PTI - Are the Broncos Officially the Runaway Favorites to Win the AFC West?

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Chiefs vs. Broncos, the LA Rams, and the Philadelphia Eagles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon, Tony. I don't know if I can take another last second Bears win. I'm Tony Cornheiser. Got you.

Bears, Wilbon would prefer that you lose. No, no, no. So you can take it. At least months off my life. Every week, it's the same game. But Northwestern did the same thing except Northwestern lost. Toughly cool. So I needed a split.

Are you checking out soon? I just want to know. I needed a split. You got a split. You're okay. I'm a sight. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. in today's episode, the Rams and Eagles post big wins.

The bills top the bucks and the bears come back again. But we begin today with the Denver Broncos beating their arch rivals to Kansas City Chiefs yesterday, 22 to 19 on a last second field goal. Denver is now 9 and 2. Kansas City is now 5 and 5, and this is the latest in the season. The Chiefs have been 500 since before Patrick Mahomes became their starter.

Wilbon, what does this result say to you about each team? Tony, this was a big. swing game because I expected the Chiefs to win. I kept waiting on Mahomes to have a moment that he clips Denver and it didn't come. And as I did say, Denver's tough at home.

Just like Kansas City's tough at home. Denver is a better team right now. I don't know if there'll be that in February. They're a better team right now. That defense is really difficult. If Mahomes and Andy Reid coming out of a buy can't solve it

then it's a pretty damn good defense. All right? Yeah. They now control the division. Yeah. And the Kansas City Chiefs who are like tied for ninth with some people, like maybe the Jaguars, and they've lost the Jaguars. They're behind the Jaguars.

They're going to have to, first of all, play their way into a wild card spot, which now means road doesn't go through Kansas City and Arrowhead. It doesn't. All true. And so it may go through Denver. And Denver's as good as anybody in the AFC right now. you mentioned the best record. Yeah, I'm not going to disagree with anything you said, including the fact that I thought they would win. I thought they would win because they were

coming out of a buy, and Andy Reid is 22 and 4 coming out of buys. And I thought they would win because I thought it was more important to them than it was to Denver. So I'm a little bit shocked at what is going on here. But I'll say this, and maybe you felt the same way. These are not last year's chiefs. Last year's chiefs were 11 and 0 in one score games. This year's Chiefs are 0 and 5. You know how many straight games they won one-score games overall, going back further? 17. They're 0-5 this year.

Oh, and 5. And Patrick Mahomes wasn't great yesterday. No, he wasn't. He wasn't last year's Patrick Mahomes. He had a bad interception. He had inopportune sacks. I thought when Kelsey went into the end zone, I thought this is it. Chiefs are going to win as I expected.

But the next and last two times they had their hands on the ball, they went three and out. Denver is what you say they are. Denver is now 7 and 2 in 1. one-score games. The analogous team to me in the other conferences of Philadelphia Eagles, a team that seems to play defense first, but their offense is good enough. The Kansas, not Kansas City, Denver has now won three in a row, one-score games over the following people. Kansas City, the Raiders, and Houston, not great. Six of seven, including the Giants, the Jets, and the Eagles. But two of those wins are Kansas City and the Eagles. Those are big-time wins.

And I will say, Bo Nix, the analogy for me is to Jalen Hertz. Not a flashy guy, but quietly competent, seems to know what he's doing. I understand why Sean Payton got rid of Russell Wilson and brought in Knicks. Mike, the top, unlike the NFC, the top of the ASAFC is all surprises. It's Indianapolis and Denver and New England. It's all surprises. It might still be Buffalo, too. I'm just saying right now, that's the top.

Here's what to me the bottom line on that game is yesterday. in Denver. They've earned our benefit of the doubt for now. 100%. Yeah. 100%. Won the game. Yeah, we could see. Yeah, yeah. Right? Let's move to the NFC's marquee games in which defense ruled the day and night.

