A Broncos loss to the Chiefs would cast a long shadow over Denver
The Denver Broncos have done a lot of things well this season. They have a top-five defense and, more surprisingly, a top-10 offense, led by rookie quarterback Bo Nix, who's thrown for more touchdowns and yards than first overall pick Caleb Williams in Chicago.
They have nine wins and blew past their preseason Vegas win total of 5.5 in mid-November. They outplayed the Kansas City Chiefs that month, and were in position to knock off the team that's dominated their division for years, only to have a game-winning field-goal attempt blocked.
And they did all this while carrying a massive salary-cap charge of $53 million for former quarterback Russell Wilson, released in the offseason so the Broncos could wash themselves of that ill-fated trade and start over. They paid more money to Wilson, who started most of the year for the Pittsburgh Steelers, than anyone on their own roster, by a significant amount.
They've overachieved, and defied expectations, and various other cliches.
And yet, they're now in the unenviable position of going into a game that could undo all that good work.
The Broncos play the Chiefs at home Sunday. Win and they're in the playoffs. Seems simple enough.
But because Kansas City has already wrapped up the AFC's best record and first-round playoff bye, they intend to sit most (if not all) of their starters, including QB Patrick Mahomes. This means the Broncos are facing the dreaded scenario of a must-win game against an opponent that isn't really trying. The kind of game that would be an absolute embarrassment to lose. A loss that, if it were to come to pass, would leave a pall over the entire season. Instead of a feel-good, bounce-back story, the Broncos would have a season with a humiliating flop at the finish line. (Unless all the AFC playoff hopefuls lose on the weekend, in which case: never mind.)
It's not like there isn't precedent for this happening. The Indianapolis Colts went into the final weekend of the regular season three years ago at 9-7 and needing a win against the 2-14 Jacksonville Jaguars. They lost, 26-11, in a game that wasn't that close, and Colts owner Jim Irsay reportedly demanded the release of QB Carson Wentz before the game was even over. The Colts haven't yet recovered, and while the situation isn't quite the same, they did manage to kill their playoff hopes this season with a loss to another two-win team, the New York Giants, last weekend.
This weekend is also the 20th anniversary of one of the more infamous examples of Humiliation Via Second Stringers: at end of the 2004 season, the Buffalo Bills needed a win over the Steelers in their final game to get into the playoffs. Pittsburgh rested starters Ben Roethlisberger and Jerome Bettis among many others, so all the Bills needed to do was beat journeyman QB Tommy Maddox and running back Willie Parker, who had 13 rushing attempts in his NFL career to that point. Parker ran for more than 100 yards, James Harrison returned a Drew Bledsoe fumble for a touchdown, the Bills lost, and it would be another 13 seasons before Buffalo finally returned to the playoffs.
Even for a franchise that doesn't lack for embarrassing losses, the Willie Parker Game is still a haunting one for Bills fans.
Would a loss to the Chiefs on Sunday cast such a long shadow for the Broncos? Probably not. Nix has shown enough promise that they've settled their QB question for at least the short term, which is more than much of the NFL can say. Head coach Sean Payton also took over a team that hadn’t reached .500 for six straight seasons and delivered a winning season in his second year, regardless of what happens Sunday. The arrow's definitely pointing in the right direction.
But the Broncos will only have to look across the field Sunday to be reminded of the damage a late-season collapse will do. Starting at QB for the Chiefs will be Wentz, who had a decent comeback season with the Colts in 2021 (27 touchdowns and seven interceptions) before the face-plant at the finish line against the Jaguars, which caused Irsay to never want him to play for his team again. Wentz went on to have a terrible season in Washington, where he was benched, and has been a backup for the past two years with the Rams and the Chiefs.
And now he has a chance to do to the Broncos what the Jags did to him a few years ago. Denver, with everything to play for on its home field, is heavily favoured against a K.C. team that's mostly trying to make sure no one important gets hurt.
Just the kind of game, in other words, that you really don't want to lose.