Broncos-Chiefs report card: Vance Joseph’s defense shines; Bo Nix comes up clutch again

In a meeting that could live for months in Denver sports memory the Broncos outlasted the Chiefs - at Empower Field on Sunday to take pole position of the AFC West OFFENSE B It s been a season of stop-and-go for Bo Nix and the offense In a notable enhancement Sunday the issue was often not Nix who s been heavily criticized for his play the last two weeks or head coach Sean Payton who s been heavily criticized for his play-calling the last two weeks Wide receiver Troy Franklin had a couple of killer drops in the first half and Nix was sacked twice on the opening drive Nix was in rhythm all contest though in an encouraging sign for the second-year quarterback s progress He connected on two monster deep shots to Franklin and Pat Bryant in the second half and Nix looked poised both hanging in the pocket and on the move en highway to a -yard day And in a final tour de force Nix orchestrated his fifth game-winning drive of the season with a clutch -yard bomb to Franklin the deep connection eventually clicking as Payton s unit made enough plays to close a monumental win DEFENSE A- Payton had so much deserved trust in defensive coordinator Vance Joseph s unit on Sunday that he declined one fourth-quarter holding penalty on the Chiefs to get to a third-and- even though accepting the penalty would ve set Kansas City back to second-and- That mentioned playing Patrick Mahomes comes with several degrees of peril And after a banner first half Denver s defense started to sag in the second half Mahomes aired out a -yard bomb for Tyquan Thornton in the third quarter for the longest passing play of the year against Joseph s unit and leveraged a rough third-and- defensive pass-interference call on Riley Moss for an eventual total to take the lead But Joseph hung tough and the Broncos came up with a massive three-and-out stop on a late Chiefs drive to hand the ball back to Payton SPECIAL TEAMS A A Darren Rizzi tour de force Having Marvin Mims Jr back after a two-game absence for a concussion certainly helped The Broncos All-Pro returner whizzed for a -yard punt return in the first quarter to set up a field goal and Denver s kickoff and punt units soundly outplayed Kansas City in a key divisional matchup Kicker Wil Lutz went of on field goals and made the game-winner in another monumental day and rookie punter Jeremy Crawshaw got his mighty leg back underneath him with two punts And in a coaching tour de force offensive tackle Frank Crum came up with a monumental blocked extra point in the fourth quarter to hold the Chiefs lead to - COACHING A- In a familiar script Payton couldn t get out of Payton s own way early on orchestrating a fantastic opening drive only to kill momentum with a flea-flicker call from RJ Harvey to Nix that nearly got picked off And the Broncos offensive operation struggled enough that CBS Sports Tracy Wolfson revealed on the match broadcast that Nix was begging Payton to get play-calls in quicker Engaging note here from Tracy Wolfson who mentioned Bo Nix was begging Sean Payton to get a third-down call in faster The offensive line came off and revealed We need to change the tempo Not the first time that s happened this year pic twitter com nV Iq wNa Parker Gabriel ParkerJGabriel November Related Articles Broncos four downs Sean Payton Ja Quan McMillian might ve ultimately ended Chiefs AFC West dynasty How it Happened Broncos beat Chiefs on last-second field goal to improve to - Denver Broncos place RB J K Dobbins on injured reserve with potentially season-ending foot injury Renck Underdog Injuries Counted out This is when Broncos Sean Payton is at his best After weeks of inactivity Broncos RB Jaleel McLaughlin ready for opportunity in J K Dobbins absence Evidently Payton was listening Or something clicked Because the Broncos started to play with tempo in the second half as Nix started dealing on a third-quarter touchdown drive The ultimate hat-tip here of lesson goes to Joseph who continued to establish himself as one of the hottest head-coaching names in the business Mahomes has now accounted for a grand total of three touchdowns in four matchups against Joseph in his second tenure in Denver and Joseph dialed up one of the gutsiest calls of the Broncos season a third-and- nickel blitz from Ja Quan McMillian to sack Mahomes and stuff the Chiefs on their final offensive drive Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis