Worst Case Is Avoided

With the seconds ticking down and another opponent driving in a close game, the Denver Broncos were expecting the worst.

After three consecutive close losses -- two in overtime -- who could blame them?

But this time it had a different ending.

Clinton Portis overcame two first-half fumbles and tied a team record with four touchdowns and the Broncos held on to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 31-24, Sunday to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Denver (8-6) was the only AFC West team to win Sunday, moving into second place with San Diego, one game behind division-leading Oakland.

The Broncos dominated the Chiefs (7-7) early, but allowed 17 points in the fourth quarter and avoided overtime when Trent Green’s pass into the end zone was incomplete as time expired.

“As the game was winding down, I was saying, ‘Not another overtime game. I can’t take another overtime game,’ ” Bronco defensive tackle Lional Dalton said.

The Broncos, one of the AFC’s best teams after opening the season 7-3, had put their playoff hopes in jeopardy with four losses in five games. The three losses in a row were by a combined 12 points and Denver appeared headed toward another heartbreaker against Kansas City.

The Chiefs took over at their 39 with 1:50 left and drove to Denver’s 15 with 25 seconds left. But a leg-whip penalty on John Tait moved the Chiefs back to the 25, then Green failed on a pass attempt with five seconds.

Kansas City had one final shot, but Tyrone Poole knocked down Green’s pass.

The loss all but assured the Chiefs would miss the playoffs for the fifth year in a row.

“This was big,” said Green, who was 18 for 42 for 310 yards. “Once they flashed it up on the scoreboard that the other teams had lost, and knowing we play those two teams the next couple of weeks, it was very costly.”Kansas City’s Priest Holmes had 161 yards in 18 carries -- his fifth consecutive 100-yard game -- but limped off to the locker room with a hip injury early in the fourth quarter. He also remained four touchdowns behind Marshall Faulk’s NFL record of 26.