Mahomes hurts knee in lopsided Chiefs road win over Broncos

Kansas City defense comes up with 9 sacks

DENVER — Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes injured his right knee in a pileup near the goal line before his Kansas City teammates rallied around their fallen superstar for a 30-6 thrashing of Denver on Thursday night.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game that didn’t know how serious the injury was, but added that, “We’re good with whatever direction this thing goes.”

Backup Matt Moore threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs (5-2) had nine sacks, gave up a season-low 71 yards rushing and snapped a two-game skid in beating the Broncos (2-5) for the eighth straight time.

His balky left ankle heavily taped, Mahomes completed 10 of 11 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown, before getting injured on a successful sneak on fourthand-inches at the Denver 5 early in the second quarter.

“Not too many people get hurt on a sneak,” Reid said. “It’s a freak thing.”

One by one, players peeled off the pile but when Mahomes didn’t get up , the stadium grew quiet, Broncos players knelt and some Chiefs stormed away in aguish as their quarterback ripped off his helmet and covered his face.

As players milled about nervously, the Chiefs’ medical personnel appeared to pop Mahomes’ right knee back in place before he was helped from the field and taken into the locker room. The Chiefs announced minutes later that Mahomes had a knee injury and wouldn’t return.

“Excited for the win,” Moore said after completing 10 of 19 passes for 117 yards. “At the same time, a guy like Patrick goes down it can be deflating.”

Before he got hurt, Mahomes became the first player in NFL history to throw for 7,500 yards by his 25th game.

“You feel for anybody that has something that looks like it may be pretty serious,” Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco said. “That’s not just other quarterbacks; that’s everybody. But man, a young guy like that who’s starting off his career the way he has and starting off this season the way he has, it’s definitely not easy to watch guys go down with injuries like that. I hope that he’s all right.”

Mahomes didn’t speak with reporters after the game but he did lead the team’s “breakdown” after the game, when he praised Moore, who completed 10 of 19 passes for 117 yards, and the defense.

The Broncos had won two straight after a winless September and were hoping to turn the AFC West upside down by handling the Chiefs their third straight loss.

Coming in, the Chiefs were ranked 24th in the league with 11 sacks and they’d allowed an average of 190 yards rushing over their previous four games.

But the Chiefs sacked Flacco a career-high eight times, drew three holding flags on grabby left tackle Garett Bolles, held Denver to 1-of-13 on third downs and benefited from Denver’s poor special teams .

Rookie tight end Noah Fant dropped three passes that would have totaled more than 100 yards.