Sports
Broncos heartbroken by blocked field goal loss to Chiefs: ‘We were right there’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mike McGlinchey turned around, spotted his rookie quarterback and let out a guttural yell.
Bo Nix had just found Courtland Sutton for a third-down conversion late in the fourth quarter, putting the Denver Broncos in position to slay the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs. McGlinchey, the veteran right tackle, pumped his fist as he and right guard Quinn Meinerz embraced Nix. Under two minutes remained after the play that gave the Broncos a first down at the Chiefs’ 17-yard line. The home team was out of timeouts. A couple of run plays and a kneeldown and the Broncos would be in position to end a losing streak at Arrowhead Stadium that has lasted nine agonizing years. The Broncos had outplayed the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, coach Sean Payton said afterward, and all they needed was one kick to make that count.
Thirty minutes later, the Broncos were left only to grapple with the most excruciating loss many of them had ever experienced.
“This is something that’s going to be hard to forget about,” cornerback Pat Surtain II said. “We were right there.”
IT’S BLOCKED! @CHIEFS WIN! STILL UNDEFEATED! pic.twitter.com/hMLhAgbRpf
— NFL (@NFL) November 10, 2024
The locker room scene told the story of devastation — the kind only a loss suffered this way could inflict. Evidence of the hurt welled in the eyes of players at all positions and all experience levels. Where words failed, the long stares, puffy eyes and bewildered expressions illustrated the pain.
“Games like this are supposed to hurt, man,” defensive tackle Malcolm Roach said of Denver’s 16-14 loss. “We see the faces on everybody in this locker room. It’s supposed to hurt because we’re so invested, man. Everybody works their tail off every day, and we see it. If you’re not invested in it, it wouldn’t feel this way. It wouldn’t feel this bad. We know where we want to go, where we’re trying to go, where we’re fighting to go. We’ve got to give this city something to be proud of.”
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The Broncos sacked Patrick Mahomes four times and pressured him relentlessly. They forced Kansas City to kick field goals on three of its four trips into the red zone. Nix led the Broncos on two of the season’s prettiest drives — both ending in touchdown passes by the rookie quarterback — to stake Denver to an early 14-3 lead. Then, after scuttling through much of the second half, he led the Broncos on a final drive that lasted nearly six minutes, chewing all of the remaining clock before leaving the field. He settled in to watch what he expected would be a game-winning 35-yard field goal by Wil Lutz.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Nix said. “They just made one extra play.”
In a blink, hope died. Hope of the first win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium since 2015. Hope of a victory that would have given the Broncos a 6-4 record and a huge boost in the chase for an elusive playoff spot. Hope that they had done enough to finally pin the team that always seems to find an escape hatch.
It was all extinguished when linebacker Leo Chenal bulldozed Broncos offensive lineman Alex Forsyth and other Chiefs rushed in from the left side. Chenal blocked the kick just after it left Lutz’s right foot. The Chiefs streamed onto the field in celebration. Mahomes sprinted through the end zone, hands open wide, as a delirious crowd roared. Payton said the final play was caused by “penetration from the left side,” but he didn’t delve any further.
“It didn’t go in,” Lutz said. “That was my vantage point. We’re all still trying to take it in right now.”
Nix took a deep breath and stared at the sky. Other Broncos stood in their spots, coming to grips with the heartbreaking reality.
“It hurts,” McGlinchey said. “That would have been a good one. And we would have won it the right way, from a full-team perspective. I think our defense played their butts off today to hold them to 16 points. We had a couple opportunities in the second half offensively that we could have done a better job with to get the lead going and make the game more in our control. To do what we did on that last drive and essentially do what you thought would end the game — and then, you know, you can’t fall asleep on one play. It can change the face of the game. It can change the face of a season.”
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Had the wall held and Lutz’s kick sailed through — he has missed only two of 34 kicks under 40 yards since joining the Broncos in 2023, and both were Chiefs blocks — the Broncos would have celebrated a resilient performance by their defense. The unit harassed Kansas City’s two-time MVP quarterback and responded when Mahomes created magic. The Chiefs scored a touchdown on a fourth-and-goal play at the 2-yard line — a drive that was extended after a questionable illegal contact call on safety Brandon Jones on third down — but settled for field goals on their other three trips inside the 20-yard line, including two inside the 10. The Broncos limited the Chiefs to just 57 yards on 19 carries. The Broncos have allowed only two Chiefs touchdowns in their past two games at Arrowhead Stadium, but they have only two losses to show for it.
