Locked On Broncos - Daily Podcast On The Denver Broncos - CHRISTMAS DUB: Denver Broncos DELIVER Coal to Kansas City Chiefs

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

The Denver Broncos improved to 13-3 on Thursday after they delivered coal to the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. Despite the score being close, how did Bo Nix and RJ Harvey come up big for the Broncos offense in the fourth quarter? How concerning is the Broncos defense been since coming out of the bye week, including a scare against KC? Cody Roark and Sayre Bedinger recap Broncos Chiefs and hand out their game balls. Cody Roark is a credentialed beat reporter for Mile High Sports and covers the Broncos daily in person. Sayre Bedinger is the site expert for Predominantly Orange. Both bring Broncos Country the most in-depth and objective coverage of the Denver Broncos. WANT MORE DAILY DENVER BRONCOS CONTENT?For all of the latest Denver Broncos news today -- Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOBroncos?sid=YouTube Locked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL Follow on Twitter: @CodyRoarkNFL and @SayreBedingerFollow the show on Twitter: @LockedOnBroncos Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans.Click here to join -- https://lockedonbroncos.supercast.com/ Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!  CarGurusShop the way you want with the tools, data, and unbiased deal ratings that make it easy.  Buy or sell your next car today at http://CarGurus.com. FanDuelIf you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit FanDuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. The Denver Broncos win in Kansas City on Christmas Day. You are Locked on Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Broncos, welcome into another episode, Lockdown Broncos, your daily Denver Broncos podcast, part of the Locked on podcast network,

your team every day, the number one sports podcast network in the country. And that's all because all you everydayers out there. Thanks for tuning in, making us your first listen. However you choose to do so, I'm Cody Rourke, credential. Broncos reporter for Mile High Sports. Join, as always, by Sarah Bedinger, site expert of their predominantly orange.com and a victory episode of the shows, the Broncos improved to 13 to 3. We'll talk about how Bo Nix and RJ Harvey, they delivered cold to the stockings that were the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day.

But the Broncos defense, they let the Chiefs hang out a little bit, and that made things a little interesting late in this game. And we'll hand out stocking stuffers for game balls for the Broncos. And obviously the players that had a huge impact in this game that led to Denver going 13 and 3. And now one went away from locking up the number one seed in the NFL playoffs. You'll get all that on today's episode of the show brought to you by our friends over there at Fanduil. If you want to be right in the middle of the action of the season, visit fandu.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. sir the Broncos make things interesting

I think that's one thing we've come to learn when covering this team sometimes it's really exciting sometimes it's like hey what's going on there I think specifically in this game there was a lot of not so good feelings I'd say for the first half this game to the point where we were saying the impudence the audacity

the unmitigated gall but the Broncos find a way to survive and that was because of Bo Nix and R.J. Harvey That's right I mean Bo Nix put the team on his back when You need to in this one for the Denver Broncos. And of course, going up against a team's third string quarterback and going up against a team that just put a bunch of guys on, you know, they put them out for the season essentially going on IR.

It feels like you're playing. Once again, I think the expectation was what happened last year when you played the Kansas City backups, right? They come to Denver. It's 38 to nothing, bit of a track meet, bit of a little preseason type of game for the Denver Broncos offense. Your stat patting out there. it was not that in any way, shape or form. Like Chiefs fans showed up and they were loud and they were into the game and the star players that are left for Kansas City, Travis Kelsey, Chris Jones, Nick Bolton. Like those guys played extremely hard in this game, Cody, especially defensively.

They made it hard for this Denver Broncos team. But you know what? It doesn't matter because the Broncos, like you said, they put a lump of coal. They're the Grinch that stole Christmas from the Kansas City Chiefs. I think all the chiefs had left, they don't have the playoffs. So what do they have left? Take the joy away from the Denver Broncos. The chiefs tried to be the Grinch, and the Broncos were like, like when the Grinch

rips the sheet off the table and he goes over, he sees that thing fell down. He's like, just going to knock it over anyway, right? The Broncos are like, you're not knocking down our stuff. You're not taking our stuff. We're going to do it to you and in front of your fans. How many years in a row now have we been wishing for the Broncos to go to Kansas City and get a W, man. I mean, how long has it been?

