KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On opening night, the Broncos weren't at their best.
In the wake of a 31-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Head Coach Sean Payton and the Broncos' players pointed to a number of areas that led to the lopsided loss.
Missed tackles. Penalties. The discrepancy in the run game.
"Obviously, not a good evening," Payton said. "Didn't do a lot well at all in the game. … That starts with me, that starts with our coaching staff. I thought they won, really, in every phase."
But perhaps the most common refrain inside the Broncos' locker room was that the loss felt uncharacteristic.
"[We] just didn't play our brand of football," tight end Evan Engram said. "[We] didn't stay on the field offensively, didn't get off defensively. A lot of penalties. Credit to them. They came out, punched us in the mouth. We've got to respond."
The Broncos faced an early hole, as quarterback Bo Nix was intercepted on Denver's first series. The Chiefs began their own offensive performance with four consecutive Kenneth Walker runs, a sign of what was to come on a night when he rushed for 173 yards and averaged 7.5 yards per carry. On the opening drive alone, Walker carried the ball seven times before Patrick Mahomes scrambled forward for an opening touchdown.
"I didn't like how that game began and how it unfolded early," Payton said after the loss.
The Broncos did respond on their ensuing drive, marching 68 yards for a tying touchdown drive as Nix found an open Engram for a 19-yard touchdown.
"That's what we're capable of," Engram said. "We've got to do more of that."
There were chances, certainly, for more. Denver put itself in position at times to sustain more drives on offense, but untimely penalties stalled otherwise promising possessions.
"I think we just let ourselves down," Nix said. "I think it was more disappointing than frustrating. … We sort of let ourselves down, and we shot ourselves in the foot. Literally, gave ourselves no chance to succeed today and made it easier for them. Point blank, period."
Defensively, the Broncos forced three consecutive punts and appeared en route to forcing another late in the first half. Kansas City, though, converted a third-and-10 in its own territory — which soon led to a Rashee Rice touchdown that was aided by missed tackles.
"[It's about] the little things," cornerback Riley Moss said. "It's not trying to make crazy plays, it's just the simple 'make a tackle.' It sounds easy — and it is easy — but we just have to get it done, and we didn't."
The problem reared its head again on the opening possession of the second half, as Walker broke a tackle on fourth down and raced for a 60-yard touchdown that gave the Chiefs a 14-point lead. The Chiefs finished the night with 220 rushing yards, and Walker later added a 2-yard receiving touchdown during his Kansas City debut.
"The big run was one that hurt," Payton said. "Bounces outside. We don't set an edge. We miss a tackle. That one hurt."
Denver's offense faced similar tough moments. After Brandon Jones intercepted Mahomes in the third quarter and returned the ball to the Kansas City 5-yard line, a penalty pushed the Broncos backwards and eventually forced them to settle for a field goal. A touchdown would have cut Denver's deficit to seven points midway through the third quarter. Instead, the Broncos remained at a distance.
"It was huge," Nix said of not scoring a touchdown on that series. "That changes the game. … You can't win games like that."
The final margin confirmed Nix's notion, as the Broncos suffered their largest regular-season loss since Week 9 of Nix's rookie season in Baltimore.
"When you give a good team a lot of chances and you give a good team short fields [or put yourself in] long-yardage situations on third down, a good team like that's going to exploit it," Nix said. "We just had way too many penalties, way too many negative plays. Turnovers. Put our defense in bad spots. Honestly, from a whole offense, whole team, we just didn't play very good."
The Broncos — after a loss that Nix deemed "not a good representation of us as a team" — seemed to recognize that after the loss.
"We know we have to be better," Nix said. "There's a lot of guys in that locker room who are going to take ownership and going to be better. It starts with me, it starts with our offense. We're going to be better; we don't have a choice."
And as they watch the tape and learn from the Week 1 loss, they hope to channel the disappointment into better results ahead.
"Good football teams can learn from games like this and turn around and go on a run," Moss said. "That's what we're going to try to do."