“One of the keys was going to be third downs and red zone efficiency,” Payton said. “Man, we did it a year ago really well here, if you recall. They moved the ball but held them to field goals, and we were able to do that today.”
Mahomes still had his highlights, like when he escaped a would-be sack from Nik Bonitto on third-and-13 and found former Broncos running back Samaje Perine for a 31-yard gain. But the Broncos kept answering, their last goal-line stand forcing a field goal that gave the Chiefs a 16-14 edge with 5 minutes, 57 seconds remaining.
Had the final kick gone down as it should have, the winning celebration would have included hefty praise for Nix, who had more yards per attempt (7.2 to 6.3), more touchdown passes (two to one) and a better passer rating (115.3 to 92) than Mahomes. On back-to-back touchdown drives in the second quarter, Nix completed 7 of 8 passes for 114 yards. Both of his scoring throws in that stretch — a 6-yard slant to Devaughn Vele and a 32-yard deep ball for Sutton — came on third down.
🔟➡️1️⃣4️⃣
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/bU0I65Txmo
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) November 10, 2024
“I thought the ‘Q’ played real well,” Payton said of Nix. “Poised. Gutsy.”
Had the kick made an entire stadium groan, a subplot to the winning story would have been the ever-growing contribution from Denver’s young offensive weapons. Rookie running back Audric Estimé, in his most expansive action of the season, rushed for 53 yards on 14 carries. He figured prominently on Denver’s first two touchdown drives in the first half and ran for 6 yards on third-and-1 to extend Denver’s final drive in the fourth quarter. Vele, meanwhile, caught four passes for 39 yards and his first career touchdown, with two of his grabs made through contact on third down. The Broncos punted on their first three possessions of the second half. Their first series was stalled by a holding penalty, and the Broncos didn’t have answers for some of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s third-down pressure looks. Still, in a season that could be defined by development, young players, including second-year wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr., showed more growth.
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All those silver linings might emerge through the hurt at some point. McGlinchey said the loss “will be more fuel to the fire.” Nix praised the fight of a team that bounced back from last week’s lopsided loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper, who sacked Mahomes one week after signing a four-year contract extension, insisted there would be no finger-pointing as the Broncos picked up the pieces. Surtain noted the Broncos still have seven games, beginning with Sunday’s matchup with the Atlanta Falcons. The teams chasing the Broncos for wild-card positioning in the AFC — the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts and New York Jets — all lost Sunday. Their performance on the road was evidence, the Broncos claimed, that they can beat anyone down the stretch. The franchise’s first playoff berth since 2015 doesn’t look like some faraway pipe dream based on how the Broncos looked for the first 59 minutes, 59 seconds against the Chiefs.
But there was no easing the pain produced by a final second gone wrong. Not yet, anyway.
“The easy thing to do is give in and stop, say that it’s too hard,” Nix said. “I feel like our locker room is going to respond better and consistently find ways to improve, find ways to keep going toe-to-toe with teams like this. One time, it’ll go our way.”
Payton has suffered brutal losses in his career. Anyone who lasts nearly two decades as a head coach will experience his share of them. Payton lost a playoff game on the final play at the Minnesota Vikings. He missed out on a trip to a second Super Bowl after the “NOLA no-call” in the 2018 NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams. He told players in the locker room that Sunday’s loss was right up there with the toughest he’s had to stomach.
“That one will take a while” to get over, Payton said. “That one will sting. … As a coach, you hurt for your players.”
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(Photo of Garett Bolles after Sunday’s loss: David Eulitt / Getty Images)
Sports
It’s Game 7, and we have a bet locked in as the Cavaliers and legacies are on the line against the Pistons
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The NBA takes a lot of flak for having meaningless games, and I can definitely understand it, watching on a random Wednesday in January. However, the playoffs have delivered over and over to viewers and rewarded us for putting up with garbage regular-season games.
This will be the fourth Game 7 of the playoffs. Three series have been sweeps, and the other three have been six games. That shows competitive hoops. Now, how do we bet this Game 7 in the Eastern Conference?
The Cleveland Cavaliers blew it. After not winning a road game all postseason, they took Game 5 in surprising fashion. It looked like they were going to win in six games. After all, they hadn’t lost a game at home in the postseason.
