The Kansas City Chiefs achieved their goal in their final game of the regular season by having zero new injuries ahead of the playoffs. But it came by way of playing their reserves that ended up with zero points on the board in a 38-0 loss at the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Jan. 5.
The Broncos were playing for their place in the playoffs, as a win would secure them the seventh and final spot in the AFC. They would gain that and shake off a decade-long playoff drought with a near-perfect game from quarterback Bo Nix. The rookie completed his first 18 pass attempts, en route to a four-touchdown game. He ended up 26-for-29 with 321 yards and a 152-point-four quarterback rating. He also completed seven rushes for 47 yards, leading Denver to 29 first downs, including a 10-for-14 success rate on third down and two fourth-down conversions.
The Chiefs’ reserves struggled to make much of an impact, only running 33 plays and securing five first downs, one of which was by penalty. Carson Wentz went 10-for-17 for 98 yards, and was sacked four times. After the game, Wentz said while it was fun to get the chance to start again, he should have performed better.
“I don’t like to make excuses about anything,” Wentz said. “I missed some throws, did some things, want some plays back, I think we all do in some capacity.
He added: “I gotta play better. Unfortunately, we didn’t sustain a couple drives early and all of a sudden, we were in the second half. It was just a weird flow of the game, all those things, but yeah, I gotta be better.”
The Chiefs never entered the red zone, and came closest to the scoreboard late in the second half, only for Harrison Butker’s 51-yard field goal attempt to sail wide left. It was the first time the Chiefs had been shut out in Andy Reid’s 12 seasons as coach.
The Chiefs wrap up the regular season 15-2 and have home field advantage in the AFC Playoffs. They’ll have two weeks to prepare for their divisional round opponent, which could be Denver if the Broncos upend Buffalo next weekend. The other AFC wild card matchups feature Pittsburgh at Baltimore and the Los Angeles Chargers at Houston.