With “Shake It Off” blaring over the stadium loudspeakers, the Broncos finally gave a Swiftie kick to that 16-game losing streak to Kansas City that we thought might never end.
“Smiles!” Broncos president Damani Leech exclaimed Sunday as he departed a happy locker room with something sweet to finally show the crazy-rich Waltons for their $4.65 billion investment in a downtrodden NFL franchise:
Denver 24, Patrick Mahomes 9.
Your eight-year nightmare is over, apountry.
Celebrate? Darn skippy. Letap party like itap 1989 (Broncos’ version).
Not to suggest the Chiefs had stopped taking our local NFL team seriously, but on his way to Colorado, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend stopped off at Game 1 of the World Series in Texas, where tight end Travis Kelce was caught on camera dancing badly to “Shake It Off.”
So as Kelce and his teammates walked off Empower Field being trolled by the same Swift song, that little piece of snark tasted as sweet as Prosecco. As Denver linebacker Alex Singleton watched the Chiefs go, he took a moment to raise his hand and wave a fond farewell to the 16-game losing streak.
“You want to get rid of that,” Singleton said. “Now you guys can’t talk about it any more.”
With the NFL trade deadline looming Tuesday, what did we learn about the Broncos in this rousing victory against Kansas City, when the same defense that surrendered 10 touchdowns to Miami held the best quarterback on the planet to nine points, often making Mahomes look as clueless as Jordan Love?
Letap not trade safety Justin Simmons or cornerback Patrick Surtain II, unless the Buffalo Bills are so desperate for help in their secondary they offer to send quarterback Josh Allen to our dusty old cowtown in return.
But this was the big ray of sunshine that warmed us on a gray day when 12,281 disgruntled paying customers were no-shows: There’s absolutely no reason for the Broncos to tie their future to Russell Wilson through 2028 merely because his $245 million contract extension kicks in next season.
The victory against the Chiefs should be sufficient for controlling owner Greg Penner to swallow hard and eat the hefty financial penalty of cutting Wilson early in 2024.
The Broncos don’t need no stinkin’ DangeRuss.
OK, Wilson didn’t stink against the Chiefs. He did throw three touchdown passes, including a sugar-coated spiral to Jerry Jeudy that staked Denver to a commanding 14-3 lead early in the second quarter.
It was not Wilson, however, who made Mahomes look worse than in any of his previous 101 NFL starts. His 59.2 quarterback rating was the second-worst of his career.
Put this in your pipe and smoke it, Chiefs Kingdom: During those 101 outings, Mahomes had never looked so ordinary as he did against the Broncos on this scary cold and damp Halloween weekend, when he lost one fumble and threw two interceptions, including a play that a second-year pro will cherish forever.
“I didn’t even know what to think at the time. I got up with the ball, ran to the end zone to celebrate with my teammates. And I didn’t even realize until I got back to the sideline: ‘I just got my first NFL interception against Mahomes,’” said Broncos slot corner Ja’Quan McMillian, whose diving pick of Mahomes was one of five turnovers forced by Denver.
What got Denver to the bye week with smiles as big as a team can have about a 3-5 record was coach Sean Payton finally committing to the style of offense we’ve been waiting for all season long. Pound the rock. Control the clock.
The Broncos ran the ball 40 times against the Chiefs and attempted 25 passes. Wilson took six sacks. He threw 19 times for a modest 112 yards. Thatap almost Tebow-esque.
Wilson was a game manager. And you don’t need to pay a game manager nearly a quarter of a billion dollars when Payton can author the same offensive game plan with back-up Jarrett Stidham or almost any rookie quarterback the Broncos could select in next year’s NFL draft.
Offering a king’s ransom to Seattle in the trade for Wilson seemed to be a reasonable gamble to many of us (me included) at the time. But backing up the Brinks truck and giving Wilson a huge contract extension before he started a game for Denver was a costly mistake that has made us all wonder if general manager George Paton has got nothing in his brain.
Hey, stuff happens. As any Swiftie knows, you gotta shake, shake, shake it off.
The best thing about this victory against Kansas City is it gave us a definitive answer to the thorniest issue in apountry:
Can there be happiness after DangeRuss gets out of Denver?
Yes. The sooner the better.
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