It's been a long time. I feel like last year it was taken, it was taken out from right underneath them. The rug was pulled out from underneath their feet. But you know what? Cody, I feel like sometimes when it comes to wins and losses in the NFL today, kids,

they've been so desensitized by movies and television. You know, it's just you don't necessarily appreciate it when it's in the moment. I was frustrated as everybody during the game, watching it unfold, being frustrated in the moment. But you take that.

result 100 times out of 100. Yeah, and look, the win is the most important thing right here. We said it earlier on the crossover this week. We said, hey, this is step one of the two-step program that Broncos have for their playoff destiny, which is winning the division and also going out there and clinching the one seed. Now, Denver can obviously clinch the AFC West on Sunday. The Houston Texans beat the Los Angeles Chargers. But regardless, next week's game against the Chargers is going to have high stakes.

We'll talk about that later. Yeah, we have a whole entire week to build up and hype that up there. But I think really talking about this game here specifically, you know, Bo Nixon and the offense and RJ Harvey, I mean, at times it wasn't pretty for the offense early on. You know, there were a couple of throws that Bo had to make while throwing on the run and something, you know, he had a couple of misses.

But then there were several key drops in this game that certainly impacted the flow and the rhythm as well. I mean, I thought he made the right decision on that throw there to little Jordan Humphrey. The defensive back made a terrific play batting it or hitting it. And then Nick Bolton somehow comes away with the interception. But that right there was kind of, I like at the point where I say, this is what you can't do against this type of chiefs team.

They're lifeless, but now you've given them life, so to speak. And so for the Broncos to go into halftime trailing 7,6, ultimately in the third quarter, 106 for Bo Nix and them to find a way to kind of buckle down a little bit. That was important. And really, Bo Nicks, two touchdowns in this game, one on the ground. And then obviously in the final minute to cap off a 14 play, 65-yard scoring drive. And that took him really inside the final two minutes to find RJ Harvey Harvey for that. touchdown on third and goal. That was so huge for the Broncos in this game because they needed it

once again. But Bose two touchdown performance, RJ Harvey, I just felt like at times in this game was the guy that injected a little bit of life where you thought he's wrapped up behind a line of scribbion. All of a sudden, he's keeping his feet churning and now he's getting four or five yards instead of losing two. It's those little details. I think that matters so much in a game like this and certainly you see that when the Broncos third down, 11 of 18. they were much better here, obviously, in Thursday night. Yeah, it feels like the Chiefs took a page

out of what we saw from the Raiders just a couple of weeks ago, right? When the Raiders were just daring the Broncos to go out there and say, hey, Bo Nix, you want to play target practice against our zone defense? We're going to keep two guys up top and we're not going to let you go deep.

And if you can run the ball, then we might creep those safeties in. But Kirk Herbstree was even talking about it during the game, Cody was like Steve Spagnola was just a band his typical, you know, identity. He said, I think at one point in the game, he's like, typically you see five blitzes on the first series from a Steve Spagnolo defense.

And this game, it didn't come until the fourth quarter. So it was a complete abandonment of their typical strategy because of what they were taking away from the Broncos. They said, you are not going to beat us with the vertical passing game. You can dink and dunk all you want. We're going to rally and tackle. And if you can run the ball, that's where you're going to be able to, okay, we'll have to adjust.

And the Broncos, I don't, I didn't think they ran the ball terribly, but it, it wasn't necessarily great either. So it just kind of kept that tension all throughout the game where the chiefs are able to cheat their safeties back. Bo Nix has to go play target practice and guys have to come up with yards after the catch. And that's where you cannot have dropped passes. And you cannot have guys not making plays after the catch or not running routes to the sticks and things like that. Because situationally, that's what will kill you in a game like this where you have to kind of, what is it,

matriculate down the field, right? The Broncos did that many times, but once again, you get down into the tight red zone, over two in the first half. Yeah, and they got to find a way to obviously be more consistent there.

And I get it. Look, it was a short week. They didn't really truly practice this week. Neither did Kansas City, though, right? These were just glorified walkthroughs at the point because you just played a game last Sunday. That's the secret beyond Thursday night football.

But so far, I've seen Denver twice this year struggle coming out of a short week. Like Thursday night football, if Denver can petition not to play on it, except unless they were coming out of the by week, okay, then maybe we'd be okay for that. But just once again,

to be able to go on the road in that environment too, and I think Sean Payton really did a great job after the game, summarizing it, regardless of no more homes, regardless of that, and Andy Reid team is always going to come through and try to fight. And they fought a lot harder than I thought, look, it was a little chippy.

There was some fun back. back and forth between Chris Jones and Bo Nix a little bit in this game. But ultimately it was Bo Nix and R.J. Harvey coming up big. I mean, Denver had three rushers, Sarah, in this game. Bo being one of them, R.J. Harvey being the other. And Jell-McLaughlin being the third. They each had 40 yards rushing this game as Denver runs for over 100 plus yards in this game here. Third down conversion rate was great.

But just the time of possession, that was really the key. I mean, Sarah, if you were to not watch this game, if anyone, there are a lot of people out there to do this, that just look at the ball. box score, you would have felt like Denver won this game 27 to 3 if you looked at the numbers. Denver dominated. What was the time of possession here for them? It's almost 40 minutes in 28 seconds, almost 40 minutes there. And those drops that you mentioned included, Cortland Sutton dropping one really in the end zone where both fired into a window.

That could have changed the entire course of this game ultimately, right, when you get seven instead of three. So not to nitpick here, but the Broncos offense, they find a way to get it done, but they're going have to still play better going forward here. And there's still so much of this offense will continue to break down. I think throughout the rest of the show as we get into our game balls, but also going into this next week as well against the Chargers. Yeah.

And that's the big thing right now for the Broncos is big picture stuff, right? It's Sean Payton said it after the game. It doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing. And this is the way that I said it during the game, Cody, not necessarily an encouraging performance, but exactly the result that you want is that victory, right? And so you come away from a road game on a short week with a 20 to 13 win. Nobody's going to be complaining about that if you go on a little bit of a run here in the postseason.

And you win the AFC West or you get the number one seed, et cetera. Everything else before that, it's just chapters in the book. Right. So it's what you do from this point forward now that you've got yourself a little mini buy week here. And you've got things. You've done the heavy lifting. The Broncos have done the heavy lifting. There's no reason to be dejected or discouraged.

and I'm going to point that out too as we continue on with this show, Cody, the reason why I think that this Broncos team, people might call them frauds. Go ahead. Let those people say that. This team is anything but a fraud. And I think that we're going to see that play out over the course of the next month. They control their own destiny. And the reality is simple.

Win next week against the Chargers. You get the number one seed to get the first round by. And you get to watch everybody else beat up on each other for a week here and hopefully get some guys back healthy. So there is that, though. And in this game, too, the Broncos defense, I mean, facing a third string quarterback, you think that it would just be a dominant performance. The Broncos, they let the Chiefs get a little too close and let them hang around in this game a little too much.

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The holiday season is still here, folks. And make sure you check out the Everyday or All Access program where you get exclusive all 22 film breakdowns of every Broncos game. You'll get exclusive stuff deep into the off season as well. You get a daily newsletter. You get an ad-free version of the show. You get one-on-one texting with Sarah Bedinger, myself, access to our Discord and so much more.

