The tough loss to the Chiefs shows that the Broncos’ margin for error is limited

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Denver Broncos locker room Sunday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium was a collection of raw nerves and emotions. The Broncos have learned a painful lesson – that their cap space is still so limited almost Doing everything right may still not be enough to beat a top team.

After an afternoon in which the Broncos felt like they were controlling the Kansas City Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions blocked Broncos kicker Wil Lutz’s game-winning 35-yard field goal attempt on the final play of the game. So instead of Sean Payton picking up the decisive win of his two-year tenure with the Broncos, Denver was left with the empty feeling of coming painfully close but ultimately falling short in a 16-14 loss.

“Proud of the way they fought, I thought we outdid them,” Payton said. “Still, you have to beat a champion and we didn’t manage to do that. Obviously it’s a thrill.”

“Our job as a field goal unit is to get the ball between the uprights and we didn’t do that,” Lutz said.

As the Broncos (5-5) continue to work to end their current eight-year playoff drought, no team has vexed them as much as the Chiefs, and no player has vexed them as much as Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes. On Sunday, the Broncos lost for the ninth straight time at the Chiefs’ home stadium – they last won there in 2015 – and the Chiefs are now 13-1 against Denver when Mahomes is in the starting lineup.

Sunday was another reminder that the Broncos haven’t made a breakthrough yet and that they have little room for error if they hope to. Denver has never beaten a team with a current winning record, and its five losses have come against the five best teams it has ever played, including the Baltimore Ravens (7-3) and the Chiefs (9-0). in the past two weeks.

Sunday’s loss came despite an all-around solid game from the Broncos. They didn’t turn the ball over, recorded more sacks of Mahomes (four) than in any previous meeting against him, allowed just one touchdown on four red zone drives and limited the Chiefs’ running backs to 38 rushing yards.

“On both sides of the ball, I felt like we were the more physical team,” Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said. “…I bet if you asked them about this game they would feel the same way.”

But the Broncos were two points behind when the Chiefs broke through the left side of the Broncos front on Lutz’s attempted game-winner. Broncos offensive lineman Alex Forsyth ended up on the ground, allowing linebacker Leo Chenal to block the kick, and the Chiefs escaped, as Super Bowl ring bearers often do.

“Sometimes I feel really close,” Broncos quarterback Bo Nix said. “I feel like that’s where you’re at, you just need to get over this hump. …Hats off to them, they just found ways to win over and over again…

“[It’s] It’s impressive to see that they are able to do this. [that they] Find ways to win and hopefully we can find the same way and do the same thing.”

The offensive weakness in the second half gave the Chiefs just enough room to overcome the early deficit. The Broncos scored touchdowns on two of their first four possessions Sunday and took a 14-3 lead after a 32-yard touchdown pass from Nix to wide receiver Courtland Sutton with 6:39 left in the first half.

But between that touchdown and their final possession, when Nix drove the Broncos to the Kansas City 17-yard line to set up Lutz’s potential game-winner, the Broncos gained just 58 yards on four consecutive possessions. Those possessions ended with a missed field goal and three punts. The Chiefs scored 13 grind-it-out points in that time with a fourth-down touchdown pass from Mahomes to Travis Kelce and two field goals from Harrison Butker.

But as Payton has said all season, little mistakes here and there have rattled the Broncos. Sunday was no different, as a 17-yard run by Audric Estime in the third quarter — which would have been Denver’s longest of the game — was negated by a holding penalty on guard Ben Powers. Three plays later, the Broncos scored on a punt, a 30-yard shot from Riley Dixon that gave the Chiefs a field goal drive that put them up 14-13.

Previously, a false start when Nix attempted to bring the ball down at the end of the first half brought the Broncos back from the Chiefs’ 37 to their 42. Lutz’s subsequent 60-yard field goal attempt to end the half failed by one yard.

“We’re close … we’ve got to find a way to make a play when they don’t, to make a play that’s winning,” Nix said. “In this league, that’s the line between playoff teams and teams that win championships and all the rest.

“It doesn’t hurt if you don’t care, it doesn’t hurt if you don’t care, it doesn’t hurt if you don’t work. Everyone in this locker room is hurting because “We do all of this. …At some point it’s going to go in our favor…someday it’s just going to go our way.”

Overall, the Broncos sit seventh in the AFC postseason chase, one game ahead of the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals. The Broncos host the Colts on December 15th and will play at the Bengals two weeks later.

They have played three games in the last seven games against teams that currently have a winning record. They host the Atlanta Falcons (6-4) on Sunday, play the Los Angeles Chargers (6-3) on December 22nd and host the Chiefs in the regular season finale on January 5th.

“Just keep building, keep building,” Surtain said. “…It was right there.”