KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Broncos are one win away from securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC and earning a bye through the WIld Card round of the playoffs.
They will play for that — and perhaps a division title, too, depending on this weekend’s NFL action — next weekend against the Los Angeles Chargers.
That after an ugly, grind-it-out, 20-13 Christmas night win over Kansas City here.
Denver needed the entire night to fend off a pesky, already eliminated Kansas City team in what many thought would quickly turn into a rout like last year’s 38-0 Week 18 win against the Chiefs’ JV squad.
“It doesn’t have to be aesthetically pleasing to be effective,” head coach Sean Payton said. “I’ve said that before. (The win) is all that’s important.”
Here are seven thoughts from Denver’s latest victory.
1. The Broncos’ best play call of the night — “Harrisburg” — is literally not a play at all. It earned Denver five critical yards on fourth-and-2 and set up Bo Nix’s game-winning touchdown pass.
Quinn Meinerz felt a little salty. His feelings were a bit hurt, his ego slightly bruised.
A few weeks back, during a run-of-the-mill practice, head coach Sean Payton installed a play — or, well, not really a play but a call — that he thought the Broncos might need in a clutch situation somewhere down the stretch of the season.
The goal: Get a defensive lineman to jump offsides and pick up a free first down.
Here’s how the Broncos set it up: Get in a weird formation without a play actually called. On the road, Denver regularly uses a silent count in which Meinerz, the right guard, signals to the center with an arm motion to snap the ball.
This time, the center would look back between his legs at the quarterback — or, in this situation, running back RJ Harvey lined up as a Wildcat quarterback — and then look back up. After that bob, Meinerz would hard count.
Except Meinerz didn’t have enough verve the first time he tried it in practice.
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“So we re-ran the play, I did it louder and it was kind of a funny moment.”
That was earlier this month.
The moment of truth arrived Christmas night at Arrowhead as Denver tried to close out an already eliminated but tough-to-kill Chiefs team.
Chiefs called for offsides here pic.twitter.com/UWWhkeuM3S
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) December 26, 2025
Fourth-and-2 at the Kansas City 9-yard line. Game tied at 13. The Broncos had the two-minute warning to talk through their plan.
They did not intend to run a play. In fact, they didn’t have one called. They were going to try to draw Kansas City offsides with a call Payton dubbed “Harrisburg.”
“It’s a no-brainer ‘freeze,’ but out of a different formation — one we’ve never shown,” Payton said. “We were going to take the delay of game. We didn’t have a play. We called it Harrisburg because it looks like a play we had called Pittsburgh and because nobody moves in Harrisburg.
… It’s a unique one. You’re on the road, so it involves a heel (raise) and Meinerz is barking the cadence out. So hat off to him.”
Did Broncos players know why Payton named the call for a town in central Pennsylvania?
“I guess,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said with a laugh. “I didn’t know that’s where it came from, but that’s the call.”
They’d run the clock down, take a delay of game and kick the field goal to take a 16-13 lead. Unless, of course, a Chiefs defender jumped.
This is a no-lose situation in Meinerz’ mind. Any flinch from any defender and he’d roar off the line of scrimmage, trying to draw a penalty on the defense.
“Because at that point, if you’re wrong, it’s just the five yards back and we were already going to take the delay of game,” Meinerz said. “So, any movement, go. I think I just barely got enough of it because he almost got re-set.”
The Broncos got to the line of scrimmage and split quarterback Bo Nix out to the right. Harvey lifted his leg like he was ready for the snap — ”an oddball formation,” Payton called it. Forsyth bobbed back from looking in the backfield to his normal stance. Meinerz barked.
“We go through the process,” Payton said. “(Forsyth goes) head up, head down. Meinerz goes ‘Set. Hut.’ It’s timed up with the heel coming down and they’re all looking at the center. They did it.”
Indeed, All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones flinched.
“It’s really good situational football,” McGlinchey said. “Well, good for us, not so good for the other team. We’ve had it up for a couple weeks now and saved it for a crucial situation to where we were able to get a big first down there and milk a little more clock.
“It was really well executed.”
Meinerz is one of the best guards in football. He’s known for mauling defenders in the run game and he’s turned himself into one of the best pass-protecting interior players on the planet, too.
