Jamaal Charles’ fumble hands Denver Broncos victory

Bradley Roby returned Jamaal Charles’s second fumble 21 yards for a touchdown with 27 seconds left Thursday night, completing a stunning comeback for a 31-24 victory over the Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri.

“We thought we had it won”, Davis said.

Much as he did last week against Baltimore, Manning struggled early against Kansas City (1-1), throwing a costly interception to rookie Marcus Peters as the Broncos dug themselves a 14-0 hole. The Broncos tied the game at 14 on a Manning toss to tight end Virgil Green in the back of the end zone on second down play-action from inside the 1.Smith finished 16-for-25 for 191 yards with two interceptions. It was Peyton Manning’s time to shine. It was a rough game for Peyton Manning, throwing another pick-six and taking multiple hits at the hands of an aggressive Chiefs defense.

The first half was marred by penalties and dominated by pass rushers until the Chiefs started the scoring with 9:11 left in the second quarter on a 34-yard Charles touchdown run.

The curse of Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos lives on in Kansas City.

Still, it wasn’t enough to overcome the many mistakes made by the Chiefs offense, none bigger than the two fumbles by Charles – one in his red zone, the other deep in his own territory. The Broncos scooped it up and ran it into the endzone for the game-winning touchdowns.

Desperate to turn momentum against the inspired if overly hyped Chiefs, Kubiak surrendered his game plan and let Manning do his thing.

Why would Reid suddenly lose confidence in Charles to gain the last lonely yard left to paydirt? In two games, Manning has already thrown 85 passes, completing 59% of them, while the Broncos have run the ball 47 times total. He also threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. So did Demaryius Thomas, looking like a $70M wideout with some of the catches he made, just going up to get passes no matter how close the defenders were. Or, did Reid think Alex Smith would out-gun Manning and magically throw a touchdown to newly acquired receiver Jeremy Maclin?

Thus, the pressure has been on Peyton in the first two games to lead the offense.

With the game still scoreless in the second quarter, the Chiefs began to take control.

Rarely will Jamaal Charles ever take heat on Arrowhead Addict or anywhere else that involves talking about the Kansas City Chiefs. However, the Broncos were not able to capitalize in large part due to the Chiefs defense.

“I just have to continue to keep working and keep grinding and try to get back to that form everybody expects me to be into, including myself”, said Anderson, who played through a toe injury. Those are the kinds of passes we know Manning can still throw effectively. Unfortunately, tonight is one of those times. Manning looked like an old MVP on that game-tying drive, but he didn’t need to prove it again in overtime. But they wanted to see more game-changing plays.

The question is what will prevail first, Kubiak’s insistence on running his playbook and forcing down Manning’s throat a remedial-at-best rushing attack behind a below-average offensive line or Manning’s insistence that he and the Broncos win games now in what might be his last chance to add a second ring to his collection?