The gameplan, Sean Payton emphasized late Thursday night, did not have to be aesthetically pleasing to be effective. It was effective enough. The Broncos beat a shorthanded Chiefs team 20-13 at Arrowhead Stadium, on Christmas. But aesthetics or not, Denver continues to dance with fire, sitting at 13-3 with one game left to control their fate in the AFC.

Here’s The Denver Post’s stock report from a not-so-barnburner. A barn-cooler.

Stock up

Quinn Meinerz, mauling: Meinerz is a Pro Bowler for the first time this season for a reason. His omission in 2024 was a major oversight, and Meinerz hasn’t been quite as good in pass protection in 2025. But the Broncos’ right guard has again been one of the elite run-blockers in the business, and the big man put Chiefs star linebacker Nick Bolton in purgatory for long stretches Thursday.

It begun near-immediately, Meinerz tossing Bolton aside on the second play of the game to open up a first-down carry for RJ Harvey. It carried through for four quarters, Meinerz swatting Bolton aside at the second level to propel Jaleel McLaughlin for a 15-yard pop in the second half. The guard has consistently been the most important run-blocking piece on this Denver front, and he showed why again in an ugly game Thursday.

Bo Nix, using his legs: The Broncos’ second-year quarterback has pivoted strongly away from scrambling to run in his rookie season to scrambling to throw in his sophomore season. It’s often resulted in magic. It’s also resulted in incompletions, when Nix could’ve picked up chunk yardage with his legs. This played out again Thursday, as Nix climbed the pocket on one first-half third down with green grass in front of him — but chose instead to fire a wonky-footed ball to Courtland Sutton on a drag, his laser landing just a hair too long for Sutton’s outstretched fingertips.

Payton said postgame that Nix himself had “made a comment” to him that he could’ve tucked it and ran, and Payton reminded him the same.

“I said, ‘Man,’ ” Payton recalled, “‘you got running room here.’ ”

So Nix adjusted, with a 14-yard scramble and two chunk 8-yard pickups from the second quarter on. He darted in for a third-quarter touchdown, too, on a designed QB draw, the kind of call that Payton has largely saved for special red-zone occasions this season. The combination of Nix’s legs and processing is his greatest asset in this Denver offense, and Thursday’s performance could’ve unlocked more awareness from him to take 8-yard scrambles when they’re available.

P.J. Locke: After a no-questions-about-it rough performance in his first start of the season against the Jaguars on Sunday, Locke leveled up against the Chiefs on Christmas. He was involved in a few defensive miscommunications against Jacksonville, as quarterback Trevor Lawrence looked his way a few times; there were no such obvious occasions against Kansas City on Thursday. Locke allowed just two catches on three targets for a combined total of zero yards to the Chiefs, and came up with a huge third-down tackle for loss in the third quarter.

Yes, the Broncos were taking on a third-string quarterback in Chris Oladokun, who finished with a total of 66 passing yards. But Locke’s performance in Brandon Jones’ stead was still plenty encouraging.

The cleanup crew: Over the past five weeks — a non-insignificant sample size — Broncos reserve outside linebackers have been more productive than their $100-million-plus starting tandem of Nik Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper. It’s a point that production by the star edge duo has slowed — they’ve combined for just 3.5 sacks in that timeframe as late-season wear and tear has taken its toll. More importantly, it’s a point that Jonah Elliss and Dondrea Tillman are playing fresh, a welcome development as the Broncos head into the postseason.

The pair single-handedly shut down one Kansas City third-quarter drive, with all the momentum swinging the Chiefs’ way after a questionable-at-best pass-interference call on Pat Surtain. Elliss and Tillman got in for a split sack on Oladokun on first down, and then Elliss made a ridiculously athletic play in the flat to swallow up a short dump-off to JuJu Smith-Schuster on 3rd-and-long. Inspiring stuff.

After gritting through an injury-plagued season, Elliss has 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and two tackles for loss across the past three weeks. Tillman continues to show he’ll play in this league for a while, with four sacks, two interceptions and eight quarterback hits in his past 10 outings. This is a sneaky-important piece to a larger puzzle of Vance Joseph’s defensive success.

Stock down

Nix vs. two-high safety looks: Payton made clear postgame that the Chiefs played heavy doses of soft zone against Nix, an approach by defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo that turned out “differently than you thought going in,” as Payton said. It threw Nix off for long stretches in the first half, before he settled in for a 13-of-16 line in the second half and took a couple more shots.

The NFL is a copycat league, though, and defenses in the coming weeks could look at what Spanguolo did to limit Nix — who finished 26-of-38 for 182 yards, a touchdown and an interception — and throw some guardrails on the Broncos’ offense come playoff time. Nix took what the defense gave him a few too many times in the first half, ignoring some promising deep outs for receivers like Courtland Sutton and Lil’Jordan Humphrey in favor of short dump-offs. Denver needs to self-scout here to avoid getting stuck in the mud.

Hands: That Nix performance, though, was belied by a simple fact: his receivers didn’t much help him out in the first half. Courtland Sutton had two drops on would-be touchdown balls on the same drive in the second quarter. He tightened up in the second half, but this is becoming a worrisome trend for Denver’s offense.

