Brandon Marshall on playoffs: “We’ll be in there at the end”

The defending Super Bowl champs are now a game behind the second-place Chiefs and two games in back of the division-leading Oakland Raiders in the AFC West. The Chiefs had to use Santos twice in overtime, once to tie the game and once to win it.

With five seconds remaining in the extra period, Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos made a 34-yard field goal that struck the left upright and caromed over the crossbar.

During a timeout, he chose to go for the gusto.

“I believe in our football team”.

Denver struck first in overtime, with a 44-yard field goal by McManus, but the Chiefs responded with one of their own, from 37 yards. “We let them get down there with stupid coverages we were playing”.

“It’s kind of like being in a movie”, Santos said in try to describe the madness following his game-winning boot.

Special teams stepped up again on the next play, with Hill taking the free kick from Denver 86 yards for a touchdown.

But the defense failed to keep the Chiefs from scoring six and then two.

Yet Smith and the Chiefs tied it up on a 13-play drive capped off by a touchdown to Tyreek Hill with 12 seconds left, and a successful two-point conversion on a play drawn up for TE Demetrius Harris, who has struggled with dropped balls all year. “Blocking and those types of things are the things that we need him to improve upon, but I think that he has a chance to be a really good player”.

The Chiefs defense was equally as brilliant through three quarters, especially in the first half, when it held the Broncos to just three points.

But defensive end Derek Wolfe said the pressure would have been there even after a win. “Just an awesome game”. And lesson learned. We had a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties, a lot of busts in coverage. “We’ve got to control our emotions”. The Chiefs demonstrated as much when they got the ball back with the eternity of 3 minutes left at their own 25.

As Norwood trudged off the field, an angry Talib shoved him toward the sideline.

That gave the Chiefs possession at the Denver 48 with one timeout and just over a minute remaining.

At the very least, we get to soak in this win probability graph, but these few decisions in this game could have a big impact on the AFC playoff race when all is said and done. Gaines was also beat by Bennie Fowler for a 76 yard score when Gaines was turned around and lost the ball in the air.

We can’t talk about hapless teams without bringing up the winless Cleveland Browns.

“I don’t like losing”, Jackson said.

“If the ball comes to me, I’m going to make the play”, Hill told the Kansas City Star. “But we’re going to try to win, and I’ve seen B-Mac do that many times in practice”.

Three plays later, Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston sacked Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian to force the fumble and safety that gave the team a 2-0 lead.

It was easy for anyone following the Chiefs to have about the same shaken faith in their ability to win this game that Colquitt seemed to display right after the kick. Marcus Peters did a great job containing Demaryius Thomas on the other side of the field, and teams are now more likely to exploit Gaines side of the field as the Broncos did if he is unable to compete with team’s vertical threats.

In listening Marshall, you can nearly hear him processing Gary Kubiak’s decision to kick the field goal, and where the Broncos now sit in the playoff picture.