Thursday night’s gut-wrenching 31-24 defeat at the hands of the Denver Broncos, however, could linger.
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Instead, Brandon Marshall poked the ball free from Charles’ grip, and Bradley Roby scooped it up and ran it 21 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. “That was a new one”.
Manning looked as if he was going to suffer just his second defeat in 15 career games (regular season and playoffs) against Kansas City after Knile Davis scored to give Kansas City a 24-17 lead with 2:32 remaining in the game. The Chiefs hadn’t beaten the Denver Broncos since Peyton Manning came to town, losing six straight to their AFC West rival.
“I’ve been involved in a couple of pretty insane games”, he said, “but nothing quite like this”. The Chiefs allowed two touchdowns in the game’s final 36 seconds to first let a seven-point lead slip away and then have it turn to defeat when Jamaal Charles’ fumble was returned for a touchdown. “It’s my fault”. “We pulled this game out, coming off a short week”, DeMarcus Ware said. “It was an emotional rollercoaster”.
Manning complete 26 of 45 passes for 256 yards and three touchdowns to help Denver storm back in dramatic fashion. All 10 plays were passes, three of them long completions to Demaryius Thomas before finding Emmanuel Sanders for a 19-yard strike to tie the game.
NOTES: Broncos QB Peyton Manning, second on the NFL’s all-time passing yards list behind Brett Favre (71,838), joined the 70,000-yard club in the fourth quarter and has 70,122 yards….
The Chiefs stretched their lead to 14-0 on Marcus Peters’ 55-yard interception return.
But it won’t change the fact that, despite leading an 80-yard, game-tying drive late in the fourth and throwing three touchdowns for the first time since last November, Manning is clearly not the player he once was. In the end zone however, he would again find Sanders, who would score from 19 yards out.
Cornerback Aqib Talib dove in front of wide receiver Jeremy Maclin on a telegraphed quick throw from Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, an interception that set up Manning at the Chiefs’ 15. There were other moments in the game when the Broncos utilized the same approach rather than sticking with snaps under center and Manning generally looked better in those instances.
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“The talk doesn’t really get to me”, Manning said. Can they protect him and can they run the football? “We just kept plugging”. They also had four sacks, including one each by DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller, two of the best pass rushers in the game. The first-round pick also had an interception last week against Houston. Denver was flagged eight times for 85 yards, and KC got hit nine times for 60 yards.
