Sam McDowell: Chiefs beat the Broncos with a formula they've literally never used before

Sam McDowell, The Kansas City Star on Sep 15, 2026

Published in Football

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kenneth Walker attempted to turn the corner on fourth down, still literally two yards behind the scrimmage, still literally two yards from the Chiefs turning the ball over on their own half of the field, when quarterback Patrick Mahomes raised his arms in the air.

He knew.

He’s seen it.

But this team hadn’t seen a play like it in years.

And the organization hadn’t seen a win like this in at least three decades. Really.

The Chiefs destroyed the Broncos, a team that fell just a couple of snaps shy of playing in the Super Bowl, 31-10 in their season opener on “Monday Night Football.”

You could say it looked like the Chiefs are back, but you better be more specific, because the formula they invoked in front of a prime-time audience hasn’t been available to them for a long time now. You know, the formula in which Patrick Mahomes is merely a spectator holding his arms in the air, along for the ride just like the 75,000 inside the home stadium.

Mahomes started 2 for 12 through the air against the Broncos. In data that tracks back to 1999, the Chiefs had never won a game in which their quarterback started 2 for 12. In the last 25 years, it’s only happened six times in the entire league. Yet the Chiefs never trailed.

At long last, they have another path.

Walker.

He did turn the corner on that fourth-down play, and some 60 yards later, he had a touchdown. The Chiefs have turned a corner of their own.

The story of a 6-11 year without the playoffs became what surrounded Mahomes — or the lack thereof. That reality was made all the more obvious by the unwatchable football in the final three games without him.

The story of an opening-night win, the first installment of a retooling, is what surrounded Mahomes.

Same title.

Much different plot.

The pass rush has returned. The defense came with it. The Chiefs held the Broncos to 176 yards. They pressured quarterback Bo Nix at the second-highest rate he’s faced in his career.

But the real supporting cast operated as the main character. Walker had the 60-yard touchdown, yet even without it, he still would have cleared 100 yards. He finished with 173 yards on 23 carries, and he also caught a touchdown on a goal-line trick play, of sorts.

He generated 88 yards on explosive rushes alone (carries of 10-plus yards). A year ago, the Chiefs totaled 362. They found 24.3% of last year’s total all in one night.

He broke tackles. He made people miss in the open field. His “contact balance,” as Chiefs head coach Andy Reid refers to it, is “ridiculous.”

The Broncos missed 28 tackles in the game, per Next Gen Stats. Walker was responsible for 14 of those misses. To put that into context, Isiah Pacheco forced 13 missed tackles all year.

How good was Walker? So good that it’s taken me 500 words into this column to mention how bad the Chiefs’ passing game looked early and how little separation their receivers drew for most of the game. Their leading wide receiver — erase the running backs and tight end from the equation — totaled 19 yards.

Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton, Cyrus Allen and Jalen Royals combined for 37 yards.

On most nights for the Mahomes Era, that’s all we’d be covering here.

The return of Mahomes after offseason knee surgery is triumphant. But it is also quite apparently going to take a little bit before it looks familiar.

The 2 for 12 was every bit as ugly as it reads. He was over-striding, he said. He rushed some of his reads, though his third-down blitz read to fire a quick throw to Travis Kelce felt vintage. It’s all part of the process, he said after the game.

The Chiefs could afford, at least for an opener against a team that won the AFC West last season, to be patient and wait on that process. Think of that: The Chiefs could not only scrape by while the best quarterback in football tries to find himself but could turn the game into a laugher.

The Broncos were not complete defensively, but they allowed the fewest yards and points in the league last season. They’ve ranked top-three in the NFL for three straight seasons.

The Chiefs just hung 31 on them — after reaching that number only three times in the past two seasons combined. They hadn’t scored more than two touchdowns in a game against the Broncos in their past six meetings.

By the end of the blowout Monday, the job of Patrick Mahomes added a description we didn’t use over the last few years:

Easier.

In February, as he watched Walker lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl, Mahomes texted general manager Brett Veach.

We need this guy, the text said, in effect.

Veach was already on it. A few weeks later, the Chiefs were first out of the gate in free agency, signing Walker to the richest contract they handed out this offseason.

After the game Monday night, the Chiefs honored Veach with a game ball in the locker room. It represented his 200th career win in the NFL. Andy Reid has 150 of them with the Chiefs alone.

None came like this one.