The Rams shut Seattle down. Intercepted Sam Donald four times in route to a 2119 win. The Eagles defense smothered the Lions. Limited Jared Gough to 38% passing and Detroit to just nine point.

Tony, which win impressed you more? Well, it's not going to be the Rams, because the Rams should have won that game by 20 points. They intercepted Darnel four times, so much for you anointing him as the MVP in the league. Not the MVP. Right? But the Rams, but they almost won, Seattle almost won that game.

They didn't cash in. The Rams did not cash in. They didn't cash in. And so amazingly, they were five feet away from losing that game. A 61-yard field goal attempt goes wide right by five feet in the last play of the game. So it's not going to be them.

So for me, it's going to be the Eagles, right? That what they did and they win by defense as well, I've got some notes here on the Eagles. They are eight and two. And I tried to come up with an exact word that would fit them. Here's who they've beaten this year. The Rams, the Packers, the Bucks, the Chiefs, the Lions. Nobody has a array of wins like that. Nobody has an array of wins like that so far this year, right?

They limited, you mentioned nine points on this game. The week before, Green Bay, seven. 16 points is all they've done. Those two teams, yeah. Right. So to me, the word is competent. The Eagles are just damn competent at this point. Tony, how am I going on that?

And I agree with everything you just said. I spent all late last night after this game, and as a game was waning, fighting with my friends from Philly, particularly my man Dwayne McKnight, one of my dearest friends, who I wanted to say, shut up. So I'm telling them now on national TV to shut his mouth.

Yeah. Because he represents a large part of Eagles, nation. And they're unhappy. They're unhappy because they don't score 70 points a game and they're not running up and down the field. I'm sorry, what wins championships we're told over the decades? Defense. You know what they did? They have

defense. You know what Gough did last night? Golf, raw numbers. Fourteen for 37. You know who's line that is? That's a J. Marant line at Oklahoma City. They took him out. Yeah. What else you want the Eagles to do? They win this way. Here's what's interesting. They are winning the close games in

way that Denver is. They are, whatever their record is, eight and two, nine, it doesn't really matter. They're plus 33 and point differential. That's 11th in the league. That's not awesome. And they're doing this. And as you say, they limited stuff. I would say that right now, they are without question the number one seed in the NFC because they've beaten the Rams. One. So they're, right? So if you are in Philadelphia, thank God they've stopped saying fire Nick Siriani. They've won 24 their last 27, including something we call the Super Bowl. So what more do you on. We've reached the time, Sad. I'm not saying they're great, but they're good.

There's so much just discussion and there's so much media that people just have to say something no matter how stupid it is and no matter how just uninformed it is. 24 and 3 and they've beaten all-comers.

They're the champ. They've welcomed whomever home or road and taken them out and people want more. With good defenses, this was a bad week for Donald and golf. is a bad week for them. And they were in the discussion. We will stay with the NFL here

and talk about a couple of seven and three teams, one of which is a complete surprise. The bills beat Tampa Bay yesterday in a fabulous shootout, rather, 44 to 32. Josh Allen personally accounted for six touchdowns and a fantasy football score of about six million. And your bears might beat Minnesota on a last second field goal,

beat them on the road in division. Well, but of course this question comes to you being a Bears fan. Which seven and three team do you think more highly of? This isn't close. It's Buffalo. Oh, come on. Have some guts.

Have some guts. Pick the bears. Pick the bears. See, here's what I do. I watch the Bears every snap. Like you watch the Nats. I do love the Nats. Except the Bears having a little better season than the Nats.

That's right. And I'm thrilled to win these games, even though you know, because you're on the phone with me. Late in the fourth quarter, how does this go every week? You're so angry. I want to fire and bench. Everybody. You want to fire everybody. Until the last quarter.

last play of the game. Yeah. And they win. Start the commanders, field goal, last play of the game. Raiders block field goal, last play of the game. This is what they do. God bless them.

