Chiefs sweep the Broncos and stay undefeated
The big AFC Showdown didn’t turn into the big defensive battle that many experts predicted. Instead, a shootout from the old West could describe this game more accurately as the Kansas City Chiefs outdueled the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, 41-33, staying undefeated, and more importantly, taking control of the AFC West.
The Chiefs threw a knockout punch to start each of the halves. In the first half, the Chiefs jumped out to a 20-0 lead after an Andre Rison TD reception from QB Rich Gannon and then a 42-yard interception return for a TD by DB Mark McMillan. On the season, McMillan now has 8 interceptions to lead the AFC and returned 3 of those for TDs.
Broncos’ QB John Elway threw a TD pass to Rod Smith and Jason Elam kicked a field goal right before the end of the half to cut the lead to 20-10; however, the Chiefs came out with a few more haymakers to start the 3rd quarter. Rich Gannon threw a pair of 16-yard TD passes. One was to Kimble Anders and the other was to Rison to give the Chiefs a commanding 34-10 lead.
Elway and company fired back as he threw back-to-back TD passes. He threw a 21-yard screen pass TD to Shannon Sharpe and a 17-yard bullet to Willie Green; however, Rich Gannon threw the knockout punch in this game when he connected with Rison for the third time in the game and this one was from 63 yards out to give the Chiefs a 41-26 lead.
Gannon played the game of his life. He threw for 284 yards on 18 of 27 passing with 4 TD passes. He had a QB rating of 141.1. Many thought the Chiefs were done when Elvis Grbac went down with a broken collar bone, but Gannon has played awesome. Since he took over, Gannon is completing 62.5% of his passes for 554 yards and 7 TDs with 0 INTs. He has a QB rating of 135.
Andre Rison is still having a spectacular season. He caught nine passes for 204 yards in this game with 3 TDs. On the season, Rison has 68 catches for 1016 yards and 7 TDs.
Elway had his best game of the season in a losing effort. He threw for 348 yards on 25 of 41 passing with 4 TDs but threw 3 costly interceptions. Rod Smith caught 9 passes for 134 yards and 2 TDs.
Now that the Chiefs (11-0) have firm control of the AFC West, they will go into another divisional showdown next week with the red-hot Seattle Seahawks in the Kingdome. The Broncos will try to pick themselves up off the turf as they host the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night at Mile High.