At least I was on my couch.
That’s about the lone positive to take away from the Kansas City Chiefs 23-3 beatdown of the Denver Broncos. The result is the Broncos (5-9) losing streak to their AFC West rivals jumps to nine games, they’ll have their third-straight losing season for the first time since 1970-72 and they were officially eliminated from the NFL playoffs for the fourth-straight year.
Per the usual, I’m bound to forget someone, so please mention them in the comments.
Winners
No one
Despite how Drew Lock and Courtland Sutton continued to fight on offense, and Shelby Harris on defense, I can’t put anyone on the winners list after this showing.
In terms of Lock, I agree with Fangio in that the rookie handled the conditions pretty well and he can bank this game as a learning experience. Lock had some good moments, some bad moments, but nothing to really move the needle one way or the other.
Losers
Vic Fangio
I joked on Twitter that it was a bold strategy to not cover Travis Kelce. The Broncos defense still hasn’t covered the Kansas City tight end. The players will get theirs, but this plan was confounding to say the least.
Broncos defense
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs embarrassed this unit. Oh, hold on, Kelce just picked up 15 more yards uncovered.
Broncos offense
In the Broncos two games against Kansas City this season, they were outscored 53-9. As Andrew Mason pointed out on Twitter, that minus-44-point margin is the worst for Denver in a single season against the Chiefs since 1968 (minus-55).
Broncos offensive line
It’s a small miracle Lock didn’t get hurt given how many hits he sustained on Sunday. If it wasn’t clear before, this unit needs to be overhauled in a major way in the offseason.
Broncos linebackers
Couldn’t help in coverage on Kelce or in containing Mahomes ... so like the rest of the unit, didn’t do much of anything.
Broncos secondary
Minus a late interception, this unit needs to check into a KC ER unit for burn marks. Wait, wait, I just got word Kelce picked up 25 more yards — again, uncovered.
Broncos pass rush
Somehow Denver managed three sacks ... how did it get that many? It seemed like Mahomes had all day to stand in the pocket and torch the secondary.
Chris Harris
A rough season for the veteran got worse on Sunday. All I can say is “eesh.”
Colby Wadman
Why is he still on the roster? It was reported this week that the Broncos tried out Shane Tripucka. Time to sign him, give him a chance in the last two games of the season, and be done with Wadman.
The Broncos
As I stated at the beginning, and it bears repeating, Denver’s losing streak to the Chiefs is now at nine games, it has its third-straight losing season for the first time since 1970-72 and the organization was officially eliminated from the NFL playoffs for the third-straight year.
I think all of Broncos Country agrees with Von Miller after the latest embarrassing loss.
#Broncos @VonMiller with raw emotion. Said still has hope. But feels defeated #Denver7 pic.twitter.com/8IMrc7jjyA
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) December 15, 2019