San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Kansas City keeps hopes for No. 1 seed alive with victory
DENVER — Linebacker Nick Bolton’s 86-yard fumble return after Melvin Ingram III darted into Denver’s backfield untouched and stripped Melvin Gordon powered the Kansas City Chiefs to a 28-24 victory over the Denver Broncos on Saturday.
With their 13th consecutive win over the Broncos, the Chiefs (12-5) kept alive their hopes of getting the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Kansas City needs Houston to beat Tennessee on Sunday to get the pole position; otherwise, the Chiefs will be a No. 2 seed and host a wild-card game next weekend.
“We’re ready to go wherever against whomever,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill could surely use the week off that goes to the top seed in each conference. He injured a heel in pregame warmups and was held to one catch for 2 yards.
With Hill hurt, Mecole Hardman
stepped up with eight catches for 103 yards.
“No one is Tyreek. He’s a special player that has never been seen in this league,” Mahomes said. “But Mecole is pretty close. … He was prepared for this moment.“
The Broncos (7-10) were ahead 21-20 and driving toward another score when Ingram sped past tight end Noah Fant and blew up the play just as Drew Lock handed the ball to Gordon.
Bolton scooped up the loose ball and rumbled 86 yards to give the Chiefs their biggest lead, and Mahomes’ keeper on the two-point conversion made it 28-21.
Lock and the Broncos quickly got into scoring position again, but coach Vic Fangio, who fell to 19-30 as Denver’s head coach, decided on a field goal on 4th-and-9 from the 13 as the crowd relentlessly booed the decision.
Fangio explained that kicking the field goal with 4:37 left gave his team a chance to get a stop and get the ball back. Even
if they gave up a field goal, they’d be down a touchdown and could tie it: “I understand the second-guessing there and going for it. But 4th-and-9, your chances are not great.” Brandon McManus nailed the 31-yarder, but the Broncos still trailed by four and would need a touchdown if they were able to stop Mahomes. They weren’t.
On 3rd-and-8 from the Denver 17, Mahomes found Travis
Kelce for an 11-yard gain at the two-minute warning, with the Broncos having burned all their timeouts.
The Chiefs lined up in victory formation as the clock ticked down and the crowd of 61,441 — there were nearly 15,000 empty seats — streamed for the exits, a fifth straight losing season in the books and their playoff drought now stretched to six years.
“You saw it out there tonight,
a bunch of fighters and competitors,” Fangio said of the Broncos. “And I think you saw it all year. And that’s what these guys are. I’m proud to be associated with them. I’m not proud of our record. I know it’s not good enough. I get it. But I’m proud to be associated with our players.”