DENVER (AP) — Rarely has an NFL team been so eager to play on a Thursday night — on Christmas, no less.
After their first loss in three months, the Broncos were hankering to get back on the field to make amends for their blunder-filled 34-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Denver on Sunday.
They won’t have long to wait.
They travel to Kansas City for a Christmas night showdown that may have lost most of its luster but is still vitally important to the Broncos (12-3), who are trying to win the AFC West for the first time in a decade and also secure the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
The Chiefs (6-9) lost quarterback Gardner Minshew to a knee injury Sunday in his first start in place of starter Patrick Mahomes, who blew out a knee last week when Kansas City was eliminated from playoff contention, ending a seven-year string of AFC Championship Game appearances.
Denver’s loss Sunday snapped an 11-game winning streak and marked the Broncos’ first loss at Empower Field in 15 months. Their lead over the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West was trimmed to a single game. They play each other in Week 18.
The Broncos can close in on some of their goals by winning in Kansas City for the first time in a decade Thursday night.
“We’re going to be onto Kansas City like a.s.a.p.,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said after Denver’s first defeat since Week 3, one fueled by rare breakdowns on offense and defense.
Edge rusher Jonathon Cooper said the Broncos would love the short week “because you’ll be able to get over it faster.”
“But, regardless,” Cooper added, “we have to look at this film and see where we can get better.”
Payton preached over and over last week after the Broncos clinched a playoff spot that they hadn’t accomplished anything yet — his three stated goals for 2025 were division title, high playoff seed and Super Bowl parade. But they were outplayed in every facet Sunday.
The key to recapturing their winning ways, suggested linebacker Alex Singleton, was “to feel it. Why move on from it? Let’s remember this and go get a win on Thursday.”
Singleton was among several Broncos relieved that this wake-up call came now and not in the playoffs.
“It’s going to happen,” Singleton said. “This is the NFL and when you can control what you can control now, I mean, there’s nothing better than a short week to flush stuff and go play another game. Let’s get it out of our system and go win two games and people can say whatever they want.”
Two more wins and Denver wins the division for the first time in a decade and earns the AFC’s top seed and the first-round bye that goes with it.
Slip up again, and the Broncos very well could fall all the way down to the No. 5 spot in the AFC playoff field and end up having to go on the road again like last year, when they lost at Buffalo in the first round.
Asked how the team will handle the uncomfortable film review Monday, safety P.J. Locke said, “the same way we do with the wins. It’s on to the next game. You kind of digest it for a day, watch the film in the morning and move on. That’s it.”
Quarterback Bo Nix said the Broncos will quickly turn the page.
“We’ll get back to work tomorrow, and there’s a lot we have to cover in three days,” he said. “So the good part about playing on a short week is you get to move on from a game like this. We have to learn from it. We have to fix the mistakes and don’t let a team like that beat us twice.”
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Broncos’ Christmas wish: A win in Kansas City after a rare loss snaps their 11-game winning streak
