The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kansas City looking to stay in contention for AFC’S No. 1 seed
DENVER — Patrick Mahomes sees the regular-season finale at Denver today as a way for the Kansas City Chiefs to tune up for another long playoff run, no matter when that might begin.
The Chiefs (11-5) lost the pole position in the AFC bracket with their last-second loss at Cincinnati this past Sunday. So they’ll have to beat the Broncos (7-9) and the Titans would have to lose to Houston for Kansas City to get the No. 1 seed for the third time in four years.
“I think guys are ready to go. We understand that we can still go out there and do whatever we want to do, it’s just going to take us being better and better each and every week,” Mahomes said. “We know it’s still going to be a tough game this week in the Broncos, playing in Denver. It’s always a tough game, so we’re just going to focus on trying to win this week, and we’ll let the playoffs handle itself.”
Although the Chiefs have dominated Denver with 12 consecutive wins over their AFC West foes, Mahomes doesn’t put up his usual big numbers against Vic Fangio’s defenses.
They beat the Broncos 22-9 a month ago despite Mahomes completing just 15 of 29 passes for 184 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill were held to a combined 49 yards receiving.
It was reminiscent of last season’s game in Kansas City when the Chiefs trailed Denver until late in the third quarter and ultimately pulled out a 22-16 nail-biter.
“Yeah I mean we’ve been successful as far as winning games, but they’re always hard-fought battles,“Mahomes said. “That defense, I mean they got playmakers everywhere and they run a great scheme, they have a great defensive coordinator, great defensive head coach and they have good feel for playing against us since we play so much.
“It’s always a tough fought battle for us, a great football team, a great defense and playing in Denver is never easy.”
The Broncos, suffering through a fifth consecutive losing season and a sixth straight season without a playoff berth, won’t have star rookie Patrick Surtain II to help contain the Chiefs’ high-octane offense. He’s out with two strained calves.
Drew Lock will make his third straight start in place of Teddy Bridgewater, who suffered a concussion against Cincinnati on Dec. 19. Although he has lost road games to the Raiders and Chargers, he has shown better decision-making and hasn’t committed a turnover.
“Yeah, he’s grown as a player as most guys do in this league,” Chiefs linebacker Anthony Hitchens said. “The longer you learn, the better you can play and read stuff, but deep down he’s still aggressive and loves the deep ball. So similar to a year ago or so, but I think he improved just learning the game as a whole.”