I'm not going to complain. You beat the bad teams that are in front of you. And Joe Gibbs said something I know you and I agree with. We learn from it. We don't agree. It's Joe Gibbs. He said you win first, then you get good. And I keep hoping that for the bears.

But they're not Buffalo. Buffalo? One sentence, Buffalo beat Kansas City. We don't have to lead win like that. Look, this is a very gutless performance from you because you love the bears so much. And I wanted you to pick the bears so that I could say, in fact, I would have picked the bears myself, but it's an irrational pick. But just so I could get you to recount that at the beginning of the season and through the first two games, you said, I fear they're going to go 0 and 5. That's an exact one. So they went 0 and 2, and then they have won seven of their last eight games.

And amazingly, they are doing this. You know what their point differential is? Minus six. I do know. How is that possible? How could you have this record to be minus six? Well, they got blowed out by Detroit 52 to something. So that covers a lot of points right there.

And I think more highly of Buffalo. Buffalo had to win that game. Buffalo had lost to a terrible team in a terrible game Miami the week before. And Josh Allen knew that he had to be good or he would be lambasted for not being good. So how does six touchdown sound to you? It's something that you could use, right? The reigning MVP. But Tony, the Bears had to win that game

to go up to Minnesota after they left this rookie punk quarterback, and I say that, sort of loving because he's Chicago. 10 seconds. They lost to him. They had to beat him in a rematch. J.J. McCarthy. This is what I fear for you. I'm going to give you your upcoming schedule. I know the upcoming scale. Okay. So home Pittsburgh, which is winnable. We need to win that game. That's winnable.

Aaron Rogers at Philly at Green Bay. Doesn't look good. Home Cleveland winnable. Home Packers. We've got a split with the Packers. Can you get to 10? Yeah. Can you think Packers? Split with the Packers. Cleveland, Pittsburgh. You'll get 10?

I'm saying 10. 10. Yeah. Let's take a break. I get greedy. Coming up, should we focus more on the Ravens beating the Browns or should do our Sanders' struggles as the Cleveland quarterback? And Oklahoma beating Alabama grabbed the headlines, but was there a more compelling

story in college football this weekend? Can I say this? What's that? Tampa Bay is a good team. They're missing a lot of parts. They are. The Buffalo's win is a good. They're at home. They need to win.

Part in the Interruption is presented by Crown Royal. Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. Welcome back to Part in the Interruption, presented by Crown Royal, part of Happy Hour. It is time to hear moans from the masses in mail time. Let me get the first one and put on my glasses so I can read it. Here we go.

What was your bigger takeaway from the Ravens Browns games? The Ravens winning again. or Shador Sanders struggling in his debut. It was all about Shadour. The Ravers were going to win this game. It's about Shador, with apologies to Miles Garrett, who is the greatest thing ever. But Shadour comes in, and the only energy you've seen in that stadium

in about three years came when that kid goes in the lineup. And he goes in, and he has a couple completed passes, and he gets sacked, he throws a pick. And after the game, you realize that Kevin Stafansky, even though he's your backup quarterback coming in this game, He hasn't allowed this kid to have one snap with the regulars. And he has to admit this. And all these coaches double down on what they do to put their players in an advantageous position.

This is garbage. And by the way, let me go back and Rip Dan Campbell for having his quarterback. And he calls the plays now golf. Throw it 37 times with Gibbs and Montgomery. That's bad coaching in a one-score game with those guys. I don't want to hear it. And by the way, the officiant. in that game was garbage, too.

So let's not forget any of that. But Chador, what is his coach doing to him? Let me make sure you have Stefansky is garbage. You have Campbell as garbage. You have an officiating crew as garbage. Yesterday. So I'm going to be brief. I'm going to be brief about Chador Sanders.

Okay. Who I would like to like. It was terrible. He was. He was terrible. He was. He was 4 of 16 for 47 yards and a bad interception. I assume he'll be better the next time because he cannot be worse the next time.

