DENVER — The irony followed Broncos kicker Wil Lutz every step as he jogged onto Empower Field at Mile High in the final seconds of Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs. He couldn’t ignore it if he tried.
“I saw it the whole way out to the field,” the Broncos veteran kicker said. “It’s something you think about when you’re part of a — I don’t want to say traumatic loss; at the end of the day, it’s just a game — but part of a loss like that, you don’t just forget about it.”
Lutz was beating a similar path one year ago this week in the final seconds of the Broncos’ game against the Chiefs in Kansas City. Quarterback Bo Nix had led Denver on what looked like a winning drive. All Lutz had to do was boot through a 35-yard field goal to give a rising franchise a landmark victory.
Then, disaster. Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal burst through Denver’s protection unit and blocked the kick, handing the Broncos a stunning loss. Several players said in the visiting locker room at Arrowhead Stadium afterward that it was among the most painful losses they had ever experienced. Part of it was the opponent. The Chiefs, with the victory, were cruising toward their ninth straight division title, finding a way to torment the Broncos once again on the way.
“When I looked down and saw we were on the line again, making it a 35-yard field goal, I was kind of like, ‘Shoot, here we are,’” Lutz said Sunday.
Lutz’s kick soared through the uprights this time, giving the Broncos a 22-19 victory over their dynastic rivals, and the boot was a microcosm of how far they have come since that painful day. The victory, an all-phases performance that extended Denver’s winning streak to eight games, put the Broncos in firm command of the AFC West as they enter a long-awaited bye week. The Broncos improved to 9-2 and have a two-game lead over the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chiefs dropped to 5-5, their hopes of a 10th straight division title on life support. The Broncos now have a 76 percent chance of claiming the West, according to The Athletic’s NFL Playoff Simulator. Kansas City’s chances have dropped to 9 percent.
The Broncos’ turnaround, coach Sean Payton said Sunday, was born in the ashes of last year’s heartbreak.
“I think that loss in Kansas City was where that 189 miles per hour was tested,” Payton said, referring to the durability standard windows on a house must be to withstand a hurricane. “That was a tough, gut-wrenching loss. I think there was a feeling — and if you look at our record from that loss — that we belong here.”
The Broncos, who are 14-4 across the past two seasons since the blocked kick, proved Sunday that they belong in any conversation about true Super Bowl contenders. Denver entered the game facing questions about its legitimacy even amid a seven-game win streak. Critics pointed to some meager offensive outputs, a perceived soft schedule, a struggling special teams operation and a second-year quarterback who wasn’t completing enough passes, particularly early in games. They pointed to the fact that the Broncos were now battered and bruised, playing Sunday’s game without starters at cornerback (Pat Surtain II), linebacker (Alex Singleton) and running back J.K. Dobbins.
“Naturally, people are gonna try to qualify every win and say, ‘This team wasn’t good or they were missing this guy,’” Broncos defensive end John Franklin-Myers said. “Now, it’s one of those opportunities where we were missing guys and guys stepped up. Curious to see what people say now.”
It took every corner of the Broncos’ operation to extend the franchise’s longest winning streak since Peyton Manning led the Broncos to 11 straight wins to close the 2012 season.
Marvin Mims Jr., who had missed the previous two games with a concussion, returned a punt 70 yards in the first quarter to set up a Broncos field goal. Frank Crum, the third-year reserve offensive lineman, stretched every inch of his 6-foot-7 frame and blocked Harrison Butker’s point-after attempt following Kansas City’s go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, keeping Denver within three points. Lutz’s five field goals included a 54-yard boot that tied the game with a little more than four minutes remaining.
The Broncos have corralled Patrick Mahomes as well as anyone since Vance Joseph joined Payton as Denver’s defensive coordinator in 2023 — and that continued Sunday. In the previous three matchups between the Broncos and Chiefs in which Mahomes played, Kansas City scored only two touchdowns.
Never had Joseph and the Broncos made Mahomes look as mortal in the clutch moments as he did Sunday. The Chiefs took over midway through the fourth quarter with a chance to extend their three-point lead and instead went three-and-out, the Broncos harassing Mahomes into an incompletion on third-and-2. After Lutz’s field goal tied the game, the Chiefs had four minutes to drive into a position for a winning score, something they’ve done countless times in the Andy Reid-Mahomes era. Mahomes’ first throw for Travis Kelce was batted away by safety Talanoa Hufanga, who atoned for an earlier missed tackle on a touchdown by the veteran tight end. On second down, Zach Allen pressured Mahomes, who rushed just once for 3 yards Sunday, into an incomplete pass. Then, on third-and-10, Joseph dialed up a shot for Ja’Quan McMillian. The Broncos’ nickel had already intercepted Mahomes earlier in the game, a tide-turning play that led to a Denver touchdown. He also sacked Mahomes on the final play of the second quarter and provided sound support in the run game.
