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Chiefs Stumble in Mile High

November 17, 2025

Chiefs Kingdom went into Denver with a bit of a strange feeling. The records were swapped, right? No, you’re reading that correctly. The Broncos who have been considered to be a bit of a fake due to their poor schedule picked up a statement win to improve to 9-2 and an 8 game win streak. Seven of their nine wins come on one possession games but credit Denver as they seem to continue to find ways to win, despite it not looking pretty most weeks.

With the win, Denver is in full control of the AFC West and the Chiefs will now have to fight to get back into it.  The Broncos aren’t an easy matchup, their defense leads the NFL  with 46 sacks and has four players with at least 4.5 sacks. While Bo NIx has had his struggles, the same can’t be said about their defense. They’ve been getting after the opposition and did so again against the Chiefs. As strange as it is, if the season ended today, the Chiefs would be on the outside looking in. Kansas City has had this strange up and down season where they’ve looked a bit overmatched, similar to the Broncos or Jaguars game, but other stretches of dominance where they beat up the Lions. It’s been an uncharacteristic season for the Chiefs and the most losses Patrick Mahomes has had in his career through 10 games.

Should we have seen struggles ahead? They were 11-0 in one possession games last season. I’m not sure I have enough characters to express how fortunate you have to be to come out with a sparkling record like that. You can prepare, execute, but all it takes is one bad call from an official or one unlucky bounce to convert a few of those wins to losses – and we may be seeing that now as they’re 0-5 this season in the same situations.

The lack of running game was evident and has become more of an issue. You have to wonder what held them back from acquiring a back at the deadline because the Chiefs do not have it in them to run it at the defense currently. Kareem Hunt cannot be the featured back if you’re looking to force it down the opposition’s throat. On a day where Patrick Mahomes was missing a few throws, which happens for everyone at some point, you need to have a run game to assist in opening up more throws. That just hasn’t been present between both Hunt and Pacheco and it’s been more noticeable as the team continues to rely on Patrick Mahomes to be their Superman. The RPO’s aren’t fooling anyone when you’re only passing out of that playcall as there is just no real threat for the run.

The Chiefs will welcome a hot Colts team who has had two weeks to prepare for this matchup as Indy spent week 11 on bye. The Chiefs defense had no issue stopping the run game of Denver, but Jonathan Taylor is a bit of a bigger ask as he’s been ripping through every defense on his schedule while putting a bid together for an MVP. We’ll find out soon how the Kansas City Chiefs respond to being hit in the mouth as they’re running out of time to get a proper response together with only seven weeks of play remaining.

Keith, Author

Keith runs youth flag football leagues by day, and by night he hosts the podcast and writes articles with the confidence of a man who’s been rushing quarterbacks since dial-up. A longtime flag football DE and lifelong Falcons fan, he’s no stranger to heartbreak and enjoys watching the bears get slaughtered each week. Equal parts coach, critic, and chaos, Keith calls it like he sees it… even if it hurts.