Kansas City Chiefs Dominant Win is a Blueprint to Beat Denver Broncos
The Chiefs showed how to run the ball all over the Broncos. And when they do, it nullifies Denver's pass rush.
Holy cow. That was a stinker, like smelling Greeley when snow is blowing in.
Bo Nix was awful in the 31-10 loss to the Chiefs. The Broncos offensive line was full of holes. And Denver's defense couldn't tackle worth a damn.
It was basically as bad a start to a season as a team could have. Thankfully, there were no devastating injuries. Only that would be worse.
Kansas City not only beat the Broncos into complete submission, they wrote the book on how to beat this team. On national television. Now every other Broncos opponent will know exactly what to do: Run the ball, pressure Nix and it's curtains for Denver.
Here's the blueprint to beat the Denver Broncos defense:
The Denver Broncos Can't Tackle: Run it On Them
To be fair, this part of the blueprint came out last year following the bye week.
While the Broncos were stout against the run to start 2025, the defense faded down the stretch.
To wit, they gave up 88.5 yards on the ground per game in the first 11 games of last season. And that increased to 95.7 after the bye. Add in the two playoff games and the number balloons to 112.3 Y/G.
But this was otherwordly bad.
Literally every single yard the Chiefs earned on the ground on Monday — a shocking 220 rushing yards — were gained after contact. Denver had a chance to stop every Kansas City run and instead were run over.
Add in the missed tackle yardage from passes and it was an historically bad performance from the Broncos:
[Sikkema] Denver's 248 missed tackle yards allowed were the most in a single game in @NextGenStats' database. Their 29.8% missed tackle percentage is the third worst single-game score since 2018
by u/tvc-one-five in DenverBroncos
While everyone was focused on the return of Patrick Mahomes, he played like "Midhomes" in the game. He was wildly inaccurate going 15-27 for 184 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception. And a lot of those yards came after missed tackles, too.
No, it wasn't Mahomes beating Denver. He didn't have to pass the ball hardly at all.
Denver can't stop the run.
Losing Franklin-Myers Hurts
Ben Solak noted on the Mina Kimes podcast yesterday that Johnathan Franklin-Myers was a solid run-stopper, and he was the one major piece the defense lost last year. "The thing that Franklin-Myers does best, his best strength, is as a penetrator where he can slant, stunt and then keeps his balance and makes tackles." (14 min. in.)
Singleton and Strnad as Liabilities
He also discussed Alex Singleton and Justin Strnad being a weakness in terms of having to make tackles in the open field.
"On the 28-yard run, Singleton beats the blocks to the spot," Solak continued. "He has Kenneth Walker and hits him with contact, just melts right off him. To me, it's always the linebackers I circle [as the Broncos' defensive weakness]."
Singleton and Strnad were always the biggest question marks on Denver's elite defense as we approached this season. That's why they were the lowest-ranked positional group on the Broncos before the season kicked off.
Can they step up?
Running Nullifies Denver's Pass Rush
Whenever a team plays the Chiefs, they know Patrick Mahomes must be a focal point.
You have to pressure the dude, but also contain him when he takes off and creates with his legs.
Denver was set up well to put pressure on Pat. Nik Bonitto faced a UDFA in Kahlil Benson, and Jonah Elliss went against mediocre veteran Jaylon Moore.
Meanwhile, Benson allowed just one pressure against the All-Pro Bonitto. And Mahomes was sacked only twice, with one coming after a lineman stepped on his foot.
Running the ball effectively allowed the Chiefs to call quick passes that didn't put Mahomes in jeopardy of being hit or sacked. That hurts the Broncos blitzing ways, and takes away the defense's biggest strength.
Over the last two years, the Broncos have led the NFL in sacks both seasons; 63 and then 68, respectively. Denver totaled an astounding 131 sacks the last two seasons. No other NFL team had 100 in that same time span.
When an opponent averages 5.8 yards per carry, they don't need deep drops and slow-developing plays to hit explosives.
If Denver doesn't toughen up and stop the run, teams know they can out-physical the Broncos and then call screens and quick passes to keep their QB clean.
Jacksonville Up Next
The Denver defense should be pumped up to play the Jacksonville Jaguars this week.
Not only did Denver just get completely embarrassed on national television, but they were embarrassed by the Jags last December in Denver, too.
It's one of the Broncos revenge games from last year.
And while Jacksonville doesn't have as explosive a running back as Kenneth Walker, Bayshul Tuten and Ameer Abdullah played well in Week 1 vs. the Cleveland Browns.
Tuten ran 15 times for 66 yards (4.4 YPC) and Abdullah ran 4 times for 32 yards (8.0 YPC) last week. Oh, and Chris Rodriguez presents another back Denver has to contend with.
It's not just them, but Trevor Lawrence likes to run too. Lawrence just came off one of the best games of his career; he threw 4 touchdowns and led the NFL in passer rating with a 150.6.
It's likely the Jags have a more pass-heavy game plan this week — Parker Washington had 5 catches for 83 yards, 1 TD last Sunday and killed Denver last year — but it's also possible Jacksonville sees what Kansas City did and tries to replicate it.
Jaguars (1-0) vs. Broncos (0-1) kicks off at 2:05 p.m. MT on Sunday, Sept. 20 on CBS and Paramount+.
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Rich Kurtzman was born and raised in Denver Colorado and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the aughts. He's been a professional writer since 2011, covering Colorado State football and men's basketball, as well as the Denver Broncos, for many outlets. Current Denver Broncos work can be found on Mile High Sports. Previous credits include CBS Denver and The USA TODAY Sports Media Group.
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