DENVER — Peyton Manning brought the Chiefs back to reality Sunday night.
Manning and the Broncos showed their surprising AFC West rival what a quality opponent looks like, and the result — to the surprise of exactly none of the Chiefs’ legion of skeptics — was a 27-17 victory that returned Denver to its proper place atop the conference playoff race.
The Broncos’ decisive win in front of a raucous crowd of 77,066 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High handed the Chiefs their first loss of the season and also appeared to expose Andy Reid’s team on several fronts.
Not only did Manning light up the Chiefs’ No. 1-ranked defense to the tune of 323 yards and a touchdown on 24-of-40 completions, but Kansas City’s top-rated rushing defense also allowed a pair of scoring runs to Broncos rookie Montee Ball.
Even more embarrassing for the Chiefs, their allegedly fearsome pass rush barely laid a hand on Manning all night and never made him pay for having to operate on two bad ankles.
“The protection was great,” Manning said. “Our guys up front did a great job answering the bell against a great defense and great pass rush. That was critical to the game tonight.”
Manning wasn’t sacked or knocked down, and Kansas City — which went into this game with an NFL-leading 36 sacks on the season — only hit him twice. Chiefs counterpart Alex Smith couldn’t say the same, suffering three sacks while completing just 21 of his 45 passes for 230 yards and two TDs.
“A big part of it was keeping Peyton upright and not letting them be as disruptive as they’re capable of being, and then — obviously — Peyton being Peyton,” interim Broncos coach Jack Del Rio said.
Del Rio’s defense was penalty-prone but shined against more than just Smith. Denver also held receiver Dwayne Bowe firmly in check, limiting him to four receptions for 57 yards and a TD despite Smith targeting him a whopping 14 times.
Kansas City’s flawed game doesn’t come as a shock considering none of the Chiefs’ nine victims to start this season began play Sunday with a winning record.
To their credit, though, Kansas City didn’t make it easy. The Chiefs trailed just 17-10 at halftime and didn’t let the Broncos or their crowd exhale after a sloppy game that featured 21 accepted penalties until Smith’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete with 2:50 left.
The Chiefs, who play host to the rematch in two weeks, hung in mainly on the strength of Jamaal Charles (78 yards on 16 carries) and a defense that held its own for lengthy stretches against Manning despite the lack of pressure.
Even so, that defense hadn’t allowed more than 17 points in a game all season but had already yielded that many to Manning and the Broncos with 9:05 left in the second quarter.
That wasn’t the result of another hot Manning start, though. He completed just two of his first six passes and was struggling with the Chiefs’ varied defensive looks until he finally caught them gambling late in the first quarter.
When Kansas City went with press coverage at the line with just a solitary safety deep, Manning pounced with a long throw to Demaryius Thomas down the right sideline that ended up covering 70 yards and set up a 9-yard TD pass to Julius Thomas two plays later that made it 10-0.
The Chiefs might have been staggered by their largest deficit of the season, but Kansas City refused to let it be an early knockout blow and never let the Broncos pull away like they’re accustomed to doing at home in the Manning era.
“We’ll be playing them in our house in two weeks,” Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “So it’ll be a lot better for us.”