Kansas City Chiefs good, bad and ugly from loss to Denver Broncos

Before the game I would have told you that keeping the score within 10 points would be a big win for the Kansas City Chiefs. And many people would have agreed with me.

Of course that's not how it actually in the real world. When your team loses, it sucks. That's the way KC Chiefs fans feel after the 24-17 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 2. The Chiefs were so, so close.

Let's take a look at the good, bad and ugly from the game.

Good

The Chiefs were two yards away from beating the Broncos without their best offensive (Jamaal Charles) and defensive (Derrick Johnson) player.

The Chiefs offense came up with third down after third down. They were 11-of-16 on the day. I can remember one drive where they had five third down conversions, including three of them over 10 yards (with some help on Broncos penalties). When they needed it on third down, the Chiefs offense was delivering. When was the last time we could say that about a Chiefs offense?

Travis Kelce had 81 yards on four catches. He played more and continued to look for real. Kelce's catches: 17, 24, 20 and 20 yards. He makes big plays.

The Chiefs held the Broncos to seven second half points. Just 24 on the game. The Broncos had 24 or less points three times last season.

The Chiefs had some big individual plays on the defensive line, including Kevin Vickerson stuffing Montee Ball in the backfield and Jaye Howard making plays.

The Chiefs offensive line both in the rushing game (133 yards rushing) and pass protection (two sacks) were solid.

Bad

The first drive of the game was bad for the Chiefs. The first one was a 48-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders and the last one was a perfect touchdown pass to Julius Thomas.

Peyton Manning was 21-of-26. That's incredibly efficient.

I don't remember hearing Justin Houston's name at all.

Ugly

Injuries. If the Chiefs lose Jamaal Charles or Eric Berry for an extended period, it's really bad news.

Andy Reid punting it on 4th-and-1 from midfield. This was midway through the second quarter. The Chiefs were down 14-10. I said the Chiefs should go for it so they didn't let the Broncos get it back and go down and score another touchdown (which they did). The Chiefs were averaging over six yards per carry at that point. Puzzling.

That missed field goal from Cairo Santos was troublesome. It was only 37 yards. That should be three points. In a game like this, you can't give up free points. Notice that we only care about kickers when they miss field goals as he made a 45-yard one in the game, too.