Turns out, he’s also got a good hard count.
“Fourth-and-2, game on the line, gotta have it, that’s top tier from Quinn Meinerz,” McGlinchey said.
Meinerz said the play is a good encapsulation of what Denver’s offensive line room as turned into over the past three years under coach Zach Strief.
“It comes down to the mental toughness that we prepare for in this o-line room and the foundation that was built when Strief first got here,” Meinerz said. “That’s what we’ve been building. …
“That’s a gotta-have-it situation. Fourth-and-1 or whatever it was. Needed to score that touchdown, not three points. You give the Chiefs time in that situation, two-minute drill, you don’t want them to need a field goal. You want to really put stress on them to need that touchdown.
“It was a gotta-have-it situation, we were ready and it worked.
Plus, such exploits on the field come with a reward.
“When you get a d-lineman to jump offsides, everybody gets Jordans,” Forsyth said.
A bountiful Christmas across the board, then, for Denver’s front line.
2. The Broncos got their normal, rousing speech from senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt on Wednesday night in the team hotel. There was just one, small problem. …
Senior defensive assistant Joe Vitt speaks to the team during a team meeting at the hotel the night before every game. It’s a staple.
“Joe Vitt, he’s our guy,” McGlinchey said. “He’s been Sean’s guy for I don’t even know how many years. He’s one of the heartbeats of this team and we love him.”
Each week, McGlinchey explained, Vitt’s address to the team is “on point.”
“Ties it into the keys to victory, ties it into the themes of the week and all that kind of stuff,” McGlinchey said. “He’s the best.”
There was just one, small issue with Vitt’s speech to the team on Wednesday night in downtown Kansas City: The entire premise of it was wrong.
Vitt launched into a passionate talk about how the Broncos had a chance to do something special. They could clinch the division championship. At Arrowhead Stadium. Against a Chiefs team that, sure, is already eliminated this season and not playing for much besides Grinch status on Christmas night, but was still the reigning defending AFC West champions. They’d won the division nine straight years.
“You’re playing the heart of a champion. Andy (Reid) and this team, I don’t care who comes out of that locker room,” Payton said. “This is a team that has been at the top of our league for the better part of the century.
“There is a ton of respect we have for what they have been able to accomplish.”
This was Denver’s chance to take the crown. On the Chiefs’ home field.
Except, well, it wasn’t.
Denver could and ultimately did put itself on the doorstep of a division title Thursday night, but they couldn’t clinch. They will have to wait until at least Saturday when Houston and the Los Angeles Chargers play. If the Chargers win, then next weekend’s game between L.A. and Denver at Empower Field will be for the division and, in Denver’s case, for the No. 1 seed, too.
“He spoke to the team last night and he went on and on about clinching tonight and no one said anything,” Payton recalled after the game. And I’m just thinking, ‘Come on, Joe.’”
McGlinchey watched with confusion that turned to humor.
“I thought I was wrong,” he said of his first impressions while listening to Vitt. “I was under the impression that we could not do it tonight. Which, I was correct and Joe was not. But nobody has more passion for what we’re doing than Joe Vitt. It came off like a great, motivating speech like it always does.
“It was a very funny moment for sure.”
When the Broncos got to the locker room to celebrate their Christmas Night victory, players were ready. They had a hat made and a toy trophy that they presented to Vitt. They sprayed him with a mini bottle of champagne in a mock division title celebration, too.
Denver certainly hopes it gets to celebrate the real thing soon.
3. The Broncos will watch intently Saturday, then, as the Texans and Chargers play. Houston can deliver Denver a division title.
Teams sometimes rebuff the idea of scoreboard watching late in the season.
The Broncos? They’ll be glued to the television Saturday afternoon.
“Yeah, I won’t be watching the other games,” Payton said.
Denver hasn’t won a division title since 2015. Wouldn’t it feel weird to clinch one while watching on the couch this weekend?
“However it happens, I don’t give a (crap),” McGlinchey said. “I’m happy to do it either way.”
Added Meinerz, “I don’t care, man. However we’ve got to get it done. The feet will be up.”
Of course, a division title game Week 18 would come with high drama.
