Week 11: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos – Pass Rush, Bo Nix, 4th Quarter | Six Stats to Know

Week 11: Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos – Pass Rush, Bo Nix, 4th Quarter | Six Stats to Know

It’s one of the great rivalries in NFL history, dating all the way back to 1960. And as we turn the page to the second half of the season, this is a big one as the Chiefs and Broncos jockey for position in the division standings. Well, the Broncos are 8-2 this season due in large part to the performance of their defense, which leads the NFL with 46 sacks. That’s 14 more than second place. And for context, the gap between Denver and second place is the same as the divide between second place and 25th place on that list. It’s crazy. And it’s coming from everywhere. Nick Bonito leads the way. He has nine and a half sacks and 48 pressures on the season, fourth most of any player in the NFL. But it’s not just him. He’s one of 10 players on this Denver defense with multiple sacks this year, tied for the most of any team in the league. And it’s a result of their aggressiveness as a defense. These guys blitz at a 27% clip. And they’ve blitzed the opposing quarterback at least 30% of the time in eight of their 10 games this year. They blitzed Dak Prescott on 39% of his drop backs a few weeks ago, Jaylen Herz 51% of the time, Justin Herbert 39% of the time, and Daniel Jones 71% of the time, just to name a few. And there’s no reason to think they won’t do the same this week. They blitzed Patrick Mahomes on 57% of his drop backs last year. So, it’s all to say that protection is critical this week, especially considering it’s where the Bills beat the Chiefs a few weeks ago. Mahomes entered that game as the least pressured quarterback in the NFL according to NextGen stats. But the Bills managed to pressure him on nearly 53% of his dropbacks in that game, easily a season high. The Chiefs can’t let that happen on Sunday. And one player who can help them mitigate that pass rush is Rashi Rice, who now has four touchdowns in his three games this season. In fact, since making his season debut in week seven, Rasheed leads the Chiefs in targets, catches, scrimmage yards, and scrimmage touchdowns. Rice joined an offense that was already finding its stride. And since week five, this is the number eight scoring offense in the NFL at nearly 28 points per game. Now, the Chiefs obviously didn’t have their best day offensively against Buffalo. But despite going three for 13 on third down, being out possessed by nearly 10 minutes and outgainained by a 100 yards, the Chiefs still scored 21 points and had the ball with a chance to tie it in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs remained the league’s number five offense in terms of successful play rate this year. And following a week in which everybody had a chance to get healthy and recharge, I’m confident we’ll see more of the offense that scored 89 points during its three-game winning streak than the one we saw in Buffalo. And speaking of the buy, keep in mind, nobody is better following the by-week than coach Reed. Reed is 22 and4 in his career following regular season byees. That makes for an 846 winning percentage, the best mark for any head coach in the Super Bowl era with at least 10 games coached following by weeks. He’s 9 and3 in his time with Kansas City following regular season buys and 6-1 with Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs are also outscoring the opposition by 64 points in those seven games with Mahomes. That’s the third best mark in the league. Now, I get none of that guarantees future success for the Chiefs, but what it shows is their self- scouting process when given additional time to prepare. We did go back and look um at some of the things we can do better or some of the things that we’ve done well. Um, you know, we had a lot of good things coming up to this past week and then there were some things there that we can definitely learn from this uh the last game against the Bills. So, you know, that’s why we we spend the time working on that stuff, but I’m not going to put it out there for sure. Good question, though. Now, on the other side, the Broncos are led by quarterback Bicks, and it’s been an up and down year for him. On one end, he’s thrown 18 touchdowns. That’s tied for the fifth most in the NFL. But on the other, he’s completing just 61% of his passes. that ranks 27th in the NFL. He’s also averaging just 6.1 yards per pass attempt this year. That’s 29th in the league. So, it’s a lot of short stuff, quick throws, roll outs, bootlegs, things like that. But, it’s also worth pointing out that the Broncos rank second in the league and drops with 19. And despite that yards per attempt figure, Nicks has still tried airing it out from time to time. His 47 attempts of 20 or more air yards this season are tied for the most in the NFL. But the thing is, he’s only completed 32% of those. That’s the lowest completion percentage for any quarterback with at least 40 deep throws this season. The Chiefs will need to keep all of that going on Sunday while also trying to slow down the Broncos running game, which has been one of the better units in the league. Denver is averaging 129 rushing yards per game this season between its impressive duo of JK Dobbins and RJ Harvey. Dobbins has been the workhorse so far, racking up the fifth most rushing yards in the NFL. But his availability for Sunday could be in question. He hurt his foot last week against the Raiders, and if he can’t go, that’s obviously a big deal as he’s accounted for 23% of the Broncos total yards this season all by himself. His status will be one to watch. Harvey is more than capable as well, though. And while he hasn’t had many opportunities, he’s impressed when given the chance, rushing for 214 yards on 50 carries. Regardless, whoever is running the ball on Sunday, and that includes Knicks, who’s ran the ball 47 times for 205 yards, the Chiefs will need to prevent them from having a big day on the ground. And that’s because this Broncos offense has playmakers and they’ve shown flashes this season. It’s just been a matter of consistency. They’ve scored at least 28 points four times this year, but they’ve also been held the 20 or fewer points on five occasions. These guys have the second highest threeandout percentage in the NFL at 29%. And for some more context, this might be my favorite stat of the week. The Broncos have 119 offensive possessions this year, most of any team in the NFL. And on those, they’ve recorded exactly 28 touchdown drives. The Chiefs, meanwhile, have the fewest offensive possessions in the league with only 84, and they’ve recorded 28 touchdown drives. That’s a difference of 35 possessions. Yet, the Chiefs have found the end zone the same number of times, and hopefully they have more after Sunday. Despite those inconsistencies, though, the Broncos are 8-2. That’s the best record in the NFL due in large part to the performances late in games this year. The Broncos have the top fourth quarter scoring margin in the league at plus 60. and four of their eight wins this year, the games against Philadelphia, the Jets, Giants, and Texans, they were losing in the fourth quarter. I mentioned some of Bo Knicks struggles earlier. Well, nobody has more total touchdowns in the fourth quarter this season than Knicks. And his 35 passing first downs also lead the NFL in the fourth quarter. I’ll give them credit. They found ways to win games late this year when their backs were up against the wall. As simply put, if the Chiefs have a chance to seize this game, they can’t let Denver hang around. So, it should be a great game on Sunday. This is one of the great rivalries in all of professional football, and this is a big one if the Chiefs are to make up some ground and chase down a 10th straight division title. That goal is still very attainable for the Chiefs, but they got to win these sorts of games. And that mission continues on Sunday.

Senior Team Reporter Matt McMullen is here to provide you with six key stats as the Kansas City Chiefs head into their NFL Week 11 matchup against the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

TUNE IN to Week 11 👇
📺: Chiefs vs Broncos at 3:25 p.m. CT | CBS
📻: 96.5 The Fan (eng) & TICO Sports (esp)

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