KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s been seven years and three months since the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Denver Broncos.
Soak it in, Chiefs fans. While turnover-prone Kansas City tried to blow a four-score first-half lead Sunday, Denver’s comeback bid fell short.
Patrick Mahomes threw three touchdowns and three interceptions, but he did enough along with a defense that sacked Russell Wilson six times and eventually knocked him from the game with a concussion to escape Empower Field at Mile High with a 34-28 win.
“Every quarterback who has played in this league a while has a game like that,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said of Mahomes’ third career three-interception game. “... You can’t take away the three interceptions, but there sure were some good ones in between those, and it’s a great learning experience.”
The Chiefs (10-3) will clinch a seventh straight AFC West title with one more win or any Los Angeles Chargers loss.
Seven of the Chiefs’ 14 wins during its recent stretch of dominance — which began with a 29-13 win Nov. 15, 2015, in Denver — have come by one score.
At the two-minute warning in the first half, the Chiefs led 27-0.
After back-to-back interceptions by Mahomes, which his counterpart Russell Wilson turned into a pair of touchdowns to Jerry Jeudy, the Broncos had regained a toehold in the game by halftime.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Denver tacked on another touchdown — a 66-yard screen pass for a touchdown to Marlon Mack — to make it a one-score game.
“We were up on them big at first, but it’s the details that let the [other] team score two, three touchdowns in a short time span,” said linebacker Willie Gay Jr., who had an interception return for a touchdown and made five tackles. “Any call you call, if one person’s out of a gap or misses an assignment, you get a screen play that goes 60 yards or you get a quarterback scramble 15, 20 yards. Those little things add up.”
Kansas City went three-and-out, but Wilson and company couldn’t capitalize on the chance to take the lead.
Mahomes, who finished 28 of 42 for 352 yards, provided some breathing room, hanging in the pocket as he was smacked by four Denver defenders, with a 4-yard touchdown toss to JuJu Smith-Schuster, who had nine catches for 74 yards, late in the third quarter.
Wilson was hurt on a scramble on the Broncos’ ensuing drive when he was tackled from behind by Frank Clark and banged his head hard on the ground. He left the game and was diagnosed with a concussion.
Brett Rypien replaced Wilson, who finished 23 of 36 for 247 with three touchdowns and one interception. He also had 57 yards on four scrambles in one of his best games since joining Denver via trade from Seattle in the offseason.
Rypien found Jeudy, who finished with eight catches for 73 yards with a career-high three touchdowns, for a 7-yard TD on fourth down to make it a six-point game again.
Kansas City’s defense stiffened from there, even after Mahomes threw his third interception and second by Josey Jewell.
“Just three bad decisions, if you look at them,” Mahomes said of his interceptions.
The first pick, Mahomes said, he tried to force into tight end Travis Kelce, who became the fifth tight end in NFL history to top 10,000 yards Sunday, when he should have taken a checkdown.
The second one, Mahomes said, he was trying to throw away at the feet of a receiver and Pat Surtain II "made a helluva play."
"Then, the third one was just bad-bad, because of the situation," Mahomes said. "We’re in field-goal range, especially here at altitude. No one’s open, so just throw the ball away and let Harrison end the game.”
Defensive end Chris Jones drilled Rypien as he tried to fire a deep pass to Jeudy, and L’Jarius Sneed snagged the fluttering pass to ice the game.
“We’re just a tough team,” said running back Jerick McKinnon, who totaled 134 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. “That starts with Coach Reid and it trickles down. It definitely wasn’t easy. That Broncos defense, we knew they were going to be tough.”
Needing a first down to run out the clock, running back Isiah Pacheco ran over Kareem Jackson and powered forward for a 10-yard gain, allowing Mahomes to kneel twice and walk off the field a winner for the 10th time in 10 games against the Broncos.
Pacheco finished with 70 yards rushing on 13 carries, his fifth straight game with at least 66 yards on the ground.
“A lot of stuff to clean up on the offensive side, but I’m not going to complain about a divisional win here in Denver, man,” Kelce said. “It’s always a tough game.”
The two teams meet again on New Year’s Day at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Kansas City seemed destined to finish the opening drive in the end zone before an Orlando Brown Jr. false start stalled the march.
The Chiefs settled for a 35-yard field goal.
Harrison Butker converted a 45-yard field goal on Kansas City’s second drive for a 6-0 lead.
Mahomes turned to his indefatigable wizardry for another vintage moment of magic.
Scrambling to his right, he outran a couple of defenders, avoided a sack with a stiff arm, drew a defender off Jerick McKinnon and then flipped a no-look shot put of a pass over Justin Simmons’ head.
“He peeked at me, but I wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it,” McKinnon said. "I was just kind of waiting to see what would happen, and he got it out there and gave me time to get to it.”
McKinnon did the rest, dashing 56 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter.
He and Mahomes connected again seven minutes later for a 10-yard touchdown and a 20-point lead, which seemed insurmountable given the Broncos’ offensive struggles this season.
McKinnon finished with seven catches for 112 yards, his second career 100-yard receiving game.
When Gay snagged his first interception of the season — leaping for a one-handed stab of a Russell Wilson pass, tapping it to himself, spinning off Wilson and rumbling 47 yards for a pick-six — it felt like a wrap with the Chiefs up 27-0.
“It was really a blitz, and I realized what kind of play it was,” Gay said. “They were just trying to bring me down, so they could get it over my head. I wasn’t going to blitz to the quarterback. I was going to try to get my hand, so that’s what I did. It came right to me after I knocked it down and, after that, I just knew I had to make Russ miss."
Things turned from there when the first two Mahomes interceptions in the final three minutes led to two Jerry Jeudy touchdown passes from Wilson in the final 1:35, which made it 27-14 at halftime.
Kansas City found itself in a dogfight the rest of the way after Denver marched down the field after receiving the opening kickoff in the third quarter.
