The Denver Broncos will be faced with their biggest game in a decade when they host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The Chiefs have dominated the AFC West since Denver’s last division title and beat the Broncos sixteen consecutive times before Denver finally turned things around winning two of the last three meetings with them.
Even now, with the Broncos sitting at 8-2 and the Chiefs at 5-4, the entire planet expects Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs do what they’ve always done to these Denver Broncos…
beat them. If we throw out the last game of the year last season, the Broncos and Chiefs have been embroiled in hard-fought defensive battles since Sean Payton arrived with the average score of 19-15 with the Broncos having the upper hand on points scored despite winning just one of those three matchups.
I preface this because back then the Broncos stunk at winning close games and the Chiefs were masters of it. That script seems to have flipped some with the Broncos dominating in those close games. This is something Payton mentioned in his presser on Friday when asked about the personality of this 2025 team.
“I think it’s something every year, for all the teams in our league, it develops,” Payton said. “It grows forward, backward. Then when you start winning, you can point to moments. A year ago, we didn’t fare so well in close games. We won 10 games, but in one-score games we weren’t nearly as good, and our opponent this weekend was unbelievable in one-score games. I’m glad that script has flipped because we’ve played in some close games. If you pinpoint a game, you might say Philly, you might… I think we have the right guys, we have the right, I would say grit, mental toughness, all those things I think that it takes to win, be successful.”
He is right on all counts. This team did something no other team except for one led by Peyton Manning has done by erasing an 18-point or greater deficit in the final six minutes of a game. They scored 33 points in a single quarter! This is a team with some fire, but it is still a young team that is going through its own growing pains — as we’ve all seen over the last two weeks.
However, as long as they have confidence they can win any game, they’ll be dangerous.
“Confidence comes—and we say it all the time—you can wish for it, but it comes from demonstrated ability,” Payton went on when asked about that confidence. “Every one of us here has seen a young player grow right in front of our eyes. There’s a game, a moment, and then they’re better the next week and then pretty soon they’re good. A team is that way as well.”
They have won these close games in every way imaginable. From the amazing to the defensive grit, they find ways to win. Imagine how we’d feel if that leverage penalty never happened.
All that said, the Chiefs are a dangerous team in their own right. They have proven championship experience and this is why — despite being 5-4 — they are favored on the road against an 8-2 football team. These Denver Broncos could change the narratives and assumptions in a big way on Sunday by making a statement that the AFC West is no longer Kansas City’s eminent domain.
