Each week of the NFL season, I’ll grade each AFC West team’s performance with a report card that tells the truth. Offense, defense, and overall performance will be measured accordingly. My grades aren’t about the box scores, though – they’ll reflect how well a team plays each opponent, adapts and adjusts (situational football), and whether they’re flying the W or the L. Consider this my running weekly audit of each team, dabbed with observations and armchair insight.
AFC West Grades for NFL Week 17
Denver Broncos (vs. Chiefs)
Offense: B+
The first three quarters were clunky and way too conservative, but the only thing that matters in December is whether you can finish – and Bo Nix finished. Spreading touches around kept Kansas City from keying on one guy, and it gave Denver enough answers to avoid the one-dimensional trap. It wasn’t a fireworks show, but it was a closer’s offense: survive, stay in it, then land the final punch.
Defense: A-
Denver did exactly what competent teams do against a third-string QB and a limping offense: choke the oxygen out of the game and don’t hand out free explosives. They controlled the line of scrimmage, kept the Chiefs boxed in, and forced Kansas City to live in short-yardage misery. You can nitpick a short-field score, but the bigger story is the defense made this game boring – and boring is deadly when the other team can’t move.
Overall: A-
Road win at Arrowhead, ended the drought, and handled business without playing their cleanest game – those are big-boy results. The coaching staff didn’t panic, the team didn’t chase style points, and the QB delivered when the game tightened. That’s playoff posture, even if the offense still has another gear it needs to find. Now, they battle the Chargers in Week 18 to remain the number one seed in the AFC and clinch a first-round bye in the playoffs.
