Playing out their first season without a playoff berth since 2014 and with quarterback Chris Oladokun making his first NFL start, the Kansas City Chiefs stayed in the game until the end with the No. 1 team in the current AFC playoff standings on Thursday night.

But then, so do nearly all the Denver Broncos’ opponents. And like most of those opponents, the Chiefs lost.

Denver defeated Kansas City 20-13 to conclude the NFL’s Christmas tripleheader for the Broncos’ 11^th victory by eight or fewer points this season. Two of Denver’s losses fit that category, too.

At 13-3, the Broncos became the first NFL to reach 13 victories in 2025.

The Broncos won with two second-half touchdown possessions that used up more than half the time in the second half. Each lasted 14 plays and featured a fourth-down conversion.

“We got a bunch of two-high zone the whole game, and they put a lid on top of it, and they make it tough to find explosive plays,” Denver quarterback Bo Nix said. “So you just got to inch your way down the field. And I think, obviously, the plays we scored on, they were longer drives, a lot of plays, so we just did what we had to do, but that was a good defense. …

“This was one of those games you knew you weren’t going to, as you were playing it, you knew you weren’t going to throw for a lot of yards. You just see how many completions you can hit in a row and get the ball to playmakers in space and get first down after first down. And you knew they were going to put a lid on it. But patience is the key in a game like that. And really in this league, it’s all about patience and just one cut after another.”

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After Kansas City tied the score at 13-13 with 8:03 remaining, Denver took 6:18 to retake the lead on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Nix to running back RJ Harvey.

The Broncos offense lined up on fourth-and-2 at the Kansas City 9-yard line during the series and got the Chiefs to jump offside, which allowed Denver to take a seven-point lead with 1:45 remaining instead of a three-point advantage.

“It’s a no-brainer freeze, but it was at a different formation, one we’d never shown,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said about the fourth down. “We were going to take the delay of game, so we didn’t have a play. I don’t know why we called it Harrisburg. Because it looked like a play we have called Pittsburgh and no one moves in Harrisburg, I think that’s why. We just came up with that. And so it’s a unique one.”

The seven-point lead made a difference when Kansas City reached the Broncos 21-yard line on its final possession and had an incompletion into the end zone on fourth down instead of being able to tie the score with a field goal with 14 seconds left.

Nix completed 5-of-7 passes for 24 yards on the 65-yard series, including a 17-yard throw to wide receiver Lil’Jordan Humphrey on third-and-10 at the Chiefs 45-yard line.

Nix completed all six of his passes for 60 yards when Denver moved 72 yards for a touchdown after falling behind 10-6. Nix’s passes included a 23-yard connection with wide receiver Courtland Sutton that advanced the Broncos to the Kansas City 30-yard line.

On fourth-and-1 at the Chiefs 10, Nix picked up the yardage with a quarterback sneak, then ran 9 yards to the end on the next snap as Denver took a 13-10 lead with 1:55 left in the third quarter.

A former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn standout, Nix completed 26-of-38 passes for 182 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran nine times for 42 yards and one touchdown as the Broncos ended a nine-game losing streak at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I thought he came up with some really big plays,” Payton said. “In that soft zone, even though it’s zone, there was some 8-yard scampers that were really important. …

“They were going to force us to rope-a-dope a little bit, if you will, and we made enough plays.”

A former Samford QB, Oladokun completed 13-of-22 passes for 66 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and ran for 11 yards on two carries. In his fourth season on the Kansas City practice squad, Oladokun played his second game as a member of the Chiefs’ 53-man active roster and made his first NFL start after starter Patrick Mahomes sustained a season-ending knee injury on Dec. 14 and Gardner Minshew did the same on Sunday.

Oladokun threw his first NFL touchdown pass to running back Brashard Smith as the Chiefs took a 7-3 lead with 12:49 left in the first half.

“It’s great to get that win,” Payton said, “and you always have to remember this: Man, you’re playing the heart of a champion, and, you know, (coach) Andy (Reid) and this team, I don’t care who comes out of that locker room, this is a team that basically has been at the top of our league for the better part of this century and so there’s a ton of respect we have for what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Denver set a record-high temperature on Christmas Day, breaking the all-time mark, set in 2005.

High temperatures on Thursday reached 70 degrees at Denver International Airport, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder. That bested the 69-degree record set 20 years ago.

The Mile High City has been shattering temperature records this winter amid unseasonably warm conditions.

DENVER –The Nuggets have played on Christmas Day 11 times in their storied history. The Broncos have done so only four times. This year is only the second time that both teams are playing on the same Christmas day, and sports bars are getting ready.

“It almost makes you feel like you’re at the game,” said Adis Mizic, Kitchen Manager at Tom’s Watch Bar in Denver, where they’ll be having giveaways and a live DJ to get the crowd feeling festive. “The energy in this, it’s just amazing… that’s kind of the whole point. We want you to feel like you’re at the game.”

At Chopper’s Sports Grill in Denver, Christmas came early. Owner Frankie Schultz and his team just installed a 350-inch LED screen to handle the demand of such successful sports teams.

“Literally, we just got it up this morning,” Schultz said. “It’s pieces that go together, but it’s seamless, and we’re really excited about it.”

Management at both of the sports bars are appreciative of those who volunteered to work on Christmas. Tom’s Watch Bar is supplying their employees with a special meal, and Chopper’s will have their kitchen closed, but with premade snacks available.

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With low staffing, and unsure of how many patrons are going to show up on Christmas, Schultz hopes people will be willing to cut businesses some slack this holiday season.

“We’re going try to do what we can,” Schultz said, laughing. “We don’t know if it’s going to be five people or 200 but… it’s a holiday, so hopefully we get some forgiveness.”

The day of Denver7 Christmas sports starts off tomorrow with three NBA games, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Pregame coverage of the Broncos-Chiefs game starts at 5:30, with kickoff at 6:00 p.m.

The Nuggets-Timberwolvse game gets underway at 8:30 p.m. It will start on The Spot Denver3 until the football game is over. Then, it will move to Denver7 for the remainder of the game and news after.

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