Payton is 0-3 so far against Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh since they each returned to NFL sidelines. Harbaugh was a finalist for Denver’s vacancy before the 2023 season. He ultimately decided to return to Michigan for one more year, where he went undefeated and won a national title. The Broncos hired Payton. A year later, Harbaugh went to Los Angeles. They’ve each built programs to rival and — this year at least — surpass the Chiefs in the division.
L.A. is on quite a run, too. Quarterback Justin Herbert is getting hit and battered constantly behind a makeshift offensive line playing without two All-Pro caliber tackles. Yet he keeps making plays and keeps delivering in the clutch. The Chargers have won four straight and seven of their past eight.
Houston will be no walk in the park given its ferocious pass-rush and overall top-flight defense.
If L.A. finds a way, then next weekend is for all the marbles at Empower Field. The NFL will set the schedule for the weekend once Week 17 action is complete, but that matchup would be a strong candidate for Sunday Night Football if it’s for the division.
Denver also kept itself firmly entrenched as the favorite for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Win against the Chargers and it’s theirs.
Five teams are technically still alive for the No. 1 seed going into the weekend, though Buffalo’s chances are down to 1%, according to the New York Times’ playoff prediction model.
That race looks like this, with Denver 16 games in and everybody else 15.
Denver (13-3): 57%
New England (12-3): 29%
Jacksonville (11-4): 8%
L.A. Chargers (11-4): 3%
Buffalo: (11-4): 1%
Of course, the Chargers can make the Week 18 stakes massive with a Saturday win.
In that circumstance, Denver would capture the No. 1 seed with a win but could end up as low as the No. 6 seed with a loss.
4. The Broncos set the franchise record for sacks in a season with 64, breaking last year’s record. That means they’ve got 127 in the past 33 games.
On paper, Denver had one of its least efficient nights rushing the passer against the Chiefs. Their lone sack came in the second half when Dondrea Tillman and Jonah Elliss sacked quarterback Chris Oladokun for an 11-yard loss. That proved critical in its own right because it helped drive Kansas City from prime scoring territory to a long Harrison Butker field goal attempt, though he converted from 53 yards to push the Chiefs’ lead to 10-6.
That one sack also had season-long implications. It was Denver’s 64th on the season, officially breaking last year’s franchise record of 63.
With just one game left, the Broncos are unlikely to really threaten Chicago’s 1985 single-season mark of 72, which they spent much of the season on or near pace to break.
Denver’s recorded at least one sack in every game this season and had multiple in all but one game before Thursday.
Even with a relatively paltry outing, Payton said he was happy with what his group did against Oladokun.
“Here’s the thing: I love the sack, but we couldn’t be rushing for sacks tonight,” Payton said. “We had to cage and keep him in the pocket. He can run. The worst place you can be in football is behind the quarterback. So I thought right after that first series we did a great job of keeping him in the pocket.
“I don’t think anyone’s focused on records right now. It’s fabulous for our defense, but it’s how you win each game.”
The translation there: Oladokun is a good athlete and a capable runner but he came into the game with 11 career completions — all of them last week after Chiefs No. 2 Gardner Minshew tore his ACL. The Broncos were set on making him play from the pocket and win as a passer.
His final line on Christmas: 13 of 22 for 66 yards.
Denver now has 127 sacks in 33 games since the start of the 2023 season. That’s an average of 3.8 per game.
In that span, perhaps not surprisingly, the Broncos are 23-10.
5. One question still hanging out there for Vance Joseph’s defense even after a mostly dominant performance: Are the takeaways ever going to show up?
Only four teams in football have fewer takeaways than the Broncos’ 11. They intercepted Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love twice in Week 15 and haven’t forced a turnover in either of their two games since.
Denver is minus-5 in turnover differential on the season.
Coordinator Vance Joseph’s group is clearly talented and has played at a high level most of the season, but they are likely going to have to take the ball away at some point to mount a deep playoff run.
“I don’t think it’s luck. We have to take the ball away,” Joseph said earlier in the week. “That’s one thing we haven’t done this year. We’ve got a ton of sacks. It’s rare you have that many sacks and no forced fumbles. We’ve got to focus on those things. That’s part of the process…
“We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got time to fix that.”
There are some logical explanations. For example, teams that play more man defense tend to end up with fewer interceptions because defensive players are not always so focused on the quarterback’s eyes or in position to try to jump routes. The Broncos have also been, with a couple of games excluded, a sound tackling team but not one that rips the ball out frequently.
