Field goal ends Broncos’ season

Now Mike Shanahan wishes he hadn’t gotten his wish.

Denver’s coach wanted Kansas City to win Sunday so that the Broncos wouldn’t back into the playoffs but be motivated to play their best football.

Instead, the Broncos tumbled into the off-season when Joe Nedney’s 36-yard field goal with 1:56 left in overtime sent the San Francisco 49ers past the stunned Broncos, 26-23.

“Well, you want to play your best football this time of year,” Shanahan said.

“If we played like we did today, we wouldn’t go very far in the playoffs. If we played like we did the last couple of weeks, we had a chance to do something special.”

Now, their AFC rivals in Kansas City will have that opportunity. Denver’s fifth loss in seven games made the Chiefs (9-7) the final wild-card team.

Had the Chiefs not beaten Jacksonville, the Broncos would be heading to the postseason, even with their loss.

All the Broncos (9-7) needed was a win over the double-digit underdog 49ers (7-9) or even a tie to earn a spot in the playoffs, but they couldn’t score on three trips inside the 49ers five-yard line and blew an early 13-0 lead.

“We had some opportunities early to put the game away,” Shanahan said. “Obviously, San Francisco did a fine job keeping us out.”

Said 49ers quarterback Alex Smith: “You better believe it felt good taking them out. If we were going to be home for the playoffs, we wanted them to be right with us.”

With a sputtering ground game, the Broncos were unable to run out the clock in overtime.

San Francisco got the ball back with 4:38 left in overtime and drove 42 yards to the Denver 18, where Nedney kicked his fourth field goal.

San Francisco Coach Mike Nolan said that if Chiefs Coach Herm Edwards gets a bonus for reaching the playoffs, “I want half of it.”

The Broncos sent the game into overtime when Cutler, knocked woozy and sidelined by a hard hit in the first half, drove his team 80 yards in 10 plays and threw a fastball to fellow rookie Tony Scheffler for a nine-yard touchdown with 90 seconds left in regulation.

“I was a little dinged up. My head was swimming a little bit,” Cutler said. “But I was fine in the second half.”

After Champ Bailey returned his league-leading 10th interception 70 yards for a touchdown and a 13-0 lead, the 49ers responded with 17 straight points, capped by Walt Harris’s 28-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Frank Gore, the NFC’s starting Pro Bowl running back, gained 153 yards in 31 carries and caught two more passes for 32 yards for San Francisco.