Darn straight, they can win in Arrowhead. What the Broncos ’t do is turn every junket inside the red zone into The Brandon McManus Show. (Six. Six, people. Not three.)
They ’t have any of those Tom McMahon Moments on special teams.
They ’t carry the ball like itap a wet bar of soap.
Most of all, they ’t keep letting Patrick Mahomes off the hook.
Only the New York Jets have given the ball away more times (24) than the Chiefs (22) this season. If there’s a road to glory under the lights and above the din at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, a blessed end to that unholy 11-game losing streak to KC, ٳ’s the path.
Since 2018, Mahomes is 4-5 in the games where he’s tossed two interceptions or more. Otherwise, he’s 47-9. Itap only happened nine times over four seasons. Three have come in the past eight weeks.
Kansas City has already lost the turnover battle in six games this season. They wound up going 3-3 in those games. They’re 4-1 in the others. When the Chiefs’ margin is minus-2 or more, they’re 0-3.
Context: Kansas City produced only four regular-season games with a negative turnover margin last season. 2019, same story.
The Broncos, meanwhile, have produced a plus turnover margin in five games in 2021, including this past Sunday’s victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. They’re 5-0 in those tilts, as opposed to 1-5 when the margin is even or negative.
Weeks like this one, stages like this one, are why they drafted cornerback Pat Surtain II. Why they traded for Teddy Bridgewater to play quarterback.
Nothing changes an NFL game the way takeaways do. Nothing keeps a coach up at night, especially a defensive guy like Vic Fangio, like self-inflicted wounds.
You ’t tip-toe your way into a victory at Arrowhead, but there are worse combos to take on the road than a salty defense and a power run game. The Broncos were giving it away only 1.1 times per game through Week 12 (12 in 11 games), which was tied for the fifth-fewest in the NFL as of Monday afternoon.
More context: Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s crew produced 32 giveaways in 2020, or exactly two per contest. In other words, the Broncos have cut that number pretty much in half from last season’s appalling pace. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why.
(Hint: It rhymes with “Stock.” And “Block.”)
“We haven’t beat them in a while, the hatred runs deep,” outside linebacker Bradley Chubb said Monday when asked about the Chiefs.
“And when we do get over that hump, everybody’s going to be rejoicing and moving on to the next one. And I feel like ٳ’s what we’ve got to do — just knock this one out and just keep moving forward.”
In a perfect world, granted, the Broncos would have their own Mahomes for these moments, their own Justin Herbert, their own Derek Carr, a quarterback who makes danger fun, whose rewards are worth every risk.
Instead, Fangio, John Elway and George Paton have Frankensteined this roster into a good front-runner and lousy trailer, a bunch that excels with a lead but struggles to chase points in a pinch.
What these Broncos ’t do in Kansas City is what they always seem to do in this series since 2016. They ’t chase. They ’t press. They ’t give the Chiefs extra possessions, extra cracks for Mahomes to do the Mahomes things that break your heart.
During Denver’s 11-game losing streak in the series, the Broncos have taken it away from Kansas City only seven times.
ճ’v given it away on 27 occasions.
Thatap a minus-20 margin over 11 meetings, or nearly minus-2 per tilt (minus-1.8). Over the last four meetings, the Broncos have taken it away once and given it away seven times, for a minus-6 differential, or minus-1.5 per game.
Two bonus drives per game for Mahomes isn’t asking to get beat, kids. Itap begging.