“It’s not just luck. It’s not just luck,” Payton said. “It’s a byproduct of pass-rush, a byproduct of punch-outs. I’d say it’s anything but (luck). Now sometimes you recover your own fumble maybe that is, but that’s something we’re working on.”
To Joseph’s point, it is odd to hit the quarterback as much as Denver does without turning teams over more.
Joseph said the Broncos teach rushers to try to aim for the quarterback’s elbow, but that hasn’t shown up much on tape so far this season.
“We teach that from Day 1,” Joseph said. … “Our focus when we win as a pass-rusher is to attack the elbow. They give you the sack and the quarterback hit and you get the ball. That’s our focus and that hasn’t got done this year. It has to get better.”
6. For quite a while Thursday, it seemed possible this game would join an infamous cadre of ghosts of recent Christmas (and Christmas Eve) past for the Broncos.
Ugly or not, Thursday’s win felt like something of a full-circle moment. Three years to the day prior, the Broncos got entirely embarrassed by the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group watched from a suite with Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who is family by marriage. They’d owned the team for all of four months.
By the time the beatdown ended, offensive lineman Dalton Risner had shoeved backup quarterback Brett Rypien on the sideline. Randy Gregory, mad that he was in the lineup and asked to play after a knee injury that cost him 10 games, swung at Rams wildly during his limited playing time and then threw a punch after the game. Coach Nathaniel Hackett walked out of his postgame news conference with his head down and his hands stuffed in his pocket. He likely knew by then what came next.
The next morning, Dec. 26, he was fired. Within a couple of weeks Denver’s ownership group had already had preliminary conversations with Payton.
Now, three years after that debacle, here the Broncos are.
Payton, though, also had a tough primetime outing of his own this time of year. That came Christmas Eve 2023 when Denver lost at home to a terrible New England team. Bill Belichick was angling to play for overtime late in the game until Payton got aggressive and used his timeouts. Belichick finally had his offense kick it into gear and the Patriots won on a long, late field goal.
As it turned out, even a win on that night wouldn’t have changed Denver’s playoff fortunes.
As it turns out, that was the last game Russell Wilson started for the Broncos. Payton benched him for the season’s final two games. Denver finished 8-9, a Week 18 loss at Las Vegas moved the team up to the No. 12 spot in the draft, the club selected Nix and the rest is history.
Those kind of games, though, can leave a mark.
Meinerz, for example, said he “was almost anxious playing on Christmas because last time we played on Christmas it was not a very fun game.”
7a. The Broncos defense got back on track against the depleted Chiefs and snuffed out Kansas City’s offense.
The Broncos surrendered just 139 yards to Kansas City on Thursday night, the third-lowest total of the season. They allowed just 82 rushing yards and 57 net passing yards on the night to the Chiefs and third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun.
The last possession Joseph’s group defended was the best the Chiefs put together — it went 39 yards before a turnover on downs that ended the game.
Reid’s offense clearly played short-handed with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes having torn his ACL earlier this month and several offensive weapons, including top receiver Rashee Rice, out with other injuries, but the performance was still an impressive one for Joseph’s group.
Only the New York Jets and Tennessee mustered fewer total yards and fewer passing yards against the Broncos this year.
7b. Nix had an up-and-down game overall but made plays when his team needed them.
Quarterback Bo Nix had something of a strange Christmas night at the office. On one hand, he played one of his worst statistical games of the season in the passing game, mustering just 182 yards on 38 passing attempts and throwing an interception along with a touchdown. On the other, he helped engineer four 14-plus play drives, rushed for 43 yards and a 9-yard touchdown on a quarterback draw and threw the go-ahead touchdown to running back RJ Harvey with 1:45 remaining in the game. Overall, a game without a ton of efficiency but a heaping dose of clutch for Denver’s second-year quarterback.
7c. With the win, Payton became just the second coach in NFL history to oversee five different 13-win seasons. The other, of course, is Belichick.
“I’ve been fortunate to have really good players and really good coaches,” Payton said. “Some of them who are right here have been part of all of those wins or some of those wins. Obviously, Bill is good company. Let’s keep it rolling.”
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