Denver Broncos: Recapping the loss to the Chiefs

Second Quarter

The Chiefs started out the second quarter by giving the ball to a couple of their speedsters.

Receiver Tyreek Hill and running back Kareem Hunt were in the shotgun with Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes chose to throw to Hill and the receiver managed to gain a first down. Hill was simply just unaccounted for on the play.

Denver allowed a long run by Hunt at around 12:30 left in the second quarter. The play went from the Chiefs’ 33-yard line to Denver’s 22-yard line. The play included multiple missed tackles.

Kansas City converted a key third down to Denver’s 8-yard line. A couple of plays later on third-and-goal, Mahomes saw an open lane and ran all the way to the end zone for the touchdown. After a Harrison Butker extra point, Denver trailed 10-3.

Denver continued to utilize their run game by handing the football to Phillip Lindsay again on the first offensive play. The run game had been very effective so far in the game that on the next play, the Broncos called a play-action pass to rookie Courtland Sutton for a 42-yard gain.

Freeman was also in the game a fair amount. It’s a great sign to see the Broncos use both of their rookie runners to attack opponents early on. Keenum pitched the football to Freeman and the rookie took the ball 13 yards for the touchdown. He broke multiple tackles on his way to the end zone.

With 6:37 left in the first half, the score was tied 10-10.

At the 5:17 mark of the half, Mahomes threw a quick pass behind the line of scrimmage to De’Anthony Thomas. Thomas was wrapped up by safety Justin Simmons for no gain. However, linebacker Bradley Chubb was called offsides on the play, giving Kansas City free yards.

Chiefs receiver Demarcus Robinson was called for a face mask penalty, which cost the Chiefs 15 yards. Mahomes went to his mostly-reliable tight end Travis Kelce but the pass went incomplete.

With less than to go in the half, Keenum dropped back and threw a beautiful pass to Emmanuel Sanders to get to Chiefs territory at the 47-yard line.

Denver continued driving down the field and used a timeout with 1:22 left in the half.

With 43 seconds left in the half, Keenum threw a sideline pass to Courtland Sutton and it was ruled a first down but was challenged by Kansas City. It was a good challenge by the Chiefs, as the referees determined that Sutton was short.

The Broncos went for it on fourth down on the next play, converting it by calling a play-action pass to Devontae Booker and quickly throwing it to Demaryius Thomas.

Under pressure, Keenum had to get the ball out quickly, so he threw to Thomas again on a play that gained zero yards.

Wide receiver Courtland Sutton was against one-on-one coverage and caught a pass on the right side of the end zone. Unfortunately, he was out of bounds. No score.

To end the half, the clock ticking away and no timeouts, the Broncos’ special teams had to run onto the field but had plenty of time to do it. They got the field goal and led 13-10 going into halftime.

The Broncos held Mahomes to just seven completions for just 65 yards, while Keenum completed 14 of his passes for 139 yards in the first half.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was held without a catch in the first half.