With last night’s closer-than-expected victory over the Chiefs — Denver’s first at Arrowhead Stadium in a decade — Broncos coach Sean Payton joined Bill Belichick as the only coaches with at least five seasons of 13 or more wins. (Belichick had seven.)
Payton was asked about the accomplishment after the game.
“I have been fortunate to have been on and coached a lot of great players,” Payton told reporters. “There is nothing like winning. When I heard that, I had trouble figuring out which were the 13-win teams. We had some other teams that were 12- or 11-win teams. I have been fortunate to have really good players and real good coaches. Some of them who are right here that have been a part of all of those wins, part of those wins. Obviously, Bill is good company. Let’s keep it going.”
In New Orleans, Payton’s Saints won 13 or more games in 2009, 2011, 2018, and 2019. The Saints had 11 wins three others times (2010, 2013, 2017) and 12 wins once (2020). That’s eight years with 11 or more victories.
As to the Broncos getting their first victory at Kansas City in a decade, Payton said he didn’t bring that up with his players in the days preceding the game.
“Those are someone else’s demons,” Payton said. “I heard that all of the time in New Orleans, ‘You’ve never won a playoff game.’ That’s not this team. You can’t fight those other demons.”
On Thursday night, they finally exorcized that specific demon. But the Broncos have far bigger goals. As Payton said after clinching a playoff berth, that wasn’t one of the objectives. The first was to win the division. And that still hasn’t happened. If the Chargers beat the Texans on Saturday afternoon, it’ll come down to Chargers at Broncos in Week 18, as Payton goes for his first ever 14-win season.
The Broncos took care of business on Christmas, defeating the Chiefs to move to 13-3 on the season.
While the Broncos have already clinched a postseason berth, they have a shot to clinch the No. 1 overall seed this weekend. But there’s a better chance the club could clinch the AFC West and a home playoff game, as that will be the case if the Texans defeat the Chargers on Saturday afternoon.
But if Los Angeles defeats Houston, the division title will come down to the Week 18 matchup between the Chargers and Broncos in Denver.
That’s part of why quarterback Bo Nix told reporters that he’s more concerned about the Broncos handling their own business than anything that might happen this weekend.
“At the end of the day, none of it really matters. We have to play the final game, and we have to take care of it,” Nix said in his press conference. “[The Chargers] are going to be a good football team. Some other team could help us along the way, but at the end of the day, it is going to come down to us versus them.
“We are excited to have them at home. It is going to be a really good environment and atmosphere. It is honestly playoff atmosphere. It is going to be tough. I have not beaten them, but it is going to be a good nine days of preparation. On the tenth day, it will be all you have got for four quarters, or however long it takes. We are excited about it. It will be good to have rest. It will be a good long weekend for us.”
As Nix said, he’s 0-3 against the Chargers so far over his first two seasons. He’s completed 63 percent of his passes against the club for 632 yards with five touchdowns and one interception.
At the two-minute warning in a 13-13 game, the Broncos faced fourth and two from the Chiefs’ nine yard line. Denver lined up to go for it. Before the ball was snapped, Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones flinched into the neutral zone, giving the visiting team a fresh set of downs from the four.
The Broncos scored, and the Chiefs couldn’t close the seven-point margin on their final drive.
After the 20-13 victory, Broncos coach Sean Payton said the offense was never going to snap the ball on the critical fourth-down play.
“It’s a no-brainer freeze,” Payton said, “but it is out of a different formation. One we had never shown. We were going to take the delay of game. We didn’t have a play. I don’t know why we called it Harrisburg. It looks like a play we have called Pittsburgh. No one moves in Harrisburg. I think that’s why we came up with that. It is a unique one because you are on the road, so it involves a heel and then [guard Quinn] Meinerz is barking the cadence out so, hats off to him. . . . That changed the complexity of the clock. That was a big play. . . .
“We were going to take the penalty and kick the field goal. That was the plan, and it was just an oddball formation to run a no-brainer freeze from. Especially on the road.”
The “set hut” call from Meinerz was timed to when quarterback Bo Nix’s foot came up, prior to the snap that was never going to happen. And it prompted to get Jones to move just enough to give the Broncos a first and goal.
But for that moment, the Chiefs would have gotten the ball back needing only a field goal to tie and a touchdown to win. Which may have resulted in something other than Denver’s 13th victory of the season.
When the Chiefs tied the game on Harrison Butker’s 47-yard field goal with 8:03 remaining, the Broncos had the Chiefs right where they wanted them.
Denver improved its record in one-score games to 11-2 this season as Bo Nix engineered his seventh game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.
The Broncos held off the feisty Chiefs 20-13 on Thursday Night Football.
Denver improved to 13-3, while Kansas City fell to 6-10.
Denver had a fourth-and-2 at the Kansas City 9 at the 2-minute warning when Chris Jones jumped offsides. It was Kansas City’s first penalty of the night but was costly. Instead of settling for a field goal, the Broncos forced the Chiefs to use two timeouts before scoring a touchdown on Nix’s 1-yard touchdown pass to running back RJ Harvey with 1:45 remaining.
The Chiefs had only 95 yards when they got the ball back at their own 35 with 1:45 left. With Patrick Mahomes watching from a suite, third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun led them 44 yards to the Denver 21 before running out of steam. His fourth-down pass was too high for Hollywood Brown in the end zone with 14 seconds left.
The Broncos outgained the Chiefs 303 to 139, with Nix going 26-of-38 for 182 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also ran for 42 yards and a touchdown.
Courtland Sutton caught four passes for 40 yards, and Harvey had 14 carries for 43 yards and five catches for 33 yards and the game-winning score.
Oladokun was 13-of-22 for 66 yards and a touchdown, a 1-yard throw to Brashard Smith. Travis Kelce, in what might be his final home game, caught five passes for 36 yards. Kareem Hunt had seven carries for 38 yards.
The Broncos were 0-for-2 in the red zone in the first half. They are 1-for-1 in the second half.
Denver scored its first touchdown of the game on a 9-yard run by Bo Nix with 1:55 remaining in the third quarter. The Broncos lead 13-10.
The Broncos trailed 7-6 at halftime, and the Chiefs opened the second half with a six-play, 28-yard drive that led to Harrison Butker’s 53-yard field goal.
The Broncos answered with a 14-play, 72-yard touchdown drive, regaining the lead for the first time since early in the second quarter. The big play came on first-and-20 when Nix completed a 23-yard pass to Courtland Sutton to the Kansas City 30.
They also converted a second-and-15 and a fourth-and-inches on the drive.
Nix is now 19-of-28 for 146 yards and an interception, with Sutton catching four for 40.