The Broncos now sit at one more game played than most of the rest of the league, and pass it more often than most of the rest of the league, too. Still, Denver’s now tied with Jacksonville for the most drops (36) of any team in the NFL in 2025, according to Pro Football Focus. It’s a symptom of a young receiver room, and occasional timing issues with Nix. But Denver’s offense can’t afford to so consistently leave opportunities on the table.

Nik Bonitto: The Broncos’ star outside linebacker played within himself Thursday night and largely did his job in a cage-rush-heavy gameplan, with three pressures against the Chiefs. The goal was not to get sacks, as Payton said postgame. So Bonitto’s declining sack pace — 4.5 sacks in his last 10 games after 8 in his first six — shouldn’t be much of a concern. What should be a concern is the effort, production, and clear decline in overall explosiveness.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With a little nod, a little flick of the eyebrows, Alex Forsyth acknowledged fate.

He is a believer, he affirmed in a dingy locker room in Kansas City, the place that could’ve broken him. A believer in what, he didn’t say. He simply believes things happen for a reason. And that meant Thursday night on Christmas must’ve happened for a reason, 411 days since the special-teams rep that made him infamous.

“It was just a special, special day,” Forsyth said. “Special night.”

The cards fell. On Monday, three days before a return to Arrowhead Stadium, reserve offensive lineman Forsyth found out he’d be starting at center for the Broncos. And starting for a while, in the most critical juncture of the season for Denver. Incumbent Luke Wattenberg had a shoulder injury, bad enough to land him on injured reserve. Forsyth would need to stare down the Chiefs, and with All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones.

Forsyth, too, would need to stare down the memory of a play he acknowledged he could “never forget.”

On Nov. 14, 2024, a younger Broncos team was poised to shatter a streak of eight straight losses to the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Kicker Wil Lutz set up for a 35-yard field goal with Denver down 16-14 and a second left to play. Ex-punter Riley Dixon set up a hold, and Lutz swung. But on the snap, Chiefs outside linebacker Leo Chenal bowled Forsyth over.

Chenal swatted Lutz’s try away. Ballgame. Broncos tight end Lucas Krull stood on the sideline, head on hands. Denver had its most painful loss of the season, and one of its most painful losses to the Chiefs in a recent franchise history of painful Chiefs losses, and Forsyth was the goat.

“It’s always tough to come back from that — kinda get your mind off it, as much as you want to say focus on the next game and stuff,” Forsyth reflected on Thursday. “After a game like last year’s, it’s always tough to bounce back.”

That being said?

“Can’t let a bad play,” Forsyth noted, “ruin a career.”

And the story of Forsyth bloomed Thursday night, in a 20-13 win that served as some vindication for the entire franchise after a decade of misery at Arrowhead — and vindication for Forsyth. The Broncos’ offensive front surrendered just one sack and six hits on quarterback Bo Nix in a grind-it-out affair, and Forsyth, Nix’s teammate back at Oregon in 2022, was at the center. Jones did not beat him. Chenal was hurt. Forsyth opened up holes in the run game, with the Broncos totaling 128 yards on the ground.

He earned a game ball in the process, as the Broncos’ front didn’t skip a beat without Wattenberg.

“It was a tough trip home last year,” head coach Sean Payton said postgame, on Forsyth. “And it’s a little life lesson for someone like him to come back. And starting role, that was pretty cool.”

Payton dismissed Denver’s decade-long struggles at Arrowhead as “someone else’s demons.” Not the demons of this particular Broncos team. But in a way, those demons only piled on Forsyth’s shoulders after surrendering that field-goal block in 2024. Enough criticism floated Forsyth’s way that Nix and guard Quinn Meinerz came to their teammate’s very vocal defense.

Facing those demons again, Meinerz knows, is hard. The Broncos’ last time playing on Christmas came in Meinerz’ second season in 2022, when Denver got blitzed by the Rams 51-14. Even the prospect of playing again on such a holiday three years later, Meinerz told The Post, brought anxiety.

“Everybody gets scars a couple times here and there throughout their career,” Meinerz reflected.

Forsyth has scars deeper than most. Still, his Instagram and Twitter bios read “RIP Dad,” the man who’s served an inspiration in his journey. In general, the center is “extremely mentally tough,” as Meinerz said. And in warm-ups, as the memory of 2024 could’ve descended along with twisting tendrils of fog at Arrowhead, Forsyth didn’t pay much mind to the past.

“I gotta flush it, and move on,” he said postgame.

Since he was drafted in the seventh round in 2023, that sheer professionalism has endeared Forsyth to those in his room and beyond. Take Meinerz.

“Alex was ready for this moment,” the All-Pro guard told The Denver Post, on Thursday night.

Or take right tackle Mike McGlinchey.

“He works as hard as anybody in the (expletive) building,” McGlinchey said. “He’s been waiting for his opportunity to come in and do what he needed to do and there was never a doubt from us that that was how it was going to go today.”

Or take Nix himself, who gushed over Forsyth at the podium Thursday, after the Broncos’ second-year quarterback finished 26-of-38 for 182 yards, a touchdown and an interception in the Chiefs win.

“Nobody prepares more in this league than he does,” Nix said. “I would say that he’s one of the most in-depth preparers I’ve ever seen. And it’s awesome to play behind him.

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.”