So join the Everydayer All-access Club here today. going to lockdown broncos. Dot supercast.com or in the link in our show notes below. The Broncos defense in this one, certainly coming into a short week where you're facing a third string quarterback. You're getting a guy who's getting his first career start here. On paper, we were all thinking this is the perfect opportunity

for the Broncos defense to just let everybody go, let the hounds off the leash essentially, and get after a quarterback here, rack up some sacks, stat pad, some numbers a little bit. But Chris Ola Doken made things very, interesting in this game. And once again, the numbers in this game don't necessarily tell the story for how this game felt, especially late when the chiefs were trying to drive and make it, trying to

make things interesting here in that fourth quarter where they're looking to maybe tie it up. We're in a situation like that, if they were to score a touchdown, they would have probably went for two to try to win the game here against Denver. So I would say, Sarah, I'd be remissed if I didn't bring up the fact that how the defense has played since the by week. Once again, we're talking about it, has been a concern. It is. And so I think maybe this mini buy against the, I guess upcoming with the chargers here before you play them, you got nine days now. Maybe this little mini buy can sort of reset.

You know, we've been giving a couple of quotes from the Grinch, but I think of Christmas vacation in this instance where the grandma's like, wow, Ruby Sue, your eyes aren't crossed anymore. And Eddie's like, yeah, falls down well, her eyes go across, gets kicked by a mule. they go back again or whatever the quote is. Somebody in the comments on YouTube is going to roast me for getting that one, butchering it. But you get what I'm saying. Like you get one by week, all of a sudden,

things go completely crossed. Everything that was in the first 10 games of the season or whatever, just out the window against the commanders. Cliff Kingsbury and Marcus Mariotta come out in that Monday night game when you had even extra time to prepare, right? And you get absolutely blasted away by them. comes down to the two-point play. Now you have nine days to prepare for the LA Chargers who have one of the most banged-up

offensive lines in the game. Cody, if this Denver defense does not turn things around quickly, it is going to be a rapid exit out of the playoffs. And I'm not a doom and gloom sort of person. I never will be. However, when you abandon the thing that made you great or when you're not doing the thing that

makes you great, wouldn't it be ironic if the pass rush, which was not there in this game at all. Wouldn't it be ironic if the pass rush was the thing that sunk this team's ship after all the talk of breaking the all-time NFL sack record? Man, it's crazy, too, because in this game, I mean, one guy got home. Thank goodness for what was it, Dandre Tillman. Denver has 64 sacks on the season, which now sets a franchise record,

which they set last year was 63. And in this game, they had opportunities. And it just seemed like guys in this game. And I don't know if it was just because you don't have a lot of game film on obviously Ola Doken and whatnot. But it just seemed like guys were rushing too far upfield, Sarah, from the outside edge. Even sometimes your interior rush was getting too far upfield. Ola Doken is using his legs or they're capitalizing with draw plays trying to get the Broncos defense to kind of bite on being their overly aggressive self there. And then there were a couple of plays.

I mean, one play specifically, we talk about scramble drill. Denver defensively did not do a great job in this game against. said. There was one play, Ola Doken, is rolling out with the football. He drops it on the ground and has to scrabble to pick it up, picks it up, and still finds Juju Smith-Schuster for a first down. So too many guys running free here for my liking. And I'm sure for Sean Peyton and Vance Joseph's liking as well. And once again, bad tackling, just poor angles, guys not wrapping up led to some more extended plays. I mean, Sarah, if once again, you go back and you look at this game, the Chiefs had 139 total yards offense. With Denver, dominating offensively the time of possession, this game should have been like 27 to three, right? Woulda, coulda, shoulda, it wasn't. It was 20 to 13. It was a lot closer than you wanted it to be.

Surely the offense didn't help at times. Surely special teams didn't help at times. But the defense has just been on this concerning trend as of late that I agree with you. We are probably very level-headed and objective and probably more so than a lot of other people. Some people say we're doom and gloom, which I disagree with. I think being able to say like, hey, the defense is concerning. That's not doom and gloom.

That's having a valid concern that is certainly present. You have evidence of it with how they have played. I agree with you. If the defense doesn't fix these issues, especially even against a banged-up Justin Herbert and banged up Chargers offensive line, this team is going to suffer a quick exit. And we don't certainly want that. Broncos country doesn't want that. The players don't want that.

But I don't know what's happened to where the level of execution, Sarah, hasn't been to where it was before the by week. Jonathan Cooper's last full sack came against Houston. Zach Allen's last full sack was in that 10 to 7 game against the Las Vegas Raiders. So both of those was while I was still at Disney World, Cody, I've already booked my next trip. You know what I'm saying? So it's like get with the program, guys.

Get with it. Get to the quarterback. I'm so sick of talking about the same thing when we're talking about breaking records, setting the all-time record, you ain't even in that conversation anymore. You've fallen off. And I hate to say that because they are getting quarterback hits. They are. They're getting to the quarterback to get hits.

But at some point, this is what was the driving force for that championship team that the Broncos had in 2015 when they made that playoff run. You weren't just getting quarterback hits. You were affecting the quarterback. Every single snap with your pass rush, getting pressure right in his face. hitting him to the point that it was changing the way that he was literally managing the game as a passer. And this Broncos pass rush has done none of that. Nick Benito, where you been?

I don't know what's going on with the right arm, Cody, why he's got the Grancowski, you know, gadget all up down his arm there. I don't know what's going on with that. I don't understand why Jonathan Cooper doesn't have a full sack since the Houston game. I don't understand why Zach Allen doesn't have a full sack since the Raiders game. I know these guys are still productive. I know they're still putting up numbers with the quarterback hits, but it's not enough anymore.

You have to, the reason why the offense is struggling so much right now to get things going, they're not getting extra possessions. They're not. The defense is not getting off the field quickly enough. They're giving up big plays like they did against Kansas City. Pass interference on Pat Sertan. You're letting them right down the field for that potentially game-tying or game-winning drive. It happened a number of times, even with limited,

possessions for Kansas City in this one, Broncos defense, not getting home. And it's become to the point to where now, Cody, I'm wondering, is it gone or is it just going to come back at exactly the right time? And I'm going to,

I'm going to believe the latter there, that it's going to come back at exactly the right time. Let's hope so too, because I always go back to what Van said last year about, you know, this late near all your warts are on film in a sense. I'm like, well,

that's not good. You got to remove your warts. You don't want to let those things, you know, get you in the playoffs. And that's what happened late down the stretch with Denver's defense last year. So hopefully, hopefully it's just a little bit of a slump. And hopefully in this next week against the chargers when they get into the playoffs, hopefully we see them turn it back and be that same defensive unit we saw from weeks one all the way through week 11. That'll be key here for

the Broncos. But with that said, Broncos country coming up next, we're going to hand out our stocking stuffers, which are game balls from the Christmas Day win over the Kansas City Chiefs. You get all that here on today's episode of the show. This episode of Lockdown Broncos is brought to you by prize picks. The holiday season is one of the best times for sports. Bowl games, big basketball matchups, playoff pushes. It's all happening all at once. And while we're all making choices every day,

one of the most fun places to make the right call is prize picks. Prize picks is the easiest way to get in on daily fantasy. Just pick more or less on at least two player projections, lock in your lineup and you're in the game. It's simple, it's fast, and available in 45 states, including California, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. Creating a lineup takes less than a minute. And the app makes the whole process smooth and intuitive. And the new stacks feature, it lets you choose the same player up to three times in one lineup,

like more on a quarterback's passing yards, touchdowns, and rushing yards. So, Bo Nix, kind of a safe bet for one of these things almost every single week, right? download the prize picks app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks, it's good to be right. As we jump on the fourth quarter action, today's episode of the show, we're going to head out our game balls here as the Broncos finally snapped their holiday streak where they've lost so many times on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Broncos, they are victorious delivering coal to the Kansas City Chiefs. Sarah, you know what?

