The Broncos Just Won Their Biggest Game Since 2015. Are They legit?
- therookiereporters
- Nov 23
- 5 min read
The Denver Broncos are coming off of their biggest victory since their Super Bowl win in 2015; a 22-19 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11 of NFL action put Denver 3.5 games (plus tiebreaker) over Kansas City in the AFC West standings. But considering how close Denver Broncos games have been this season, is this run sustainable? And can it power the Broncos to their first AFC West title since 2015?
Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
The Broncos are clutch.
And they’re 9-2.
Please ignore the terrible poetry. I’m about four years of high school English and then some out of practice.
But the clutch part has some truth to it.
And the 9-2 part.
Despite not trailing for most of the game, a Will Lutz field goal was all that the Denver Broncos needed to pull away from the Kansas City Chiefs in a monumental Week 11 encounter.
With Denver entering their bye week at 9-2 and holding a two-game lead on the Los Angeles Chargers for the AFC West (the Broncos have a 3.5-game edge on the Chiefs), the Broncos should arguably be viewed as the new favourites for the AFC West title.
It’s also fair to assume they control their destiny to the division title; with seven games left to play, which includes one each against both the Chargers and Chiefs, all Denver has to do is maintain their gap over the next few weeks.
That is made easier in considering that the Chargers are also heading into the bye. And with the Broncos set to play the Commanders and the Raiders coming out of their respective bye, there is a chance Denver could hit 11-2 before a two-game stretch against Green Bay and Jacksonville takes the Broncos to a Christmas Day matchup in Kansas City. That game could very well decide if Denver clinches the AFC West or if it comes down to the final two games.
Considering the above, the path ahead for Denver is clear. Go 3-3 and Kansas City will have to win out, while Los Angeles would have to go 5-1.
But is the Broncos’ run to 9-2 luck, or generational?
We all know about the dominance of this Broncos defence. Prior to the Kansas City game, the Broncos' defence was fifth in the NFL in yards (2,707 yards given up over their first eleven games) and third in yards per game (270.7 yards per game). Denver is also fifth in passing defence (both in yards and yards per game), seventh in rushing yards, and fifth in rushing yards given up per game. The Broncos have also given up just 173 points over their first ten games, fifth to the Los Angeles Rams, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Houston Texans, and the Seattle Seahawks.
The Broncos also lead the NFL in sacks with 49 and in sack yards with 298.
But it’s not the defence that’s bringing up red flags for (seemingly) a lot of non-Broncos fans. The Bo Nix-led offence can be seen to have drawn the ire of the NFL in both good and bad ways.
This is kind of where luck plays into the Broncos’ run this season. Denver’s total margin of victory is 65 points, but they’ve only been winning games by just under eight points on average. Their two losses (to Indianapolis and the Los Angeles Chargers) have been by a grand total of four points.
It’s also worth noting that Denver has just two wins of more than one score: a 28-3 win over Cincinnati and a 44-24 win over Dallas.
Take away those two games and the average margin of victory is 3.43 points per game, just over a field goal’s gap.
So Denver has been winning games close … and losing games close too.
Do we need to dive deeper? I think we do.
According to ESPN, Denver does rank seventh in offensive yards per game, however, the yards per game measure sees Denver in eleventh in the NFL. The Broncos’ passing game is tenth in the league, but the team falls to seventeenth in passing yards per game. The run game is slightly better, as Denver ranks ninth in total rushing yards, however, they are still eleventh in rushing yards per game; a season-ending injury to star running back J.K. Dobbins will do Denver no favors in this department. Scoring-wise, Denver ranks tenth in total points and seventeenth in points per game.
Individually, Broncos quarterback Bo Nix is tied for ninth in the NFL in passing yards with Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love, while also being tied with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes for sixth in passing touchdowns. Elsewhere, running back J.K. Dobbins is seventh in the league in rushing, while wide receiver Courtland Sutton is seventeenth in receiving yards.
It’s therefore safe to say that, even with the injury to J.K. Dobbins, Denver has its playmakers.
The big question: can they show up when it matters most?
Bo Nix is certainly capable of doing so; we’ve seen him lead a fourth-quarter comeback against the New York Giants and put forward a strong end-of-game run to help secure the win last week against Kansas City.
Whether it can be done consistently for the remainder of 2025 and beyond is another question.
The Broncos are set to enter their bye, so they will be getting some well-deserved rest heading into a crucial stretch; they will return to action in Week 13 when they travel to Washington to play the Commanders in prime time. Considering that the last two teams that beat Kansas City lost their respective games that followed (Jacksonville lost 20-12 to Seattle while Buffalo got the brakes beaten off of them by a then-struggling Miami Dolphins team), Denver will have to hope that they aren’t stuck in a hangover of sorts when they travel to the nation’s capital.
After that, they travel to Las Vegas for a game against the Raiders, before heading back to Mile High to play the Packers and the Jaguars. If things go well, Denver could be in a position to clinch the AFC West when they travel to Arrowhead Stadium for a rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs (they would simply have to go one game better than Los Angeles over that stretch to ensure they are in position to do so).
At 9-2, the Denver Broncos are in a position that they haven’t been in for almost 10 years. While some may question the tightrope-esque nature of the Broncos’ season, they’ve succeeded at winning games, which is the sum of what matters in the NFL; continue to do so, and they will undoubtedly be in a strong position to make noise when the calendar flips to January.
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Article written by Noah Guttman
© Noah Guttman 2025
