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Week 4 Game Recap: Denver Broncos 19, Kansas City Chiefs 33
What you need to know
| Denver Broncos |
This was the week that the Broncos offense wasn't able to keep pace with the Broncos defensive failures, compounded by too many mistakes of their own. QB Jay Cutler threw for over 350 yards, but only one touchdown and two interceptions. He completed 59% of his passes.
RB Selvin Young again led Denver's three headed backfield with eleven carries. Andre Hall and Michael Pittman had four each. Like last week, the trio totaled about a hundred yards. None of them scored.
WR Brandon Marshall caught another touchdown pass, but was held to under a hundred yards. Eddie Royal went over the century mark to lead the team's receivers. Brandon Stokley was very involved this week.
| Kansas City Chiefs |
The Chiefs' QB merry go round stopped at Damon Huard this week and he handled the job nicely, not being asked to do too much. Huard guided Kansas City down the field several times, though they had to settle for field goal attempts five times. He threw one touchdown pass.
RB Larry Johnson essentially was the offense, accounting for nearly 200 of the team's 370 total yards. No other back played much of a role.
WR Dwayne Bowe was Huard's main target, followed by Larry Johnson and TE Tony Gonzales, who caught the lone TD pass.
What you ought to know
| QB Jay Cutler, Pass: 29 - 49 - 361 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 2 - 6 - 0 |
He had his worst game of the young season. Despite a ton of yardage Cutler threw for only one TD, though he just missed two others with passes that sailed high and out of reach of the receivers. Cutler also had two interceptions in the span of 60 seconds...KC picked him midway through the third quarter. On the next play Larry Johnson fumbled the ball back to the Broncos. Two plays later Cutler was intercepted again. He was sacked only once.
| RB Selvin Young, Rush: 11 - 49 - 0 (1 targets) |
He continues to be the number one back, though in this RBBC situation that doesn't usually amount to much. In a game that should have produced plenty of yards against a rushing defense ranked near the bottom of the league, Young didn't get very far. His one pass target came inside the Chiefs' five yard line. Late in the game Young had 30 and 31 yard kick off returns.
| RB Michael Pittman, Rush: 4 - 36 - 0, Rec: 2 - 45 - 0 (3 targets) |
Pittman didn't score this week, though he did put up decent yardage totals including a nifty 40 yard screen pass play.
| RB Andre Hall, Rush: 4 - 14 - 0 (1 targets) |
Hall wasn't much of a factor in the offense, but did have some nice kick returns.
| WR Eddie Royal, Rec: 9 - 104 - 0 (12 targets) |
Royal fumbled the ball on his first catch of the game, but came back to post the best numbers of the receiving corps. He nearly scored on a pass from Cutler at the Kansas City three yard line, but couldn't bring it in.
| WR Brandon Marshall, Rush: 1 - -11 - 0, Rec: 7 - 77 - 1 (12 targets) |
His yardage wasn't great this week, yet Marshall scored again on a 16 yard pass play. He missed a second TD when Cutler overthrew him in the end zone. Marshall was the target on both of Cutler's interceptions. He also lost a fumble on a disastrous pitch play from Cutler. The Chiefs scored a touchdown two plays later.
| WR Brandon Stokley, Rec: 7 - 80 - 0 (10 targets) |
He was utilized a lot as the Broncos tried to play catch-up late in the second half. Stokley edged out Marshall in receiving yards.
| TE Daniel Graham, Rec: 3 - 29 - 0 (6 targets) |
Graham was more active this week and came through with a couple clutch catches.
| TE Tony Scheffler, Rec: 1 - 26 - 0 (3 targets) |
Another quiet week for Scheffler as he only pulled down one pass in the second quarter, albeit for a nice 26 yard gain.
| PK Matt Prater 4 - 5 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 13 points |
Jason who? Although missing wide right on a 32 yard field goal attempt Prater hit four others, including Elam like 51 and 56 yarders.
| DEN Rush Defense |
You knew it wasn't going to be pretty when RB Larry Johnson broke off a 65 yard run on the second play of the game. Although the Broncos made the Chiefs settle for field goal tries on five occasions, they couldn't stop Johnson from racking up almost 200 yards and two rushing TDs.
| DEN Pass Defense |
They held Huard well under 200 yards and just one TD pass, though with the Kansas City running game clicking it's hard to know if the Chiefs could have put up more through the air. Even without a heavy pass attack, KC scored their most points since 2006.
| QB Damon Huard, Pass: 21 - 28 - 160 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0 |
He was efficient and did just enough to lead his team to an upset victory and end their 12 game losing streak. With RB Larry Johnson going off, Huard didn't need to fill the air with passes, but he was effective with those he did throw and completed three fourths of his attempts.
| RB Larry Johnson, Rush: 28 - 198 - 2, Rec: 5 - 0 - 0 (5 targets) |
Johnson had zero total yards on his five receptions. Of course, on the positive side he rambled for 198 yards, 93 by half time, and scored twice. Johnson did fumble once, but the Chiefs got it right back on an interception. Looks like he's involved in the offense again.
| RB Jamaal Charles, Rush: 2 - 7 - 0, Rec: 2 - 1 - 0 (2 targets) |
Backs not named Larry Johnson weren't all that involved in this game...Charles had two carries and caught both his pass targets, but total yards were negligible.
| RB Kolby Smith, Rush: 2 - 9 - 0 |
Smith had a couple carries for a total of nine yards, but his biggest contribution was recovering the Broncos' onside kick at the end of the game to help seal the victory.
| WR Dwayne Bowe, Rec: 7 - 85 - 0 (12 targets) |
Huard basically zeroed in on Bowe all day. Bowe could have scored twice, but one pass was out of reach in the end zone and another was too high and just out of bounds at the two yard line. It's clear that Bowe has become and should remain the main target for the Chiefs all season.
| TE Tony Gonzalez, Rec: 3 - 47 - 1 (4 targets) |
Gonzales didn't get his first look till midway through the second quarter, and only four targets all day, but he made the most of them. He scored the Chiefs only TD through the air on a ten yard reception in the end zone, coming down hard, but hanging on. Gonzales moved to within three yards of former Bronco Shannon Sharpe's Tight End yardage record.
| PK Nick Novak 4 - 5 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 15 points |
Novak had a very busy day. He was four for five on field goals, missing wide right on the longest--a 48 yarder. Novak hit all three extra points.
| KC Rush Defense |
One of the worst run defenses in the league slowed down one of the most potent offenses in the league. The Chiefs allowed a total of 94 net rushing yards and no touchdowns. The Chiefs defense played their best game of the year so far.
| KC Pass Defense |
Jay Cutler put up big yards, but just one touchdown. The Chiefs seemed to be in the right place at the right time, intercepting Cutler twice and forcing three fumbles, recovering two. Kansas City only managed to sack the Bronco QB once.