ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It doesn’t take much for an opponent to get their fill of Patrick Mahomes.
A game or two is usually all a Mahomes adversary needs to leave the game feeling frustrated, humbled, beaten.
Brandon Jones’ cup is overflowing.
“He’s definitely a playmaker, a guy that I’ve had experience with since high school,’’ Jones, a Broncos’ starting safety, said of the great Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback. “He was in my district so I played against him in high school, played against him in college and now this is the third time playing against him in the league. He’s the exact same player which is insane that the exact same stuff that was working for him in high school is working for him today.”
Jones is from Nacogdoches High School in Texas, about 65 miles and a little more than an hour’s drive to Mahomes’ Whitehouse High School. Mahomes is 2 ½ years older so he was a senior when Jones was a sophomore.
“He did the same things. Murdered us,’’ Jones said. “Went for about 500 yards, six touchdowns. You know how it is.’’
As a freshman at Texas in 2016, Jones, with help from fellow safety P.J. Locke, “held” Mahomes to 367 yards passing and three touchdowns in a 45-37 win over Texas Tech.
In two games against Mahomes’ Chiefs while playing for the Miami Dolphins, Jones was on the short-end of a 33-27 score in 2020 and lost 21-14 last year.
Jones’ Denver defense, coming off a 41-point spanking administered last Sunday by Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, will try to get back to their previously impressive self.
“Yeah, they got a lot of weapons on offense,’’ Jones said. “They’re undefeated, we’re going to their house, especially with the performance we played last week we know we’re a lot better than what we put on film so I think everybody is excited and itching for Sunday.”
There are far easier opponents to rebound against but at least Mahomes isn’t putting up Arena League-like passing numbers anymore, at least not since the Chiefs have been forced by deep-safety playing opponents to throw it short and run the ball. They won two Super Bowls – in 2019 and 2022 – with Mahomes’ carrying them and won another Super Bowl last year with Mahomes getting help from the defense and running attack.
“Yeah, when you think of the Chiefs especially when they started this dynasty, I guess, it was all deep passes, things like that,’’ said Broncos’ defensive tackle Malcolm Roach. “But now you can see a more balanced attack, running the ball. They’ve been doing a good job at it so we’ve got to come ready to play.”
One reason why the Chiefs have gone a little more ball control is they have been shaky at their two offensive tackle positions. Head coach and offensive play-caller Andy Reid isn’t a max protect guy but he’s helped his outside guys by not having Mahomes hold on to the ball for five or six seconds as the deeper routes develop.
That doesn’t mean Mahomes has stopped improvising – or holding on to the ball for 5 or 6 seconds as the scrambling routes develop.
“The biggest thing is when you get to him, you’ve got to get him down,’’ Roach said. “He’s good at the next play within the play. The first play breaks down, he’s able to extend plays and make big things happen. He’s a dynamic player, he’s one of the best -- well, (shoot), one of the top two quarterbacks in the league – him and Lamar I want to say.”
The last time these two AFC West teams met, the Broncos broke their 16-game, 8-year losing skid against the Chiefs. That game was played at Empower Field at Mile High in late-October and was part of the Broncos’ incredible run of takeaways. This game will be played at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Broncos haven’t won since Brandon Marshall the linebacker forced Jamaal Charles to fumble with seconds remaining, setting up Bradley Roby’s 21-yard touchdown return. The Broncos scored two touchdowns in the final minute of the game.
It may take something similarly unexpected to catch the Chiefs this Sunday,.
“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a great environment,’’ said Broncos’ cornerback Riley Moss. “We’ve got to play the best in the league and that’s what any competitor wants to do is go against the best.”
The Chiefs have so many things going for them that should give the Broncos some extra motivation. They have won eight consecutive AFC West titles, start there. Especially when the Broncos won the previous five division titles during the Tebow-Manning era (2011-15).
The Chiefs are also back-to-back Super Bowl champions. Everybody wants to beat the champs. And the Chiefs are also 8-0, winning six one-score games in the process. Everybody wants to knock off the undefeated.
“Everybody’s going to want to beat them and take them down,’’ said Broncos outside linebacker and top sacker Nik Bonitto.
“I think that’s why everybody plays at this level, you want to compete against the best,’’ said inside linebacker Justin Strnad. “And what better of an opportunity than to play an undefeated team, a team that many think is the best in the league, at home and see what they got.
“Every team in the league should aspire to be them. They’re on a great run right now and that’s our goal, to get to that level and we’ve got to prove that on Sunday.”
“Right now no one’s playing better than them so it will be a good challenge but we’re excited for it,’’ said Denver defensive end Zach Allen. “There’s a reason why they’re undefeated and it will definitely be a challenge but we’re looking forward to it.”
Can the Broncos knock off the undefeated two-time champs? There are reasons to think they can. At 5-4, the Broncos are no slouch, no matter how it looked last Sunday in Baltimore. They currently hold the No. 7 and final AFC playoff spot. And the Chiefs are coming off a tough, overtime win on Monday night, which figures to leave them with less time to refresh their battered bodies by the game Sunday.
“Every team is beatable,’’ Moss said. “We believe that, we believed that last week. It didn’t come to fruition but we’ve got to be able to come back and be resilient and bad things are going to happen and this week we’ve got to be able to come back and not let one bad thing lead to another one.”
