Travis Kelce shines as Kansas City Chiefs beat Broncos with Swift watching again

Patrick Mahomes knows the Kansas City Chiefs offense is still trying to put everything together.

This was evident in the way they struggled against Denver on third down Thursday night. The way they got bottled up in short yardage situations. And how they failed time and time again to turn red zone trips into touchdowns.

“Luckily for us,” Mahomes said, “our defense is playing really well.”

So great that Mahomes’ lone touchdown pass and Harrison Butker’s four field goals were enough to clinch a 19-8 victory over the Broncos, whose own dismal offense could only manage 197 yards behind a shaky performance from Russell Wilson.

“We have guys that are starters on other teams that are trying to make their way on the football field, and when they get on the field, they make plays,” Mahomes said of Kansas City’s defense. “And they play with confidence.”

Mahomes finished with 306 passing yards and an interception, and much of his production came from Travis Kelce, who had nine catches for 124 yards with Taylor Swift encourages him again of an Arrowhead Stadium suite.

Yet the Chiefs’ (5-1) inability to score touchdowns rather than field goals nearly proved costly.

Butker’s first three field goals helped them take a 16-0 lead, but Wilson’s touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton — ruled incomplete but overturned after review — with about six minutes remaining kept the Broncos going (1-5) alive. And when Javonte Williams got into the end zone for the two-point conversion, what had been a one-sided shutout was a one-possession game.

However, the Broncos’ league-worst defense couldn’t get a stop. Mahomes converted third-and-2 with a 28-yard pass to Rashee Rice, which put Butker in position for a 52-yard field goal with 1:55 left, putting the game away.

“Our defense was incredible tonight, as it has been,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “But we have to take care of business in the red zone. We had a lot of yards, positive yards, but you can’t stay there.

The Broncos haven’t beaten the Chiefs since September 17, 2015, when Peyton Manning led Denver to the Super Bowl. That was six head and interim coaches ago, and nothing has changed with Sean Payton leading them Thursday night. In a league built for parity, their losing streak is the fourth longest between one team against another in NFL history.

“I’m disappointed but I’m not discouraged,” Payton said. “Offensively, we struggled to throw the ball. Our third down numbers were poor. Turnovers, against a team like that, it’s going to be hard to win the game, and yet we were still there at the start of the fourth quarter. Sometimes you don’t know how a match is going to go.

As bad as the Broncos’ defense has been this season, it’s Wilson and their offense that have continued to drag them down. He had 37 passing yards in the first half, and the only drive Wilson led in front of midfield ended on fourth down.

The Chiefs weren’t much better.

Their first three forays into the red zone yielded three points, thanks to a Justin Simmons interception and a botched push out of a field goal lineout on fourth down. Mahomes, who has struggled by his standards all season, found his rhythm only once in the first half, when he completed a 62-yard drive with a short touchdown pass to Kadarius Toney .

Butker made it 13-0 at the break when he kicked a 60-yard field goal as time expired.

The Chiefs’ red zone woes continued in the second half. They started by quickly marching down the field and setting up first-and-goal at the Denver 8, but that quickly turned into fourth-and-goal at the seven-yard line and Butker had to kick another field goal.

That’s all Kansas City could muster until its decisive kick in the final minutes.

Thanks to the defense, that was all the Chiefs needed.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, just obviously the red zone and a couple third downs that we didn’t execute at a high enough level,” Mahomes said. “I still think there are a lot of good things we can get out of this.”

Swift watched Kelce and the Chiefs for the third time Thursday night. The two began a relationship a few weeks ago, when he invited Swift to a Chiefs game after not meeting her on his Eras tour. Swift arrived from Los Angeles, where she walked the red carpet Wednesday night for the premiere of her concert film.

Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had a sack in his eighth straight regular-season game, matching his own streak of 11 consecutive games in 2018 as the longest in franchise history. With at least one in his first five this season, Jones broke the club record to start the season held by Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas.