Should the Broncos have played for the tie?

“I’m just preparing to go out there and play as well as I can”.

The Broncos’ 30-27 overtime loss to the Chiefs on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” earned an overnight rating of 11.8 and 20 share (11.8 percent of all households tuned in and 20 percent of households with TVs watched), with a 12.2/24 peak from 9:30-10 p.m. MT, according to the network.

Mitchell and Brady also joined forces for a four-yard score in the second quarter, while kicker Stephen Gostkowski booted three field goals.

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

Kubiak said not having any timeouts remaining was a factor in trying the long kick. “I worked and I had faith and I believed”. The Broncos lost to the Chiefs for a lot of reasons, including giving the ball to the Chiefs in excellent field position.

The Broncos players aren’t joining the chorus of second-guessers.

Playing with an ailing knee, Brady tied Peyton Manning for most wins by a quarterback in National Football League history, getting his 200th by throwing a go-ahead 8-yard touchdown pass to Malcolm Mitchell with 1:56 left, leading the New England Patriots to a 22-17 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday. They could have punted the ball, gone for it, or try a field goal with just a minute left in overtime. The Chiefs’ sensational punt returner, Tyreek Hill returned it 86 yards for a touchdown, slapping a high 5 to a teammate on the 5-yard line on his way in.

“I can probably make that kick eight or nine out of ten times”, McManus said, “so I’m disappointed in that”.

The next drive for the Broncos stalled at the Chiefs 44-yard line with 68 seconds to play. In addition to his good snaps on the tying and winning field goals in overtime, he recovered a fumble by Denver’s Jordan Norwood.

“Obviously, he is a big part of what we are doing”, Smith said of Hill. Brandon McManus converted from 33 yards to bring the Broncos within, 9-3 to end the first half scoring. And lesson learned. We had a lot of mistakes, a lot of penalties, a lot of busts in coverage.

“Yeah, definitely, we’ve got Kubes’ back and he’s got our back. The thought process was on the other end: if we do punt, do we get the ball back?”

In Oakland, Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 23-yard field goal with 1:45 left to lift the Raiders to a 35-32 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

The Kansas City Chiefs rarely blow out an opponent or play anywhere near a flawless game.

As Norwood trudged off the field, an angry Talib shoved him toward the sideline. But, their best work may have come late in that fourth quarter, after Denver had taken the lead.

Added cornerback Chris Harris Jr.: “We just got to get into the playoffs”. “We talked about it”.

The truth is that the Broncos could have avoided this situation entirely with better decisions leading up to this point. “With that, I think our rhythm comes”.

Long before he confronted the hard decision of trying a 62-yard field goal in overtime, Gary Kubiak made another call that would come back to haunt him. “I don’t know. We’re going to try to win”. But Kansas City’s defense did not fold and receives a passing grade against the Denver pass offense thanks to five sacks, including three from outside linebacker Justin Houston.

All this after special teams came up big at New Orleans two weeks earlier by blocking an extra point and returning it for the first game-winning defensive 2-point play in National Football League history. A 2-point failure and it’s still a seven-point cushion. And we are left to determine whether Kubiak was right or wrong, or whether he was simply stuck between the hammer and the anvil.