We've talked about the offense. We've talked about the defense. I think we've been objective. We've also been rightfully critical to the defense here. But let's have some fun here. Let's hand out a stocking stuffer here for the Broncos win, which are game balls. Let's start off with you. Who are you giving a game ball to for Thursday's game?

I'm going to start off with Bo Nix because I felt like he put the team on his back when he needed to, Cody. I know a number of people are all. always critical of Bo Nix. And I think it's fair to be critical of the guy at times. But I'm done with the whole conversation of like the conversation being centered around like, is he a franchise guy? Is he not a franchise guy? Bo Nix has put the team on his back so many times this season.

You need a touchdown drive coming out in the second half. Bo Nix finishes it off with a rushing TD. You need a touchdown drive to put the pressure on Kansas City's offense with less than two minutes left. Bo Nix delivers a touchdown pass to R.J. Harvey and a number of big throws in between those moments, right? So I think my first game ball, got to go to Bo Nix because he went on the road, beat Kansas City. Cody, he's only the third quarterback in NFL history in his first two seasons to win 10 plus games and make the playoffs in each of his first two seasons. The others, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. So Bo Nix, he's that dude.

Well, I think this win right now as well moves him to 23 wins in his first two seasons, which moves him one game behind Russell Wilson, who had 24, a win against the Chargers, ultimately next week will tie him for Russ in that regard here. I agree. I like that pick, and I agree with you to it. It feels exhausting, I think from our perspective, because we deal with it. We have a widespread community, but you also get a lot of people that come on to our show page and our community to try to troll and talk about Bo Nix. Bo Nix is a big reason

the Broncos have won a lot of their games here in the second half part of the season. He's been a big reason the offense has been better. Could the offense be better in other areas? 110%. Can Bo Nix be better in some areas? 100%. We're not saying he's absolved from any criticism,

but he has been playing well enough for this team to win, and he's been a big reason why they have been winning. And he was obviously a huge reason why they won against the Kansas Chiefs. Two touchdowns in this game where the Chiefs, they score 13 points. Denver, they score 20. He's accountable for two of the.

those touchdowns that never had in this game. I like that. I'm going to go, though, with maybe someone on the, who's a little unsung, so to speak. Alex Forsyth's filling in its center, starting here for Luke Wattenberg, who's on IR, he's going to miss the next four weeks. Forsyth did. In my opinion, I was watching him a majority of this game, did a fantastic job. And I think specifically in the run game, but from a communication standpoint, from a

protection standpoint, you see him with the Amazon cameras. He's pointing out, hey, this is the mic, this is where it's going. He's getting guys lined up. He and Bo Nix obviously have a chemistry together, having played at Oregon. But I felt like Alex Forsyth, there was one play where he crashed down a nose tackle. And Jolil McLaughlin ran for, I think, 15 yards to get a first down for the Broncos. I look at those plays and just look at the consistency factor inside the A gap. Alex Forsyth, in my opinion, I'm giving him a game ball.

I love that pick. And especially because as you and I talked about kind of going into this game, it's sort of an emotional game. I know I think I saw some quotes from Alex talking after the game about it being an emotional game after the way things went last year in Kansas City, right? So playing with a bit of an extra chip on his shoulder there. How about RJ Harvey for a game here, Cody? I think RJ Harvey ran hard in this game. He made some big runs in the second half.

Obviously had the touchdown catch. But once again, it may not necessarily blow anybody away. But 43 rushing yards leads the team there. I know it was 14 carries. It wasn't all like he was busting them off every single play, but he also added 33 yards and five catches as a pass catcher. So we're talking about 76 total yards from scrimmage, 19 touches, not necessarily his biggest game in terms of a yards per touch, but huge game in terms of moving the chains, in terms of

big time plays when he needed to make them, especially that game winning touchdown at the end. I mean, a great route and a great job of getting open after Bo Nix was kind of directing traffic on that play right there. RJ and Kirk Herbstreet called it out a couple of times. He's got some wide receiver skills there that we're seeing be massive for this Broncos offense here in the second half of the season. He's got 12 total touchdowns right now on the season, which for him to be where he's at, considering J.K. Dobbins early on the season was such a major part of this offense.

