Denver Broncos 3 keys to beat the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday

The Denver Broncos will play their second AFC West game of the season, their first on the road, and their first Primetime game of the season. The Broncos are facing the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Almost no one thinks that the Broncos can pull off the upset at Arrowhead, but in today's NFL everything is possible, and if they want to beat the Chiefs, these are three main keys that must happen for Denver to defeat KC on Thursday Night ...

1. Have KC's offense in the sidelines:

A very important thing that the Broncos must do in order to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, is to have their offense in the sidelines for as much time as possible. In other words, Denver must have long offensive drives, for Mahomes to be off of the field. Having Mahomes off the field is indirectly a good way to stop him because when he is running the offense in the field, it is very difficult to slow and stop the Chiefs' offense.

How can they do that? Well in order to have long offensive drives, Sean Payton must have a perfect combination of plays, by establishing a good run game from the beginning of the game, and not necessarily with the running backs. Russell Wilson scrambled pretty well against the Jets and produced big yardage. Something very important for this to happen is also converting on third downs. And obviously, the most important thing about this is scoring, and not field goals, but touchdowns.

If you want to win against the Chiefs, you must have touchdowns.

2. Discipline, especially in the defense:

The Kansas City Chiefs are a very good football team, and in order to beat them, you must be a disciplined team in every phase of the game. On the offensive side of the ball, the Broncos should be disciplined by not having penalties. A lot of the Broncos' offensive drives so far in the season have been destroyed by holding and false start penalties. Against Kansas City, they cannot do that. They must leverage every offensive drive they have in this game.

Defensively they must be more disciplined, as they have been the worst unit in the NFL statistically. Good defensive communication will be an X-Factor for Denver. Mahomes is better when defenses have zone coverage, especially when targeting Travis Kelce. If the defense has good communication, it will be tougher for Mahomes to find Kelce in the open space. Also, defensive penalties cannot happen.

Another area of the game where the defense must be very disciplined is against their run. Denver has allowed over 900 rushing yards in the season. Without DJ Jones it will be a bit harder, but not impossible. If the Broncos cannot stop Isiah Pacheco early, it will be very possible that KC runs in most of the game, so stopping him as early as possible will be huge for the defense.

3. Put pressure on Patrick Mahomes:

Nik Bonitto is my defensive X-Factor for today's game. He has been improving week by week. As of today, he is the third-best sacks in the league. He had two last week against the New York Jets.

Patrick Mahomes really struggled against the New York Jets pressure in week 5, he threw two interceptions and was sacked once. He has been sacked 4 times in the season (so far) and has thrown 4 interceptions. Most of Patrick's turnovers have been under pressure. The pass rush has to be very effective in getting on Mahomes.

Can the Broncos finally beat the Chiefs? What are your keys to beat KC?