wide right. the missed field goal set the Broncos up to drive the field for the go ahead touchdown, rookie running back Jonah Coleman rushing for five yards and the touchdown taking the 28-24 lead with 1:56 remaining in the game. Kansas City drove down to the one yard line, in large part thanks to a 32 yard pass to Travis Kelce, before Mahomes was sacked ending the game.
Mahomes was 30-for-41 through the air for 321 yards with three touchdowns. Kenneth Walker rushed 21 times for 69 yards while Johnson ran one time for 15 yards and added five catches for 128 yards and a touchdown. Kelce caught five passes for 67 yards while Rice had seven catches for 53 yards and a score.
Kansas City (5-2) returns home next after back-to-back losses and hosts the New York Jets (2-5). Kickoff is at noon and the game will air on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) and on Q Country (92.7 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.