“J-Mac does it all. We’re talking about a guy who’s 5-6 and 125 pounds and he’s going to bang with the biggest guys out there,” said Franklin-Myers, who was only shorting his teammate by about 4 inches and 58 pounds. “He’s going to mix it up with everybody, and I appreciate him. We blitz him; he covers. Shoot, he played better than the whole defense himself, man.”
The final brilliant stroke for McMillian came as he screamed unblocked off the left edge, having successfully disguised himself into a cover position. The diminutive defensive back leaped and outstretched his arms to ensure Mahomes couldn’t launch a skyball like the 61-yarder that had beaten McMillian in coverage earlier in the game. When Mahomes didn’t fire, McMillian landed and dropped the quarterback for an 11-yard loss in the process. It was the third takedown of the night for Denver’s defense, which has 49 sacks heading into its bye week and stands to challenge the Chicago Bears’ NFL record of 72 in 1984.
Ja’Quan McMillian sacks Patrick Mahomes in the fourth quarter on Sunday. (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
“The defense is a reflection of the coordinator, man,” outside linebacker Que Robinson said. “His message was just, ‘Hey, man, don’t panic. Just keep playing. However we get on the field, we just control how we get off.’ We knew that drive was huge and we had to have a play. J-Mac made a crazy play.”
The sack offered Nix and Denver’s offense the chance to rewrite last year’s painful ending against the Chiefs. Nix hit Courtland Sutton on a key third-down on that drive in Kansas City to set up Lutz’s ill-fated attempt, and he needed his top target again in the toughest moment Sunday.
The Broncos faced a third-and-15 after a rocky start to the drive that included a holding penalty. They were staring at a punt and the prospect of giving Mahomes yet another chance to rip their hearts out. But as Nix hit the top of his drop in a clean pocket, he spotted a chance to move right and give Sutton the time he needed to find space in Kansas City’s zone. Nix unleashed an on-the-move throw that hit its mark and pushed Denver near midfield. The Chiefs rarely left a defender one-on-one with Sutton on Sunday, as has been the case for Denver’s veteran receiver for much of the season. The veteran’s mindset on the third-and-forever play: just find a way to get open, anyway.
“The message in the huddle was just, ‘We’ve got to find a way to convert and stay on the field,’” Sutton said. “The ball might find you and you have to just make sure you’re looking for it. Bo found me and it was nice to make a play for the team for us to be able to stay on the field.”
Three plays later, on third-and-5, Nix found Sutton once again for a completion that gave Denver a first down by the tip of a shoelace. The “noise” around the Broncos this week, as Payton called it, was largely centered on Nix. Never mind that the second-year quarterback had already led multiple game-winning drives in the fourth quarter this season. His uneven performance in last week’s narrow, nationally televised win against the Raiders, which included another stuck-in-the-mud start, created questions externally about whether Nix was good enough at quarterback for a championship-contending team. Nix insists he didn’t hear any of it because he long ago stopped monitoring social media. The only time he hears criticism, the quarterback said earlier this week, is when someone says it to his face.
“And nobody’s ever bold enough to say it to my face,” he said with a smirk.
Keep stacking 🗣️🗣️ pic.twitter.com/KMhfn9O3GV
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 17, 2025
The final pass on a brilliant final drive was a 32-yard back-shoulder throw to Troy Franklin that pushed the Broncos into winning range. The two had missed on multiple deep attempts earlier in the game, but Nix threw one of his best passes of the season to his former college teammate to spark an 89-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter. On the final ball, he gave Franklin enough space to turn and make the play.
“We’ve just got a resilient team that just believes we’re going to win,” said Nix, who completed 24-of-37 passes for 295 yards. “At the end of the game, when it’s close, that belief goes a long way.”
All that was left was the kick. For all the true swings of Lutz’s right leg the Broncos had already seen Sunday, the Broncos knew from painful, firsthand experience that there were no guarantees as they set up the mulligan, one year later.
“There was a whole bunch of ‘Don’t celebrate yet,’ going on on the sideline,” Sutton said. “It was one of those ones where you just had to see it go through.”
Once it did, the celebration flooded onto the field and through an Empower Field crowd that Payton said was as loud as any he has heard since arriving in Denver three seasons ago to inject life into a downtrodden franchise. There was no use treating the win as any other. Not when it moved the Broncos into such a strong position in the AFC West. Not when it came against the Chiefs. Not when it helped transform the painful memory of a year ago into a reason the Broncos keep marching on in an increasingly special season.
“There was some irony, obviously, when we were taking a knee to kick the field goal,” Payton said. “I think that confidence thing we talk about exists in this locker room with this group of guys. It’s special.”