But I want to get to something that you and I talked about on the podcast. this morning. I gave you a bunch of teams. I gave you the Rams, the Eagles, the Packers, the Broncos, the Bills, and I said what was the best win? And you said the Broncos. And I understand that. The best win yesterday was the Baltimore Ravens, because had they lost that game to a bad team, they're four and six, and

they're actually done. The Steelers, we don't know what... They would have been done because everything was momentum with them, and they would have been derailed, but they won the game, and not only did they win the game, they won the game on a brilliant call. They put the top tight end under center as if it's a tush push.

Yes. And he runs around on the right hand side. He goes 35 yards. Mark Anders for a touchout. Brilliant. Brilliant. The other moves? Stafansky, not brilliant, never giving that kid a snap.

And they all had to admit it. Don't go there with me. Don't look stupid to you. Stafansky's a Pennsylvania grad. Don't go there. Don't go there. He was like other Pennsylvania grads yesterday. Penn.

What was your most compelling result? of the college football weekend. Okay. So I could go for Oklahoma beating Alabama at Alabama because I didn't see that. I didn't see that. I didn't see that coming is what I mean. I saw the game. I could say,

or I can go for Georgia beating Texas 35 to 10, and we need to stop talking about Archmanning with our expectations. We need to stop about that. I could go for Indiana in the Big Ten beating Wisconsin 31-7 because Mr. Mendoza went 22 of 24 with 4th. Wisconsin's not. No, that's a high. This is two Heisman weeks in a row for that kid.

The Penn State game. But what I'm going to go for is Texas A&M. Texas A&M down 30 to three at the half to South Carolina. Now, when they come back, South Carolina did not give this game away. They didn't fumble it. They didn't throw it away. The other team scored 28-0 in the second half. So for the second week in a row, we have had an unbeaten team, almost upset,

grandly upset. And they come through. This is Indiana against Penn State and this Texas A&M in South Carolina. Look, I watched the South Carolina Texas. Please talk about Northwestern. It was fabulous. No, because that game brought me... Anger. Yes, great anger. Tremendous anger. We had Michigan

beat in Wrigley Field. Where I'm told, and I've not looked this up, somebody can correct me, can be omissions, that Northwestern has never won a game at Wrigley. So let's get the hell out of there even though we got Minnesota and Wrigley this week. No, the game, the most compelling win was Oklahoma. It's at Alabama. It's at.

Which means they'll be now trying to fire. Last week, they wanted to extend their head coach. DeBoer. For six years. And they lose a game. And now they're going on fire. And they're still in the running for the playoffs. Yeah, but now they got no margin for error.

That's right. That's a great win. by Oklahoma. Do you think that there will eventually be a three-lost team from the SEC in these playoffs? This year. Yeah, they'll do it. The committee is possible. It's gutless. It's gutless. As a room

together, you can justify anything with the SEC or Big Ten because the pressure is there anyway. It's such a double G day for you, gutless and garbage. I'm very proud of you. Got email. Let's take one last break. Still to come. The Falcons get bad news on Michael Pennix, Jr.

And the Sixth Star, Michael. guy ready to return to the lineup. Remember what I told you early this morning? I don't want to hear about the Falcons anymore, the charges anymore. I just don't want to hear about them. I get that. You know, they're just, stop. What's Dan Campbell doing going that many times before now?

Coach this game. Part of the interruption is presented by Crown Royal. Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. Happy time, people. Happy 81st birthday Jim Beaheim. Bayheim is our longtime pal. even if he deliberately refers to my Binghamton Bearcats as the Bobcats.

So funny. He is one of the greatest college basketball coaches ever. Beheim is in both the college basketball and the Naismith Halls of Fame. Bayheim put Syracuse on the national map. He coached his alma mater of five final fours and won at all in 2003 when Carmelo Anthony was a freshman. Bayheim was also an assistant coach on three United States Olympic gold medal basketball teams. Bayheim is now an adjunct professor at Syracuse teaching sports management. We wonder what his lectures are like.

