3 winners, 7 losers in Broncos 43-16 flogging by the Chiefs

In a word: Yikes.

As Adam Malnati said on the tweeter machine, what we saw on Sunday is a team that is good at football and one that is not. The Denver Broncos (2-4) were outmatched and outclassed in their 43-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs (6-1) at a snow-covered Mile High Stadium.

This is now the Broncos’ 10th-straight loss to Kansas City, and it doesn’t feel like this streak is ending anytime soon.

Per the usual, I’m bound to forget someone or leave them off, so please mention them in the comments.

Winners

Phillip Lindsay

The time has come to make the Denver product the featured running back. He’s the only one of the Broncos two main backs who doesn’t fumble. Not to mention, he’s the spark plug and heart of this team. Oh, and John Elway needs to pay Lindsay and keep him in a Broncos jersey. The only hope now is Lindsay isn’t out any sustained time with a concussion that kept him out of the second half. Still, he finished with 79 yards and nine carries. And, most importantly, Lindsay didn’t fumble.

Bradley Chubb

Same as Lindsay, Chubb kept fighting. And at least Patrick Mahomes had to fight off Chubb. Chubb had two tackles, two quarterback hits, one tackle for loss and one sack.

Broncos defense

Denver’s defense did its job and pretty dang well; especially against Mahomes and this high-powered machine. The unit held the Chiefs to 0-for-8 on third down and Mahomes to 200 yards passing. Too bad the other two phases utterly pooped themselves.

Losers

I am

I really did think the Broncos were closer to Kansas City. I totally bought into the mirage; especially offensively. There is still a long ways to go for Denver to find its way back into contention. How far to go? As Andrew Mason pointed out, the last three games in this series, the Broncos have lost by 24, 20 and 27. In the words of Mase, Denver isn’t closing the gap, it’s widening.

Drew Lock

The young Broncos quarterback was just brutal on Sunday. The pick-six was horrible, but so was his play in general. Horrible overthrows, horrible decisions, horrible pocket awareness. Let’s see how he responds after his second putrid game against the Chiefs. Lock finished the game 24-for-38 passing for 254 yards and two interceptions.

Melvin Gordon

Nothing describes this game more than a botched flea flicker. Oh, and Gordon had another fumble.

Broncos offense

As a whole, the unit wasn’t good enough. And this, too, is a trend. You can’t score 16 points and turn the ball over four times. I’ll leave the rest to ESPN Broncos writer Jeff Legwold.

Tom McMahon

As Jeff Essary joked on Twitter, I’d love to be as bad at my job as McMahon and have this kind of job security. The teams coordinator needs to be fired ASAP.

Broncos “teams”

I refuse to call them “special.” But this is par for the course as long as McMahon has been the coordinator. Can Vic Fangio finally make the move he should have made last season? Or last offseason?

The Broncos

As noted at the top, Denver has now lost 10-straight games to the Chiefs. And this streak isn’t about to end. It really does show how far the Broncos have to go to get back into contention. It’s tough enough to beat Mahomes and Kansas City. But when Denver beats itself? It’s almost impossible.