Lesson learned for Broncos: Don’t punt it away late to Chiefs ... and Patrick Mahomes
Vic Fangio had scripted an excellent game plan. The Broncos were keeping the Chiefs out of the end zone and making third-down conversions difficult.
On offense, Denver was doing just enough to keep the game in a toss-up category.
But one late decision by Fangio all but sealed doom for Denver. The Broncos punted, and that paved the way for the Chiefs’ 22-16 victory.
The situation: Denver faced a fourth-and-3 from its own 49. Fangio sent on the punt team with 6:13 remaining. Denver had two timeouts remaining at the time.
But although the Broncos’ defense had been solid, it couldn’t come up big here. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense held the ball for more than five minutes, and the possession ended on Harrison Butker’s fifth field goal, this one from 48 yards.
Denver had no timeouts left at that point and the possession ended when quarterback Drew Lock was intercepted by safety Tyrann Mathieu for the second time in the game.
Fangio said he gave “strong consideration” to running a play. “But at some point in the game we’ve got to get a stop and we weren’t able to there. We held them to a field goal, but that made it a touchdown game and burned out some of the time there. So, in retrospect, (we) should have probably gone for it, but I did give it serious thought.”
It was a risk for which the Broncos were not rewarded against one of the NFL’s top offenses — a dangerous unit led by Mahomes.
“We’re just battle-tested,” Mahomes said. “We’ve played in a lot of tight football games and we have to find a way to win. We didn’t play the way we wanted to in the red zone as far as executing and scoring touchdowns. But in this league, you have to find a way to win.”
The Chiefs’ path Sunday started when they were nursing a 19-16 lead. They began their late drive on the 15 and knew first downs were needed.
Darrel Williams ripped off runs of 6, 5 and 12 yards. Mahomes kept the Broncos’ off-balance by mixing in throws, including a contortionist pass to Sammy Watkins. Mahomes rolled to his left and delivered a soft toss to Watkins that covered 9 yards.
As the clock dipped below three minutes, the Broncos were forced to use their last timeouts.
The situation wasn’t exactly like the final minutes of last weekend’s Chiefs victory at Tampa Bay, but it was close enough. That day, the Chiefs took over with 4:10 remaining, up three, and never gave the ball back.
So Sunday made it two straight games in which the Chiefs got the ball late with a three-point lead and had to collect first downs. They’ve made it work both times.
“Pat had some nice throws down the stretch,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “You guys are watching it just like I’m watching it. He does some amazing things, mostly battling through.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 11:54 PM.