The last time the Denver Broncos saw the Kansas City Chiefs, Kenneth Walker III ran for 173 yards in his Chiefs debut and Kansas City won the season opener 31-10. Seven weeks later the 5-2 Broncos host the 5-1 Chiefs, and on Wednesday Sean Payton said the biggest difference this time may come from the stands. “Our home games have been, I mean, amazing,” the Broncos head coach said. “It’s hard to measure the end results, but it’s been significant. Our crowd noise, all of that just adds stress to the operation.”
Why the stadium matters against pressure
Payton tied the crowd to a question about facing seven- and eight-man pressure. At home, he said, an offense can try to “undress” a disguised blitz before the snap. “Could be a motion, could be a shift, could be anything that maybe can help move them into it, which is a little bit harder to do when you’re there,” he said. On the road, he added, a defense “can pay attention to the heel and the silent snap,” and “there’s a lot on Bo” and the center to handle the communication.
He said last week’s 30-16 win in Arizona “felt like a home game” because so many Denver fans made the trip. “I yelled at Bo like, ‘What are you doing with the silent snap count?’ Like, that’s their issue,” he joked. “No, that was impressive.”
What changed in Kansas City
Asked what he has seen from the Chiefs since Week 1, Payton pointed to the ground game. “The one change from the last couple years is their ability and commitment to running the football the way they’re doing it,” he said, “obviously the addition of a runner.” Asked whether the tackling problems in the opener were about Walker, he said there were “a lot of things that we didn’t do well week one” and that Denver hopes to be better “in a number of areas” the second time around.
He said he will lean on crossover film, including Seattle’s 20-3 win over Kansas City on Sunday. “You’re always like, ‘All right, who attacked them best? Who defended them?’” he said. “There’s certain things that carry over maybe structurally and then other things maybe that don’t relative to the scheme.” Payton described how his week of cutups works, from third-and-2-to-3 to short yardage, and said he looks back several seasons at defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s calls because the structure carries over. “Steve’s done it consistently great for a long time,” he said.
On Travis Kelce, he said: “He’s still sudden out of the break point. Transitionally, which is a very important trait for a tight end, he’s very difficult. He can stop, he can change direction, he can feel zone, he can feel man, and then he understands where the squeeze is.”
Bo Nix’s 62-yard run and more for Mims
Payton said Nix’s 62-yard touchdown run against Arizona came against a match coverage in which the defenders’ eyes were on the receivers rather than the quarterback. “He did a good job of just sensing a cavity,” he said, noting that on the replay almost every defender had moved to the right side of the field.
Marvin Mims Jr. also had big plays last week as a receiver and returner, and Payton was asked again about getting him the ball more. “He’s been really effective,” he said. “Where you want to even get him more touches, that’s sometimes a challenge, but certainly he’s deserving.” The barrier, he said, is sometimes coverage and sometimes finding personnel groupings “where we’ve got a number of guys that are healthy and are playing well.”
He also praised linebacker Alex Singleton, named a Defensive Player of the Week this week, as “playing well with good instincts,” and said edge rusher Nik Bonitto should not be judged on sacks alone. “If you’re affecting the quarterback, sometimes a pressure that leads to an interception is a better play than a sack,” he said.
“We’re just trying to find a way to get this one”
Payton’s path first crossed Andy Reid’s in the late 1990s. He said that as an Eagles assistant he was in charge of studying Green Bay, where Reid was an assistant, and that the two “were two ships passing in the night” when Reid was hired by the Eagles in 1999 and Payton left for the Giants. “There’s a ton of respect for what he’s been able to do,” he said.
A reporter noted that Sunday will be Payton’s 300th game as a head coach, with a chance to become the sixth-fastest coach to 200 wins. He said there is no time to reflect during the season. “As soon as we’re finished, quick cold shower, coffee, film,” he said. Asked whether he expected to reach 300 when he started, he said: “When you get your first job, you are just trying to hit the ground running, and you kind of have that three years where something better happen or there’s going to be another suit at the same podium. So there’s that fear of failure.”
Asked whether this is a must-win game for the division, he said it probably isn’t “because there’s so much season left, but it would be easier to win the division if we won this game.” He described the team’s goals in order: win the division, earn the best playoff seed, win a championship. “We’re going to play in bigger games, but this is the next one,” he said.
The Chiefs play at the Broncos on Sunday, November 1, at 4:25 p.m. ET, which is 11:25 p.m. in Cairo.
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