KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was a merry Christmas for the Denver Broncos in Kansas City. Facing the Chiefs‘ third-string quarterback, the Broncos narrowly beat the Chiefs to get their 13th win of the season.
Bo Nix passed for just 182 yards and 1 touchdown and 1 interception and connected with RJ Harvey on a touchdown reception from the 1-yard line with 1:45 let in the game . Nix also ran 9 times for 42 yards and 1 touchdown.
It was another nail-biting, headache-filled, frustrating win. But it was a win.
Here’s what stood out throughout the game.
RUN BO RUN
Bo Nix‘s legs were a key to the Broncos’ offense on Christmas night.
To start the second quarter, on a 3rd-and-long, Nix stepped up in the pocket, looked like he was going to run for the first down, but last second threw it. The pass was just too far and high for Courtland Sutton to hold on and the Broncos had to punt.
The very next drive, Nix had a similar situation. This time, however, he took off and picked up the first down. Nix’s 14-yard run was, at the time, the longest play of the day by the Broncos. Just a few plays later, Nix scrambled for nine yards.
At that point, Nix led the Broncos’ in rushing with 23 yards.
Bo’s feet also were responsible for the Broncos’ first touchdown of the game. Late in the third quarter, on 1st-and-goal from the nine-yard line, Nix scrambled up the middle then bounced it outside to get in the end zone.
That score gave the Broncos their first lead in over a quarter.
Tackling remains an issue, but defense dominates
Vance Joseph was not pleased with the Broncos’ tackling on Sunday against the Jaguars after Denver‘s defense had a number of missed tackles.
“The tackling part we can’t fix until Thursday night. We’ll fix that, and we’ll move forward,” Denver’s defensive coordinator said on Tuesday.
However, at times against the Chiefs, tackling still remained an issue. In fact, on Thursday Night Football, missed tackling led to Kansas City’s first touchdown.
On the first play of the next drive, Talanoa Hufanga read the play perfectly, was in the backfield for a tackle for a loss, but missed Isiah Pacheco. Instead of a loss of yards, the Chiefs picked up a first down.
Outside of a few missed tackles—and a questionable defensive pass interference penalty called on Pat Surtain II—the Broncos’ defense locked down the Chiefs’ offense.
Through three quarters of ball, the Chiefs had 79 total yards of offense.
Magic number is 1
All the Broncos want for Christmas is a Chargers loss.
After the Broncos took down the Chiefs, Denver’s magic number to clinch the AFC West for the first time since 2015 is one.
That means all the Broncos need is either one Chargers loss or one more win themselves to secure the division.
The Chargers host the Houston Texans on Saturday afternoon. If the Texans take care of business, the Broncos will win the division Saturday evening, before the holiday weekend even wraps up.
However, if Justin Herbert wins on Saturday, then the AFC West will come down to Week 18’s Broncos-Chargers game. That will be a winner-take-all game.
If that’s the case, the winner of that game will secure the division title. If it’s the Broncos who win that game, they will lock up the No. 1 seed in the entire AFC, which will mean the Broncos will get a Bye Week and the playoffs will go through Denver.
If Denver loses in Week 18, and the Chargers win on Saturday, Sean Payton’s team will drop to a wild card team and be on the road the very next week.
Safe to say a lot is at stake the next 10 days.
Bring out the brooms in KC
On Christmas night, the Broncos officially capped off the season sweep of the Chiefs.
You have to go all the way back to the Peyton Manning and John Fox era to find the last time Denver accomplished that feat. The Broncos didn’t even do that in their Super Bowl 50 season. The last time they went 2-0 against the Chiefs in a season was 2014.
Before Thursday Nighy Football, the last time the Broncos beat the Chiefs in Kansas City was 2015, when Bradley Roby took a game-winning fumble into the endzone.
