Chiefs and Broncos Renew Rivalry on Thursday Night Football

The Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs have shared the same conference and have been rivals since Day 1, back in 1960.  When these two renew their rivalry on Thursday night, the Broncos will have home field advantage and are coming off of two straight wins. The Chiefs head into this game after two straight losses at home. However, the Chiefs have won the past seven games against the Broncos, who haven’t won this rivalry game since Sept. 2015.

The Chiefs have to be ready to face one of the most solid defenses in the league in order to protect their streak in this rivalry.

The Battle of the Bests

Last week, the Broncos had seven sacks and three interceptions. This means the Kansas City offense will need to be quick with the ball and ready to keep the defense on their toes. This Denver defense has proven they can be indestructible when they’re on their A game.

However, this game should be interesting when the Chiefs have the ball. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL in total yards this season with a 63.9 percent in pass completions. He is second in the league in touchdowns. Linebacker Von Miller and the rest of Denver’s defense is aware that Mahomes is a mobile quarterback who can keep his composure while moving around to buy time for his plays to develop.

With a defense that dominated the field last week and a quarterback who has only thrown one interception this season, this game will be a close one.

Defense

Denver heads into this game only allowing opponents to score an average of 17.7 points per game, which is seventh in the league. Kansas City is 28th in the league and allows an average of 28.7 points per game. If Kansas City allows that many points to be put up this game, they will have no chance at breaking their losing streak this week.

The Bronco defense allowed no points last week against the Titans and only allowed one touchdown by the Chargers the game before, which was on a punt return.

Kansas City has six interceptions this year, compared to Denver’s five, with three of them being last week. Mahomes threw his first interception of this season last week and if Denver keeps this energy when the ball is in the air, their secondary could quickly multiply that number and shut down one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

Rushing Game

Safety Tyrann Mathieu has 29 tackles, five passes defended and an interception this season for the Chiefs. If the passing game isn’t an option for Denver, they can turn to Phillip Lindsay, who averages 66 rushing yards per game and 4.7 yards per carry

Broncos head coach Vic Fangio recognizes that the Chiefs can rely on their running backs, including LeSean McCoy, who has more than 250 rushing yards this year. Kansas City can use their talent to tear down the Denver defense and put points on the board without risking continuing their hot streak of sacks and interceptions.

Down to it

Several predictions show Denver winning, but only by a small point margin. This means that if Denver slips up, or if Mahomes and his offense can show up and break the Bronco defense, the game could switch in favor of the Chiefs.

Either way, tonight’s game in Denver looks like it will be a close one and both teams will either continue or break their current streaks.