Broncos Stop Mahomes on Final Play, Beat Chiefs 28-24 for AFC West Lead

The Denver Broncos beat the Kansas City Chiefs 28-24 on Sunday, Nov. 1, at Empower Field at Mile High when defensive lineman Malcolm Roach sacked Patrick Mahomes on fourth-and-goal on the final snap. Denver rallied from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter and moved to 6-2, a half-game ahead of 5-2 Kansas City for first place in the AFC West.

How the Broncos came back on the Chiefs

Kansas City led 24-13 after Mahomes found tight end Noah Gray for a 4-yard touchdown with 1:38 left in the third quarter. It was Mahomes’ third touchdown pass of the day, following an 11-yarder to Rashee Rice and a 73-yard catch-and-run by Emmett Johnson in the second quarter.

Denver’s offense had gone three-and-out on all three of its third-quarter drives, according to the Associated Press. Bo Nix answered with 8:55 to play, throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Nate Adkins and then hitting Jaylen Waddle for a two-point conversion that cut the gap to 24-21.

The Chiefs then drove to the Denver 30 before linebacker Alex Singleton sacked Mahomes for a 6-yard loss. On the next play, with 2:36 left, Harrison Butker missed a 54-yard field goal wide right in steady rain. Denver needed only two plays and 35 seconds to go ahead: Nix threw short to rookie running back Jonah Coleman, who turned it into a 51-yard gain, and Coleman ran 5 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:56 left.

The AP reported it was Nix’s 15th career game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime, passing Dak Prescott’s 14 for the most by a quarterback in his first three seasons since the 1970 merger. Nix finished 20 of 32 for 222 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

The goal-line stand that decided it

Mahomes had just under two minutes. A 44-yard kickoff return by Johnson, a 32-yard catch by Travis Kelce and several runs by Kenneth Walker III got Kansas City inside the Denver 5. Cornerback Patrick Surtain II stopped Walker at the 1-yard line on first down with 35 seconds left. A second-down pass fell incomplete under pressure from Que Robinson, and safety J.L. Skinner stuffed Walker for no gain on third down.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Mahomes threw to Rice over the middle, but a false start on right tackle Jaylon Moore wiped out the play, according to the official play-by-play. From the 6 with 4 seconds left, Roach broke through alongside Nik Bonitto and sacked Mahomes at the 12 to end the game.

“If you could tangibly point to a crowd win,” that was it, Broncos coach Sean Payton said, according to the AP. “The false start, I mean that’s like just from a play-caller standpoint, 1 to the 6 and you’re in another ZIP code with plays. That was huge.” The AP said the win was Payton’s 200th as a head coach.

“They have a good defensive line,” Mahomes said. “I wish I had done a better job of getting the ball out, give somebody a chance.”

By the numbers: Denver wins without winning the stat sheet

Kansas City outgained Denver 399 yards to 294, a gap of 105 yards, or about 36% more offense (TBR calculation from the ESPN box score). Mahomes threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns on 30-of-41 passing, and Johnson had 128 receiving yards on five catches. The Chiefs also held the ball 31:29 to Denver’s 28:31.

The difference came in the red zone and in penalties. Denver scored touchdowns on all three of its red-zone trips and converted both fourth-down tries, while Kansas City went 2 of 3 inside the 20 and 0 of 1 on fourth down. The Chiefs were flagged 11 times for 105 yards, more than double Denver’s 6 for 45. Denver went just 2 of 11 on third down, and the AP noted the Broncos are 10 of 48 on third down over their four-game winning streak.

Close games have defined Denver’s season. Five of the Broncos’ six wins in 2026 have come by eight points or fewer, and their six victories add up to a combined margin of 38 points, an average of 6.3 per win. Their two losses, at Kansas City in Week 1 and at San Francisco in Week 4, came by a combined 31 points. As a result, the 6-2 Broncos have scored only seven more points than they have allowed (172 to 165), while the 5-2 Chiefs are plus-36 (TBR calculations from ESPN scores and standings). The AP counted 15 straight one-score wins for Denver across the last two seasons.

What it means for the AFC West and the AFC

The result avenged a 31-10 loss at Arrowhead Stadium in the season opener, when Walker ran for 173 yards against Denver. He was held to 69 yards on 21 carries on Sunday. “It was personal,” Bonitto said, according to the AP. “It wasn’t that we lost, it was how we lost.”

Kansas City has lost two straight after a loss to Seattle the previous week. In ESPN’s AFC standings on Sunday night, Denver held the No. 2 seed behind the 6-1 Buffalo Bills, who beat Baltimore 36-10 earlier Sunday as the Ravens lost quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley to injuries, according to the AP. That win keeps the Bills’ Josh Allen window wide open. Kansas City sat fifth as a wild card, and the New England Patriots were seventh at 5-3 after beating Miami. The league’s off-field fight continues too, after an appeals court revived the NFL Sunday Ticket antitrust verdict last week.

Injuries could matter next week. Chiefs defensive lineman Peter Woods hurt his neck in the first quarter, Broncos cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine left with an ankle injury and safety Brandon Jones was ruled out at halftime with a hamstring injury, the AP reported. The Chiefs host the New York Jets next Sunday, and the Broncos visit the Carolina Panthers.

Sources

• Associated Press recap via ESPN: Broncos beat Chiefs 28-24
• ESPN box score: Chiefs at Broncos, Nov. 1, 2026
• ESPN play-by-play: Chiefs at Broncos
• ESPN: Denver Broncos 2026 schedule and results
• ESPN: NFL standings
• Associated Press recap via ESPN: Bills beat Ravens 36-10