Offense — F
The Broncos offense picked a heck of a day to go in the tank. Perhaps there’s some logic in the fact that neither offense — led by coaches with a combined 400-plus NFL wins — looked particularly sharp. But Denver was more than a little bit funky at Arrowhead Stadium. Russell Wilson threw for 95 yards. The Broncos turned the ball over three times. They’ve got a dangerous run game but went 53-plus minutes without scoring and had to bail on it altogether. After a hot start to the season, Wilson’s cooled considerably the past two weeks. But this was by far his worst outing of the season. It’s going to have to turn around quickly for him.
Defense — A-
Yeah, you’d like a stop after the offense gets within eight points. But you hold Patrick Lavon Mahomes II to 19 points on his home turf? That’s got to be enough to win a game here. It just has to be. Denver’s defense, historically bad through the first five games, has held opponents without a touchdown on nine of their past 10 trips into the red zone. They turned Mahomes over on a Justin Simmons interception. Their pass rush got going as the game went along. It all looked pretty good. But the opportunity went awry. A home game against Green Bay is next, but the ability to match wits again on Oct. 29 with Andy Reid and Mahomes will give a real indication of where this group’s progress stands under coordinator Vance Joseph.
Special teams — C
Pretty straightforward night on special teams. Denver missed an opportunity to recover a muffed punt by former Bronco Montrell Washington in part because Riley Dixon didn’t have enough hangtime to allow Tremon Smith to get all the way down the field. But a stiff wind also played a much bigger role in the kicking game than it did for the offenses. Marvin Mims Jr. handled the wind fine, caught the ball securely and had a pair of punt returns for 30 yards. The game-turning special teams plays came from Kansas City kicker Harrison Butker. He absolutely drilled a 60-yard field goal at the end of the half and knocked through another from 52 yards to put his side up two scores with 1:55 remaining.
Coaching — D
The defensive plan for Mahomes and company saves this from being an “F.” Broncos head coach Sean Payton pulled a Tom Brady and forgot what down it was, calling a timeout with 22 seconds left in the half after Wilson took a sack on third down. He said he thought it was going to be third down upcoming, not fourth. Kansas City had timeouts remaining, so it would have taken one anyway, but it also saved the Chiefs an extra timeout for a 22-second drive that ended with Butker’s 60-yard bomb. Can’t have those in an NFL game, even if the result might have ended up being the same. And Payton certainly can’t afford a repeat this season when something similar could actually cost his team a game.
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