He's taking over a lot more responsibility. I like seeing a lot of him and Jolome McLaughlin. And once again, I'm going to continue to pound the drum by saying less Tyler Biday, more Jilil, more RJ, more Adam Prentice in terms if you want protection. This is the duo or the trio that you're going to use, I think right now. It's the best you got. It's the best that the NFL is going to offer for you because there's no in-season free agency. This is who is available.

You have to take advantage of it. I felt like RJ Harvey has made the most of every opportunity. And we're seeing it. I mean, he doesn't have to run for 100 yards. He can contribute 100 all-purpose charge or he didn't even have to have 100-all-purpose charge. He might have a rushing touchdown. He might have a receiving touchdown in the game and have 73 total yards from scrimmage. And that's meaningful.

That's effectiveness right there. I'm loving what we're seeing from RJ. And I just want to highlight once again, just a handful of plays here where the Chiefs defense, they either brought an outside blitz or somebody broke through and wrapped him up. And he's still finding ways to break through that contact, fight for extra yards on what should have been maybe a two or three yard loss behind the line of scrimmage. RJ's got a lot of heart, man. And I think that he's going to be so important for Denver in the playoffs,

obviously here in the next handful of weeks. He really is. And I think he's catching a little bit of fire, too. I know that like I said, this wasn't necessarily the game where he's busting off every run. But shoot, I mean, he just had 121 yards from scrimmage last week against the Jaguars as well. He's been playing really well this season. I'm excited to see how he continues to do with an elevated workload.

19 carries against Green Bay for 65 yards. That was a nice game for him against the Raiders, 17 for 75. He had 100 yards from scrimmage in that game as well. So we are seeing him heat up here as of late. And Cody, I think that I think honestly you have to just tip your cap in this game to the way that the offensive line. I want to talk about maybe just quickly Sean Payton at the end of the game. Fourth and one was it? And they came out in this formation with R.J. Harvey, fourth and two.

So RJ Harvey's under center or in a shotgun formation. I don't think there was any chance they were snapping this ball. I don't think there's, I think there's a 0% chance they were going to snap it, maybe 1% because you never say never, right? Bo Nix is off to the right playing in the wide receiver position. They get Chris Jones to jump off sides. That is a just an awesome, awesome way for Sean Payton to bait the chiefs into jumping off

sides with RJ Harvey Harvey as the shotgun QB. I loved that. That was a turning point in the game. It gave the Broncos a touchdown instead of three points. Yeah, we saw a little bit of RJ in that wildcat formation there. And finally, they called Chris Jones for being off sides in this game. I felt like they were never going to call it. But you know what?

Oh, crazy too, Bill Vinovich, please. Never let Bill Vinovich never officiate another Broncos game. I just felt like there were a lot of things that weren't called the false start that they called on Ben Powers. Ben didn't even move. I don't know what they were looking at. So it's crazy. You know, throughout the game, I was say I was not in the Christmas spirit early. I was just a little frustrated.

You know, I haven't been feeling well. I'm sick. And then I was like, man, the Broncos just, they didn't come out playing like inspired football. But man, you know, they found a way to win, which is what matters. But they definitely have a lot of stuff to clean up. And Broncos country, that's not us being negative. I think that's a very level-headed take saying, hey, it's great that they got the win, but they have to play better.

And if you don't agree, then I think that's a little crazy. They have to play better. and I think that they will going forward here. So with that said, Broncos, country, I'll wrap on today's post-game show. The next time you're going to see Sarah Beninger and myself, unless there's any breaking news,

you're going to get us on Monday for another episode of shows. We take a look at the aftermath of Week 17. The Broncos, they have a chance to clinch to AS-WS at the Houston, Texans, beat the Chargers on Sunday. Will the Broncos be AFCS champions come Monday morning? You have to find out here. Lockdown Broncos. We'll see you then.