KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Broncos unwrapped the finest of presents at 9:45 p.m. Central time on Christmas night.
It came complements of Kansas City star defensive tackle Chris Jones.
Facing fourth-and-2 coming out of the 2-minute warning on Thursday night in a game that mattered a whole lot for the Broncos and not at all for the rival Chiefs, Denver coach Sean Payton kept his offense on the field.
Jones jumped offsides. First-and-goal Broncos.
Moments later, quarterback Bo Nix sprinted right on third-and-goal and found RJ Harvey for a 1-yard, go-ahead touchdown with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining that lifted Denver to a 20-13 at Arrowhead Stadium and pushed Denver to the doorstep of an AFC West championship.
If Houston beats the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday, the Broncos will take the crown from Kansas City after its nine-year reign. If the Chargers win, Denver and L.A. will play a division title game Week 18 in Denver.
The road to an AFC West title never figured to be an easy one.
It always figured to run through Arrowhead Stadium in some way, shape or form.
Like this, though?
This couldn’t have been predicted when the NFL schedule-makers put Denver and Kansas City in a primetime, Christmas night slot way back in May.
It couldn’t have been envisioned this way.
A Broncos team on a barnstorming tour through the 2025 season needed only beat a Chiefs team that lost all of its close-game mojo from a year ago, lost six of seven games leading into Week 17 and lost future Hall of Fame quarterback Patrick Mahomes to a torn ACL, too. ,
But Kansas City hadn’t lost to Denver at home since 2015 and it made this game good and muddy, too, in an attempt to Grinch a long-time division foe.
In the end, the Broncos prevailed and now can earn a divisional crown before they return to the practice field with a Texans win on Saturday. Regardless, one more win and Payton’s team will secure the No. 1 seed in the conference and a bye through the Wild Card round.
That all felt tenuous for most of Thursday night.
When Harrison Butker knocked in a 47-yard field goal to knot the game at 13 with 8 minutes, 8 seconds remaining in regulation, the Chiefs had just 95 offensive yards and were operating at just 2.8 per snap.
That encapsulated a weird game on a weird, unseasonably warm holiday night in the heartland.
The Broncos dominated every facet. Except the scoreboard.
Total yardage? 303-139
Time of possession? 39:28-20:32
Third downs? The Broncos converted 11 of 18 compared to 4 of 11 for the Chiefs.
And yet Denver could not turn any of those gaps into breathing room in a building that’s been a house of horrors for more than a decade.
The Broncos needed all 60 minutes to get the job done despite mounting four drives of 14-plus plays.
It took until the third to find the end zone.
After two early red zone failures, Nix made sure the Broncos didn’t fail a third time all by himself. He capped a long, punishing third-quarter scoring march with a designed quarterback draw on first-and-goal from the 9 late in the third quarter to give Denver its first lead at 13-10.
The march covered 14 plays and 9 minutes, 47 seconds. It featured a pair of third-down conversions and a Nix sneak on fourth-and-1 in the red zone.
It was a needed conversion after a pair of similar chances went begging early in the game.
The Broncos in the first half worked hard for meager offensive results. They mounted two long, grinding drives and possessed the ball for more than 19 minutes before halftime, but came away with just two field goals to show for it.
According to the broadcast, it was the first time the Broncos mounted two eight-plus minute drives in a game that didn’t end in a touchdown since the 1999 season.
On the first, Denver had first-and-10 at the Kansas City 13 but stalled out from there.
On the second, Denver had first-and-10 from the Kansas City 11 but Nix threw three straight incompletions.
The pair of short Wil Lutz field goals represented wins for the short-handed Chiefs, who entered without their top two cornerbacks and several other key players available.
To make matters worse, Nix was intercepted on a tipped ball in the first quarter that set up quarterback Chris Oladokun and Kansas City’s offense with a short field. They turned that drive into the only touchdown of the first 43 of the night.
That, in a nutshell, is a recipe to allow a bad, already eliminated team playing its third quarterback of the season hang around and start believing it can win a game.
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