This was a very good matchup for Week 8, but Chiefs vs. The Broncos did not disappoint on Sunday night, going down to the wire and ultimately a game to decide the winner.
Kansas City got another missed field goal from kicker Harrison Butker — that drama will continue to unfold this week — and it was Denver who got the long drive and the go-ahead goal in the final minutes.
Here are my suggestions:
Just when it looked like another Patrick Mahomes comeback in the final minute to establish the Chiefs as the team to beat in the AFC West, Denver’s defense came up with three big stops.
Denver rookie kicker Jonah Coleman gave the Chiefs the ball with 1:56 left — “too much time,” as we’ve been saying with Mahomes for so long — and then Kansas City quickly found itself at Denver’s 1-yard line with three downs on a game-winning drive.
But the Broncos stepped up — a Mahomes incompletion, stopping Kenneth Walker for no gain, then a false start denying a Mahomes touchdown to Rashee Rice. One game on the line, and Denver’s pressure got to Mahomes, with Malcolm Roach’s sack capping a big 28-24 home victory for the Broncos.
Instead of a lead for the Chiefs, the Broncos are suddenly back on top, 6-2 with a half-game lead over Kansas City near the midpoint of the season. The AFC playoffs went to Denver last year, so not only is the division title on the line between these two, but potentially a first-round bye in the AFC, which currently goes to Buffalo (6-1).
The Raiders have done well to stay 4-4, but this is a two-team contest and surprisingly, the schedule makers put both of their head-to-head meetings in the first half of 2026. Perhaps they expected more from the winless Chargers, who finish the season hosting the Chiefs and then the Broncos.
2.
Emmett Johnson will be fun to watch in The Chiefs Offense.
Kenneth Walker III has been a central part of the Chiefs’ offensive success, but Sunday showed a promising glimpse of what they have in rookie running back Emmett Johnson, their fifth-round pick out of Nebraska. He had played well in small doses in his first six NFL games, totaling 171 yards from scrimmage, but Sunday took it to another level.
Johnson’s big play was a 71-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes in the second quarter, and he finished the day with a team-best 128 yards on five catches. It’s the fifth-most yards ever by a Chiefs running back and the most in the Mahomes era since Spencer Ware went for 129 in 2016.
Kansas City will be mindful not to overextend Walker to make sure he’s healthy for their postseason, just as he was for Seattle last year, and doing so means having another back they trust to take some of his plate off. If they don’t address their receiving corps at the trade deadline, that could mean relying more on Johnson in the passing game as they did Sunday.
On third-and-3 in the fourth quarter, trying to run out the clock with a three-point lead, Mahomes trusted Johnson to move the chains as he did with a four-yard catch. And his 49-yard kickoff return in the final two minutes gave the leaders a much easier path to a winning score.
3.
Jaylen Waddle has been a huge disappointment
Remember when the Broncos gave up a first-round pick to get Waddle from Miami to take their passing game to the next level? He had a one-yard touchdown pass Sunday against the Chiefs, but Waddle’s production has been inconsistent, much like Denver.
There was promise in Week 2 when he exploded for 138 yards on eight catches in an impressive win over the Jaguars. But in the five games that followed, he totaled 136 yards. Sunday’s game was overwhelming, too, with 39 yards on six targets.
Jaylen Waddle celebrates a first quarter catch that gave Denver a first down. (Aaron Ontiveros/The Denver Post)
Bo Nix’s passing game has been bad enough that Denver has changed players, with just one game in which he threw for more than 222 yards.
Waddle had at least 744 receiving yards every year he was in Miami, even as a secondary option behind Tyreek Hill. He’s not on pace to do that this year in Denver, and his hit Sunday was just his second since joining the team. That’s not to say he can’t emerge as a bigger part of their offense as the year progresses, but there is significant room for improvement.