So he tells stories about Mello and Pearl Washington and Derek Coleman. Is Beehim a tough grader? Can you get an A if you insult Georgetown in St. John's? Speaking of that, I'm honored to have been there to have covered the Big East in those years. Jim Beheim and Big John and Luke Carnaceka

and Raleigh, and Jim Kellyan. All of them. All of them. All of them. Rick Patina. By the way, who was his best player? Beheim's best player. His best college player was Pearl Washington.

player was Pearl Washington. He wasn't a great pro, but it was... Carmelo made... Shouted us, but we're going with Pearl. Happy Anniversary Bill Cartwright. On this day, 44 years ago, the then-Nick's center tied Bob Pettettit's NBA record of 19 straight free throws made without a miss. The memorable thing about Cartwright was his unique free throw technique. It was a series of staccato mechanical moves that ended with his arms extended over his head as he flicked the ball awkwardly towards the basket. Despite this routine, that seemed to become less winsome in his later years as the starring starting center on the Bulls first three-peat

squad cartwright shot a very respectable 77 percent from the line for career card right was a great college player at the University of San Francisco he remains the school's all-time leading scorer did you like him the bulls ring of honor which he should go into he anchored that team when they traded him from new york and the Bulls gave up charles oakley people went crazy at first but it made room for Cartwright and young Horace Grant. Okay. And that's strategy.

So let me ask the question. You have to credit them. With the first three-peed better than the second three-pe. I think the 92 team was greater than the 96 team. There's an icon goat who laughs at me when I say this. Happy Trails. Michael Pennington. He's an ending knee injury during Saturday's loss to the Panthers.

He will seek out a second opinion but is out at least four weeks. Pennix was 13 for 16 for 175 yards before getting hurt with just over five minutes left in the third quarter. Kirk Cousins came in. He went six of 14 for 48 yards. The Steelers got better news about their injured quarterback. Aaron Rogers has a fractured left wrist but is pushing to play on Sunday against your bears. Good. Good. I want to see him at Soldier Field. Let's see if he still owns us. Let's go. All right, one update. Northwestern is indeed winless at Wrigley Field and a few omissions. Jimar Chase suspended one game for spitting on Jalen Ramsey.

Victor Wembenyama has a strained careful miss a few weeks. No! And Virginia Tech and James Franklin are finalizing an agreement for him to become the school's next head football. That seems like a good fit, James Franklin and Virginia Tech to me. Wemba Nama missing a few weeks, I hate that. But I understand the precaution you take, given what that injury put on. How about Jamar Chase getting a... More than one game.

Yeah. Spitting. Because, you know, we've already had this this year, and a guy got suspended from the Eagles. No, more than one game. It's awful. You covered everything we need to cover? Let's go to the big finish. Let's do it.

Paul George, expected to make his season debut tonight at the Clippers. Is that a big deal? I don't know if it's a big deal. The Clippers are falling and they can't get up, but I'm excited to see Paul George. The Jets are benching Justin Fields for Tyrod Taylor. Does that make sense to you? Yes. Justin Fields doesn't gain any yards when he completes passes. The Jets are last in the league in passing.

Jake Paul will fight former heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua. on December 19th. He must be intrigued. No. Jake Paul interests me, not at all. Manthy Joshua, what happened to him? He was on the way up to something and never got there. Monday night football tonight.

Speaking of two fraudulent teams, Cowboys at Raiders, who you got? This would have been a great game in the 70s. That's right. And the 80s. The 90s. It's not a... Nothing now. I think it'll have great numbers, but it's not a great game.

But I will take the Cowboys. The Pistons go for their 10th straight win tonight to like their chances. Against the pace. In the sisters in Detroit? They're hurting. They have no bad for them. But we know they don't have players. Right.

So the pistons will keep rolling. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corny. And I'm Mike Will Bond. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.