The 29-13 beatdown the Denver Broncos took at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday was shocking and disappointing to the team and certainly the fan base. However, there were some positives to come out of the second-straight loss of the season.
Here are just a few reasons to keep your head up when you don your orange and blue this week following Sunday’s loss to KC:
Best quote
Danny Trevathan on how the team needs to come back.
“When you face adversity you have to go through it and fix it. Its tough man but that is not going to do anything but help us in the long run. We have a long season here so its good for us to face this now so we can overcome it. We didn’t play our best game but I feel like we gave it everything we could.”
Offensive MVP
Through three-and-a-half quarters, the Broncos fans that came out in droves Sunday afternoon didn’t have much to cheer about. That changed as Brock Osweiler entered the game. Whether you are an ardent Peyton Manning supporter or not, he was off his game Sunday. Osweiler represents the future (assuming the Broncos want to resign him after this year). He entered the game and quickly adapted to game speed and lead the offense on its only two scoring drives.
“Brock played his ass off, so that’s a positive,” Ronnie Hillman said after thinking of any positives to take from the loss. “He came in and played his butt off for us. Even though we were down, he could have easily came in and just tried to manage the game but tried to change it, so you have to respect that.”
Osweiler looked quick in the pocket and his throws were noticeably faster to the receivers than the ailing Manning. He completed 14-of-24 passes against a Chiefs defense that had stuffed the Broncos through almost three full quarters. He finished with a passer rating of 72.6 with 146 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Defensive MVP
Von Miller continued to beat either of the Chiefs’ tackles throughout the day. Unfortunately, he only came up with one sack in the contest. He covered the speedy Charcandrick West out of the backfield on a pass, hit Alex Smith while forcing an incomplete pass and helped the defense hold the Chiefs to very few passing yards throughout the game. Outside of a let 80-yard touchdown, the Chiefs could only muster 124 passing yards, mostly due to how fast he was coming off of the edge.
Despite the defenses’s ability to hold the Chiefs to field goals most of the day, Miller was not nearly satisfied with the outcome and was looking to improve immediately after the defeat.
“I want to come in here and be the same Von. I’m going to work, try to inspire my guys to do the same and influence those guys to play at a high level—keep being the same Von, keep sparking this defense. I didn’t feel like I made enough plays to be the type of player that I know that I can be. I didn’t make enough plays today. That’s something that I’m definitely going to work on. I’m going to get it done, 100 percent.”
He finished the game with two tackles, one for a loss, one sack and three quarterback hits.
Best statistics of the night
The Broncos defense played extremely tough Sunday afternoon as the offense once again, put them in tough situations. The defense held the Chiefs to only 20 points off of five Broncos interceptions. That may not sound great, but considering the Chiefs had an average starting field position of the 48 yard line, that effort is pretty impressive.
Outside of the one big play of the game, West’s 80-yard touchdown reception, on which Brandon Marshall admitted after the game that someone (he would not say who) blew their coverage assignment, the Broncos only allowed 41 total yards to the visitors in the second half.
They Broncos defense also continued to be very stout on third down. The Chiefs only converted 4-of-16 third downs.
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