Broncos Struggle Past Chiefs

To most observers, the Denver Broncos won ugly, but to Coach Dan Reeves it was a thing of beauty.

Coming off blowout losses of 39-21 and 55-23, Reeves was more than happy with a ragged 17-11 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday.

“We played hard, we hustled and we avoided the turnovers that can hurt you,” Reeves said. “I felt we took a step in the right direction.

“Right now, we’re tied for first in the division. We’ve got a long way to go, but if we can get the execution from our players we did today, we’ll be all right.”

The Broncos (5-5) climbed into a tie in the AFC West with Seattle, which lost to Buffalo, and the Raiders. Kansas City (1-8-1) hasn’t won in 8 weeks, since a 20-13 win over Denver.

John Elway threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Vance Johnson, and Sammy Winder added another score on a 1-yard run to pace Denver.

“I was probably more nervous before this game than I was before our two Super Bowls because we are not sky-high on confidence,” Elway said. “My confidence was probably at an all-time low.

“It was good to get that passing game going again. We’re getting that feeling back.”

Elway’s scoring pass and Winder’s touchdown run staked the Broncos to a 14-2 lead, which the Chiefs cut into on the first of 3 field goals by Nick Lowery.

Kansas City got within 14-8 on Lowery’s 29-yard field goal in the third quarter. Tony Dorsett’s apparent 32-yard touchdown run was nullified by an illegal-formation penalty early in the fourth quarter, and the Broncos settled for a 42-yard field goal by Rich Karlis to make it 17-8 with 13:58 left.

Lowery kicked a 34-yard field goal with 8:50 left.

On two occasions, the Chiefs drove inside the Denver 10-yard line but came away with no points on a pass interception by Denver’s Mike Harden and a fumble recovery by Rick Dennison.