Thursday's Christmas night showdown between the Broncos and Chiefs seemed set up for Denver to vent any frustrations built up over the past decade of Kansas City dominance in the AFC West.
The Chiefs, eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since 2014, were down to their third-string quarterback and had placed many of their best players, such as wide receiver Rashee Rice and cornerback Trent McDuffie, on injured reserve ahead of the game.
Instead, the remnants of a dynasty made a stand at Arrowhead Stadium, pushing the Broncos to a halftime deficit and knotting the game halfway through the fourth quarter before Denver put together a resilient game-winning drive -- aided by a fortunate fourth-down bluff and a subsequent score -- to emerge victorious, 20-13.
"It's great to get that win," head coach Sean Payton said. "You always have to remember this, man, you're playing the heart of a champion. Andy (Reid) and this team, I don't care who comes out of that locker room."
It was a win reminiscent of perhaps too many of Denver's 13 victories this season, as the Broncos eked out their 11th one-possession triumph. The marches, long and too often fruitless early on, allowed Payton's crew to hold the ball for 39:28 of game time, nearly double Kansas City's time of possession in QB Chris Oladokun's first start.
Denver's 71 offensive plays amounted to a slow burn, gaining an average of 4.3 yards.
But, Payton noted, winning formulas don't have to be pretty.
"It doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing to be effective," the head coach told reporters. "I've said that before. That's all that's important."
And this one certainly wasn't.
The Broncos opened the game with a 14-play, 56-yard drive before settling for a field goal. After an interception and a punt, they pieced together another possession that lasted 16 plays and went 84 yards before again ending with Wil Lutz unsatisfyingly kicking one through the uprights following a stall.
After finally putting together a third-quarter touchdown drive, another long odyssey consisting of 14 plays against a defense limiting the explosives but vulnerable to smaller, hard-earned chunks of yardage, Bo Nix and Co. were stopped once more, which allowed the Chiefs to tie the game, 13-13, with 8:03 remaining in the final frame.
The Broncos responded with their fourth drive of the game consisting of 14 plays or more.
It was the 12th play of that possession, a fourth-and-2 at the Chiefs' 9-yard line, that determined the tenor of game's waning moments.
Denver's offense lined up to go for it, but never actually called a play.
"We were gonna take the penalty, kick the field goal," Payton said. That was the plan."
The plan went awry -- only to the detriment of the Chiefs -- when defensive lineman Chris Jones committed a neutral zone infraction to give Denver a first down four yards out from pay dirt.
Two snaps later and the Broncos were in the end zone after Nix scrambled right and zipped a pass to running back RJ Harvey.
"To score seven greatly changes the dynamic with their kicker," Payton said. "You know how the kicking game is, like you're starting right at the 35 average, so it greatly changed the outcome of the game that they needed a touchdown."
Kansas City indeed started at the 35-yard line, and Oladokun put together his longest drive of the night with Patrick Mahomes watching from a press box. He scrambled for seven yards and hit Travis Kelce three times for 23 yards in what could perhaps be the tight end's final home game as a Chief. Kareem Hunt also contributed a 14-yard rumble.
The collective Kansas City effort got the ball as far as Denver's 21-yard line, certainly close enough for Harrison Butker, who had already converted field goals of 53 and 47 yards, to send the contest to overtime had the Chiefs only trailed by three. A false start following a second-down spike then moved the Chiefs back, and two more incompletions ended their comeback bid.
The difference came down to cashing in on the successful fourth-down bluff and holding against a TD effort instead of a field goal one.
As they have all season, the Broncos won the game of inches.
Though it could be argued they should have put their opponent away much earlier, and that the Broncos can't escape this way forever, their consistent Houdini act has them positioned as the leader for the AFC's No. 1 seed and a Chargers loss away from clinching the AFC West.
When asked if it would be weird to secure the division watching from the couch on Saturday should Los Angeles lose to the Texans, Payton shared no qualms.
"It would be relaxing," he said. "It would be nice."
Should the Chargers win, though, Denver and L.A. will meet in a winner-take-all Week 18 showdown for the division.
That would be a game both the Broncos and their fans would certainly prefer to win in a more "relaxing" fashion.
Then again, they've walked the tightrope as they did in Week 17 to stellar results all year.
