DENVER — The Denver Broncos beat the rival Kansas City Chiefs 22-19 Sunday at Empower Field, securing their eighth straight win and keeping themselves in the driver’s seat in the AFC West.
Wil Lutz kicked a 35-yard field goal as time expired to earn the win. The winning kick had been set up by a 32-yard pass from Bo Nix to Troy Franklin with less than a minute to play.
Five plays earlier, Nix found Sutton for 20 yards on a 3rd-and-15 in their own territory to keep the would-be game-winning drive alive.
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The Broncos defense sacked Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes three times and intercepted a pass to thwart a potential scoring drive in Denver territory on Kansas City's opening drive of the second half.
A pick-six had been called back over an illegal contact penalty earlier in the drive.
Denver scored on its first drive of the game for the first time in nine weeks, settling for the first of Lutz's five field goals on the day. The Broncos mustered just 88 yards and a pair of field goals in the first half.
Their lone touchdown of the day was a four-yard score by Jaleel McLaughlin, seeing an expanded role in the absence of J.K. Dobbins after he hit injured reserve earlier this week.
Rookie wideout Patrick Bryant had 5 catches for 82 yards in the contest, returning after being briefly sidelined by a hard tackle early in the fourth quarter.
For Kansas City, the only touchdown of the game came on a 21-yard strike from Mahomes to Travis Kelce – the 84th of his career, the most in Chiefs franchise history.
With the win, Denver sits two games up on the Los Angeles Chargers (7-4) and four games up on the Chiefs (5-5) in a division that Kansas City has won each of the last nine years.
The Broncos and Chiefs will rematch on Christmas Day in a game that airs on Denver7.
