The Broncos were 14-36 all-time against the Chiefs on the road. No matter what the circumstances, this is a rivalry that promises to be a fight to the end. The Broncos struggled in the first quarter against the lowly Chiefs. To make matters worse, with no RB Willis McGahee, the Chiefs were gearing up to play against the pass, and little did Denver try to punish Kansas City for doing so. Through the first quarter, the Broncos ran the two times, and struggled to get 32 total yards in the first quarter.
The recipe for defeating the Broncos, keeping the Broncos fast-track offense off the field. The Chiefs were on the field for 11:05 seconds in the first quarter, running the ball, letting the clock whine down, hitting the Broncos with 60 yards on the ground of their 92 total yards through the first fifteen.
On the flip side, the Broncos offense looked out of sync. The Broncos first three drives culminated 47 total yards and resulted in a missed field goal, punt and interception thrown by QB Peyton Manning. Manning tried to overthrow WR Eric Decker on the pass but, due to double coverage, Decker was thrown off his route and was not there where the pass was intended to be. Credit the Chiefs defensive line for giving the Broncos fits as well, getting to Manning for two sacks and six QB hits. The defense as a whole also got six tackles for losses and six pass deflections as well.
Broncos CB Champ Bailey knew that this wasn't going to be a easy game
The Broncos didn't get on the board until late in the first half, on their last drive of the first half, the Broncos put together a 11 play, 94 yard drive that was capped off with a Manning touchdown pass to TE Jacob Tamme with 18 seconds left on the clock."It's never going to be pretty playing this team in this place, you might get lucky once in a while and get some turnovers and jump out on them. But they've got good players now. You can't come in here4 and think you're going to walk out with a win without fighting for in."
The second half faired a little better for the Broncos. The first two drives, the Broncos were able to move the ball, racking up 108 yards of offense, including another touchdown pass by Manning (22 of 37, 285 yards, 2 TD's and 1 INT) to Demaryius Thomas thirty yards down field for the score. Only four of Denver's ten drives resulted in points. How did they win this game? Defense!
The Broncos defense, virtually without LB Von Miller (2 tackles, sack and QB hit) played up to the meaning of "opportunistic football". How so? Penalties that occur at the right time. Instance, 3rd and 1, Chiefs are in field goal range. Von Miller was able to cause rookie LT Donald Stephenson to jump and be called for a false start. Broncos then put the Chiefs in a passing situation, tackle QB Brady Quinn and put them out of field goal range. They kept their good fortune lately of solid 3rd down defense going. On this Sunday afternoon, they left the Chiefs convert 3-of-12 third downs (25% conversion rate). The passing defense was superb, limiting Quinn to 13-of-25, 126 yards and a interception. The Chiefs offense was only able to get 13 total first downs. The defense did their part to keep this game close in game where the offense was not on their game. This a total defensive effort to give the offense the opportunity to win.
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