Denver Broncos: 3 positives to take from Week 13 loss to Chiefs

Defensive game plan was great

It’s not easy to hold Patrick Mahomes and the high-powered Chiefs down, but the Broncos were able to do it with a bend-but-don’t-break approach.

The Broncos were able to hold the Chiefs to field goals early in the game and that enabled them to take a 10-9 lead into halftime. The first time the Chiefs scored in the second half was also by kicking a field goal. The Chiefs’ first four trips into the red zone led to field goals in this game and that is extremely hard to do against that team.

Vic Fangio and his defensive staff deserve a lot of credit for playing this team the way you need to play it defensively. It helped that Clyde Edwards-Helaire didn’t play in the game, and that allowed the Broncos to force the Chiefs to run the ball.

Clearly the Broncos watched tape from last week’s game between the Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and decided that they were not going to let Mahomes stand back and throw the ball over their heads all night.

The Broncos had a solid approach and they were very close to getting the job done with the defense. You have to give Mahomes credit for being able to make some really special throws in really critical junctures and that ended up being the difference in this game.

Still, it seems that Fangio could be onto something defensively and if the team can iron out the kinks, this losing streak to Kansas City may finally be able to be brought to an end. Of course, the counter is that Andy Reid will have time to game plan around what  Fangio did and have a different approach the next time around, but the Broncos have the personnel to slow this Chiefs attack down.

Now if they could just figure out how to slow down tight ends.