Over and out of the playoffs
Chiefs 33, Broncos 10
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce completes an 80-yard touchdown play during the first quarter Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium as the Broncos were eliminated from the playoff hunt.
kansas city, mo.» The cameras had their target. Between nearly every offensive play by the Broncos in the first quarter Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium, NBC flashed to cornerback Aqib Talib, wearing a navy parka and roaming the sideline. Perhaps they were waiting for him to point fingers or cast blame.
They would get none of it. How could they? Everyone was at fault.
The Broncos’ defense was picked apart early and the offense was outmatched throughout in a 33-10 blowout loss to Kansas City that officially eliminated Denver from playoff contention.
It’s a sharp fall for the reigning Super Bowl champions and an unfamiliar feeling in Denver. Not since 2010, when Kyle Orton was the quarterback, had the Broncos missed the postseason. And not since 2013 had their defense allowed 484 yards.
“We haven’t given up that type of ball movement in a while,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. “Disappointed . ... We didn’t play well as a team. I told them, on the plane ride home get it out of their system. Next week is all geared toward next year.
“We’re not playing well offensively, and I’m responsible for that. Obviously we’re not getting enough out of our opportunities, so I take responsibility for that.”
The defense, playing without inside linebacker Brandon Marshall (hamstring) and starting safety T.J. Ward (concussion) to start, allowed the Chiefs to amass 243 yards and three touchdowns in the first quarter, including the longest pass play (80 yards) and running play (70 yards) Denver has allowed this season.
Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith notched the first score, with a 10-yard run during which he went untouched around left end. Then rookie Pro Bowler Tyreek Hill — the guy who had three touchdowns in the Broncos’ overtime loss to Kansas City earlier this season — sped past a slew of defenders for a 70-yard rushing touchdown down the left sideline.
And just when the Broncos had begun to climb their way out of a 14-0 deficit, with an interception by safety Justin Simmons setting up a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Justin Forsett, Smith found tight end Travis Kelce for an 80-yard catch-and-run touchdown on a bubble screen to extend the Chiefs’ lead to 21-7.
That decisive first quarter was the first time since 1968 that the Chiefs had a pair of offensive scores of 70 or more yards, but it was only the start. The Chiefs racked up multiple individual records at the Broncos’ expense, with Smith now sitting atop the franchise all-time quarterback rushing yards list and Kelce owning the most receiving yards in a game by a Chiefs tight end. Just a couple twists of the knife. “They had a great first 15 (minutes), and we were just flat,” said cornerback Chris Harris. “It’s something we’ve done almost every game, and it’s starting to become our characteristic. I don’t know what it is.”
His cornerback sidekick, Talib, said, “We’ve definitely got a lot of work to do.”
Brandon McManus kept Denver in it with a 52-yard field goal midway through the second quarter, cutting the margin to 21-10, but that was as close as Denver would get.
On the ensuing kick, a touchback, Broncos cornerback Kayvon Webster was flattened by linebacker Terrance Smith and was carted off the field with a concussion. And, as trainers attended to Webster, defensive end Derek Wolfe headed to the locker room because of a neck injury that has been bothering him since the season opener. He never returned.
Denver’s already depleted and beaten defense had unraveled, surrendering a whopping 330 yards in the first half, the first time since 1981 it had allowed more than 300 yards in the first two quarters. In the second half, Kansas City added a pair of field goals and another touchdown — thrown by 346-pound defensive tackle Dontari Poe, no less, in the waning moments. Another twist of the knife. “That’s the Chiefs for you,” Talib said. “If you know the Chiefs, you know they’re going to come with some crazy formation, crazy plays. This time it was the DT pass.”
The Broncos’ offense, meanwhile, offered more problems than solutions. Quarterback Trevor Siemian had his worst outing at the worst time, completing 17-of-43 passes for 183 yards. The offensive line, when not getting penalized — right tackle Donald Stephenson was whistled five times, four of which were accepted — was often getting beaten by Chiefs defenders, leaving Siemian under heavy pressure.
The coaching deserved questioning, too, most notably with a fake field-goal attempt late in the second quarter that fell 4 yards shy of a first down. The field-goal attempt would have been from 53 yards, and McManus booted the 52-yarder earlier. A score would have cut Kansas City’s lead to 21-13.
And the special teams had its own miscues: Kalif Raymond, who muffed a punt in the third quarter, fumbled on a kickoff return early in the fourth, and the Chiefs recovered.
Game over. Season over.