Five turnovers, 17 points off turnovers and 0-of-3 in the red zone — Chiefs head coach Andy Reid had no trouble rattling off the reasons for his team’s 24-9 loss at Denver Sunday.
He also had no problem taking the blame for the team’s 16-game winning streak against the Broncos coming to an end.
“I take full responsibility for it,” Reid said. “The guys, I saw things that this afternoon, that I haven’t seen before from the guys, so that’s my responsibility to make sure they’re right, and we weren’t right today.”
There was plenty of room for blame on the Chiefs’ sideline Sunday with mistakes on offense and special teams squandering an otherwise strong defensive performance from the Chiefs. Kansas City held the Broncos to an anemic 3.69 yards per plan and only 87 net yards passing on the day. Even the Broncos’ total of 240 yards of offense was the second-fewest for the Broncos this season — after the 197 yards of offense Denver put up 17 days ago in a 19-8 loss to the Chiefs.
“The defense is playing lights out and we can’t put them in a bad position,” said wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. “We gave them 14 points because of our turnovers. The punt return and then gave them 14 points off of those two turnovers. Can’t ask for a better defense to give up seven points on their own.”
Indeed, miscues contributed significantly to all three Denver touchdown drives. The first Broncos drive of the game began at the Kansas City 39-yard line after Marvin Mims returned a punt 31 yards to give his offense a short field. Quarterback Russell Wilson capped off a 10-play, 39-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Javonte Williams, and the tone was set for a plodding, methodical day on offense for the Broncos.
Denver struck again early in the second quarter after a fumble by Valdes-Scantling gave the Broncos the ball at midfield. Three plays later, Wilson found receiver Jerry Jeudy in the corner of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown catch.
Trailing 14-9 with 11:24 remaining in the game, the Chiefs defense forced a punt. Mecole Hardman muffed the return, however, and Denver recovered at the Chiefs 10-yard line. Two plays later, Wilson found Courtland Sutton for a 6-yard touchdown and the Broncos extended the lead to 21-9.
Hardman blamed himself for the loss after the game.
“I got greedy, I got selfish, trying to make a play down there,” Hardman said. “That’s probably the one that cost the game for us. I’ll probably take responsibility for losing that game — I definitely take responsibility actually for losing that game. Because you never know, let that ball go or I catch it at the five or wherever it was, and we go down to score and that’s it. I’ve just got to be more smart, be careful with taking the ball.”
Reid, however, deflected laying all of the blame on Hardman.
“Yeah, listen, it’s not just Mecole,” Reid said. “We all had a piece of this thing.”
The Broncos’ only other score of the game came on a 28-yard field goal by Wil Lutz that followed a Mahomes interception setting up Denver at the Chiefs 20-yard line.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, battling the flu, turned the ball over three times with two interceptions and a fumble. He refused to blame his illness for the loss.
“We just didn’t play good enough,” Mahomes said. “It wasn’t enough energy for the offense, we didn’t hit our shots when they were there and then when they were there, we didn’t execute it there.”
The loss brought an end to several other winning streaks for the Chiefs and Mahomes. It was the first loss for Mahomes against Denver after 12-straight wins starting his career, and it’s also his first loss on the road against an AFC West team after a 16-0 start.
“It’s probably going to happen at some point,” Mahomes said of the streaks coming to an end. “We try to do whatever we can to bounce back because that’s all you can do. You’ve got to learn from the mistakes that you made this game. Try to be better going into Germany this next week and kind of get the momentum back in our favor. Obviously, today it wasn’t our day but we can continue to get better and better.”
Mahomes had a short, direct answer when asked if Sunday’s loss could start a domino effect as the team faces the Miami Dolphins next week in Frankfurt.
“It won’t be,” he said.
Five Turnovers
Reid demonstrated a cornerback mentality after Sunday’s game with an ability to forget bad moments and move forward.
“I haven’t seen the five turnovers,” Reid said when asked about what he saw Sunday that was new to him. “I saw people that were involved with that. I haven’t really been involved in those type of things.”
This was actually the 13th time one of Reid’s teams had surrendered five or more turnovers in a game during his 25 seasons as a head coach. It happened 10 times with Philadelphia and just three times with the Chiefs. It’s only the second time it’s happened with Mahomes — the first occurred during the epic 54-51 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football in 2018.
The other occasion — coincidentally the last time the Broncos beat the Chiefs on Sept. 17, 2015. The Broncos escaped with a 31-24 win at Kansas City as Jamaal Charles lost two fumbles, Alex Smith threw two interceptions and De’Anthony Thomas fumbled at the end of a punt return.
Blocked Field Goal
The Broncos started the second half with a 13-play, 55-yard drive taking 8:26 off the clock yet walked away with no points thanks to savvy play by safety Justin Reid.
Reid saw a tell during the Broncos’ first extra point attempt and used that in the second half to block a 38-yard field goal attempt by Lutz.
“It felt like we just needed a spark,” Reid said. “Just wanted to bring a spark and get some momentum going so we change the type of game. Earlier, the first extra point that they kicked, I didn’t rush. I paid attention to their snapper and what their snap count looked like. So I was going to save that in my back pocket for a good time in the game to use it. I was able to take advantage of that, jump the snap and get the block.”
The Chiefs trailed 14-9 at the time but the offense couldn’t turn the play into points. The 7-play, 31-yard drive stalled at the Denver 42-yard line and ended in a punt.
Injury Report
The head coach’s postgame injury report included only one player, linebacker Willie Gay.
“Willie has a tailbone issue we’ve just got to check it out and see where we’re at with that,” Reid said.
Mahomes suffered a series of lacerations on his left non-throwing hand late in the fourth quarter and returned to the game with a glove on his hand. The quarterback said he wasn’t entirely sure what happened to cause the injury.
“From what it looks like, it looked like I got stepped on,” Mahomes said. “I didn’t notice it until I started walking to the sideline after the fourth-down play.”
Regarding his bout with the flu, Mahomes said there was no doubt in his mind he would play Sunday.
“I started feeling bad last night but I bounced back pretty well in the morning, so just kind of trying to do whatever I can to go out there and play my best football,” he said.
