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Broncos beat Chiefs in miraculous fashion on Thursday

By Sayre Bedinger

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The Denver Broncos have won an NFL-record 13 straight divisional matchups and won a wild game in Kansas City on the first Thursday night football game of the NFL Network/CBS season.

It’s still pretty surreal to think about, so bear with me if these thoughts are a bit jumbled. It was another ugly first half of offense for the Broncos until Peyton Manning started getting more into his shotgun/no-huddle looks. He had already thrown a pick-six, and the defense gave up an uncharacteristically long touchdown run to Jamaal Charles as the Chiefs led the game 14-0.

The Broncos started coming back with an excellent ‘response’ drive from Peyton Manning and the crew who marched downfield, and ultimately the first touchdown of the season scored by the Denver offense came on a pass from Peyton Manning to Emmanuel Sanders.

After a quick interception by Aqib Talib in a 2-minute drill for the Chiefs, the Broncos were back in business in Chiefs territory and Manning got the Broncos back into the end zone again for another touchdown pass, this one to Virgil Green from one-yard out.

At the half, both teams were tied and it looked like the Broncos had finally found some new life. Coming out in the third quarter, it looked a little bit like the Broncos had come out with the same offense they started with, and it stalled yet again. Even multiple turnovers by the Chiefs — including one deep in their own territory — couldn’t provide the Broncos the ammunition to pull away in this game.

Each team traded field goals (a 54-yarder for Brandon McMoneyManus) before the fourth quarter, where the Chiefs put together a gutsy and impressive drive that culminated in a touchdown. This was, mind you, after having four turnovers throughout this game.

The Chiefs took a 24-17 lead and left the Broncos over 2 minutes on the clock with a timeout. It was Peyton Manning’s time to shine.

He took advantage, and drove the Broncos down the field with multiple huge third down conversions and a gorgeous touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders to tie the game. Broncos country was in an absolute frenzy at this point, thinking it was going to be heading to overtime.

The Chiefs came out with 31 seconds left and looked like they were going to pass the ball, but they handed it off on a draw to Jamaal Charles instead and somehow, linebacker Brandon Marshall — who had another phenomenal game — poked the ball out of Charles’ hand for the Chiefs’ 5th turnover of the game, and Bradley Roby returned it for a touchdown.

Twitter recap of the ensuing chaos

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