That was the date of a Thursday night primetime Chiefs-Broncos game -- second game in a most promising third season of the splendid Andy Reid regime. The Chiefs had already won their opener.
This one featured Knile Davis taking the handoff with two minutes left of game time and running it in for a Chiefs touchdown to put the Chiefs ahead 24-17. It was a glorious moment, enjoying this nice lead very late against a Broncos team that had already beaten us six straight times over the previous three years.
Thing is, we gave Peyton Manning too much time on the clock, and sure enough he sliced up our defense to score the game-tying touchdown. Shortly thereafter Jamaal Charles took his shot at a handoff, fumbled the ball, and a Broncos defender scooped it up and ran it in for the Broncos game-winning touchdown.
Darn.
What is crazy is that game was the first of five straight losses that season, and yes, I was going crazy. I think we were all beside ourselves. We win the opener, then lose five straight games -- during which we also lose Jamaal Charles to an ACL injury, effectively ending his short but brilliant career.
Except that we came back to win the next 11 straight, the last of which was a 30-0 playoff trouncing of the Texans for our first playoff win in 22 years. After so many insane playoff debacles, that was a glorious moment indeed for the Chiefs Kingdom, a game that was highlighted by the one and only Knile Davis' opening kickoff return for a touchdown.
Thing is, even though the Broncos would go on to win the Super Bowl that season, the Chiefs still pasted the Broncos in their second matchup of that season, highlighted by the -- amazing to think about -- benching of Peyton Manning. He was just having a horrible game that day, but the thing is this.
That was the first win of the subsequent now 15 straight wins over the Broncos.
This season we beat a Broncos team twice by scores of 34-28 and today 27-24 -- note those scores, they are against a team that has scored a total of 20 or more points in a game three times this season except for those Chiefs game scores. That 28 was the most they'd put up all season, against us.
Thing is most all of those 15 wins over the Broncos have been really close and many of them downright crushing to the Broncos Kingdom. I don't remember everything about them, but I do remember a Tyreek Hill bumbling TD catch that was only a TD because he bumbled the ball at the goal line before clutching it. I think it was the same game when our kicker Cairo Santos kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime by banging it off the upright. I remember another game when our huge 350 pound defensive tackle Dontari Poe threw a touchdown pass to our tight end. Just last year late in the last game of the regular season Nick Bolton scooped up a fumble and housed it when the Broncos were about to score and actually very likely win one against us.
Today I can't help but add a note about the officiating that I feel unjustly went against the Broncos. I am committed to being fair with calling out the calls, and two stand out. At the end of the 3rd quarter a Broncos receiver made a terrific catch way downfield between two Chiefs defenders, but the ref called offensive pass interference. Sorry, the contact was incidental and yes, it should not have been called against the Broncos. Furthermore a clutch Chris Jones sack at the end of the game ended with him unnecessarily slamming Russell Wilson to the ground as he made a last-ditch attempt to get rid of the ball, and yes I do feel Jones should have gotten a roughing-the-passer call against him.
There was so much more heartbreak for the Broncos in all those games, but hey, good for the Chiefs Kingdom. The point, however, is that the Broncos, especially this year playing as poorly as they have, have just played us really well.
That or...
The unspeakable...
We just suck more than we think.
Chris Jones today made the game-securing play powering his way through the line to get the clutch sack late to effectively end this game, but we were still too bendy on defense letting this Denver offense move the ball and even take the lead 17-13 late in the 3rd quarter.
Patrick Mahomes made key plays -- even catching one of his own batted passes and scooting for six yards! But he was off today and our running game is just not exactly truly precisely actually what we'd like it to be, the blossoming of Isiah Pacheco and fine play of Jerick McKinnon notwithstanding.
I took a peek over at Arrowhead Addict and they had a feature on the five key players in today's game. I'll just share the names and you can go over there and look at what they say about them, but if you watched today's game you'd know why they were mentioned. They were Joe Thuney (who had to leave for injury -- his status unknown at this time), L'Jarius Sneed, Blake Bell, Trent McDuffie, and Kadarius Toney.
All fine players, all doing fine Chiefs things today.
Thing is, what else is going on that make games like these so hard to command as we should be, easily?
I know this is the NFL and "any given Sunday" and all the rest of it. I know sometimes Andy Reid just makes the most bewildering play calls. I know this very good team just beats itself way to often.
Purely Chiefs-on-the-field: I just have my serious questions about this team's chances in the postseason because of all that stuff. I will say I'm really really really glad the players and coaches don't believe any of that stuff and just play their rear-ends off every game. That's a good thing. If they aren't and they're fooling us all, then shame on them. But as far as I can tell -- I've shared this a number of times before: in a kind of perverse sense Brett et al have to know what they're up against and understand they must work that much harder to take care of business.
Add to this the reality that at any time we could be most seriously afflicted by any one of the Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse: penalties, bad calls, turnovers, and injuries. Already we're all wondering what is happening with Joe Thuney.
But again, ultimately, the game is just entertainment. I've got to keep that in mind, that's just reality. Nobody watches anything NFL if the Chiefs blow out each opponent by average scores of 59-2 on the way to 38 straight Super Bowl titles.
Now we just wait for tomorrow night's Bills-Bengals game to get an idea if we've got a good shot at the No. 1 seed. To be honest, all this stuff is tremendous fun, regularly seeing the Chiefs somewhere way at the top of the overall AFC standings in everything they show on television and on the web around the end of the pro football regular season.
Just gotta enjoy that fun.
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The image of Chris Jones is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.
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