Red zone, red light; What happened to the Chiefs against Denver?

Examining what went wrong against a bad Broncos defense for Mahomes and company.

You never know what might happen in the NFL. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

On one hand, you never know when Patrick Mahomes might make a throw that causes the entire internet to explode, or when your team might mess around and win a Super Bowl in a “reset” year. On the other hand, you never know when you might watch a good offense struggle to put up points against the worst defense in the league.

We saw the latter occur last Thursday, with the Chiefs eking out a narrow 19-8 victory over the Broncos. Truth be told, the game never REALLY felt in doubt, at least not from my couch. The Chiefs defense was dominating Denver from start to finish, and even a small lead felt insurmountable.

But that didn’t make it any less troubling and/or frustrating to watch Mahomes and company struggle to put up points against a defense that, to that point, had been historically awful. It felt like any time a positive play occurred, something negative waited around the corner.

Truth be told though, it was a strange game (one might even say weird). When you go back and watch the tape, Kansas City’s offense had very little trouble moving the ball. This is reflected in the box score, as the Chiefs averaged 5.6 yards per play (a respectable number) and didn’t have a single legitimate “three and out” all day. Travis Kelce had a dominant statistical game. Rashee Rice showed some real promise. There were plenty of positive moments.

So with all that good stuff happening for the offense, how on earth did the Chiefs only score 19 points?

A lot of it can be traced to four “failed” red zone possessions. Two field goals, one interception, and one turnover on downs. There’s a bit more to it than that (including our old friend self-inflicted wounds), but a great deal of the point output came from failures in the red zone.

So with that in mind, I looked at all four of those failed red zone trips to try and break down what occurred, whether it’s fixable, and whether Chiefs fans should be worried moving forward. Let’s talk about some not fun football!