Instead, Detroit came out and blitzed the Cavs, never giving them a chance to get their footing. They lost in an ugly fashion and now have to figure out a way to win a game on the road.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden drives to the basket against the Detroit Pistons during the second half of Game 5 in the second-round NBA playoffs in Detroit on May 13, 2026. (Duane Burleson/AP)
It isn’t just the Cavs’ fate that rests in this game. It is also the legacy of James Harden and, to a lesser extent, Donovan Mitchell.
We know that Mitchell is a very good player, but he isn’t regarded as one of the best players ever. Harden is. Unfortunately, Harden has struggled in Game 7s. He’s averaged 19.1 points, 7.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds. That’s not terrible, but looking at his shooting percentages, he is at 35.3% and 22.2% in those games. He actually is 4-4 overall in the games, but in his past three, he has scored a combined 34 points over 113 minutes.
The Detroit Pistons seem to like playing with their backs against the wall. They are a gritty team, so I suppose it makes sense.
Detroit Pistons’ Jalen Duren reacts after allowing a pass to go out of bounds in the second half of Game 4 of the second-round NBA playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland on May 11, 2026. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Cade Cunningham continues to deliver for the team, and he finally got some help in Game 6 from Jalen Duren. This was never going to be an easy series for Duren, but it feels like he is taking more time to mature than others. He definitely improved this year, but the consistency they need from him just isn’t there yet.
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Now as the team goes home they will need Duren to be a beast on the glass. If he can keep the Pistons in the rebounding battle, they should win this game with ease. They won Game 6 by just three rebounds, but that takes away a big dimension of what Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley do for the Cavs. It isn’t everything, though, as the Pistons won the rebounding battle in both losses in Cleveland.
I don’t see this being a runaway game for the Pistons. Mitchell and Cunningham likely will cancel each other out with scoring. Harden needs to establish himself as the third-best player on the floor. I haven’t seen him do that in the postseason, yet.
Cleveland Cavaliers All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and James Harden talk during Game 2 in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs vs. the Toronto Raptors at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Ohio. (David Dermer/Imagn Images)
This is the second Game 7 of the playoffs for both of the clubs, so it isn’t like either will be caught off guard about what this entails.
If I look at it objectively, I think the Cavs have the better players. However, the Pistons have looked significantly better this season, and definitely in the playoffs overall. Both are prone to issues and slipping. The Cavs shouldn’t be as they are a veteran team.
This game has to be won by Cleveland, though. There is too much riding on the franchise and legacies of guys for them to not prepare properly for it. Maybe that’s weak analysis, but I’m taking the Cavs with the points and I do think they win outright. I expect a monster game from Mitchell, and Harden should get 10+ assists.
Either way, whoever wins will lose to the New York Knicks.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
SOUTHERN SECTION SOFTBALL PLAYOFFS
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
FIRST ROUND
DIVISION 1
Murrieta Mesa 10, Valley View 0
Orange Lutheran 10, Millikan 0
Chino Hills 2, El Modena 1
Etiwanda 14, Agoura 13
Palos Verdes 3, Riverside King 2
Cypress 4, Fullerton 2
Ayala 11, Charter Oak 1
Riverside Poly 7, California 3
Norco 2, Marina 1
DIVISION 3
Rancho Cucamonga 9, Paloma Valley 1
Great Oak 5, West Torrance 2
Edison 8, El Segundo 5
El Toro 9, Colton 0
Murrieta Valley 9, Redondo Union 8
North Torrance 5, Beaumont 0
West Ranch 7, Trabuco Hills 6
San Juan Hills 8, Riverside North 7
Oak Park 10, Cerritos Valley Christian 4
Highland 7, Northview 2
La Serna 4, Carter 0
Dos Pueblos 5, Crescenta Valley 0
Liberty 10, Arcadia 3
DIVISION 5
Anaheim 11, Flintridge Sacred Heart 0
Patriot 11, Arrowhead Christian 9
Temple City 9, Rancho Christian 6
Grace 11, Buena Park 0
Crean Lutheran 3, Alemany 2
Shadow Hills 8, Cerritos 3
San Marcos 10, Leuzinger 0
South El Monte 7, Long Beach Wilson 5
Covina 11, Garden Grove Santiago 1
Muir 8, Rio Hondo Prep 7
Santa Monica 6, Katella 5
Ontario 6, Norwalk 2
Northwood 18, Duarte 11
DIVISION 7
Bloomington 9, Fillmore 8
Miller 11, Savanna 3
Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 11, Riverside Springs Magnolia 4
Faith Baptist 18, St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 4
Twentynine Palms 16, Rancho Alamitos 15
Riverside Notre Dame 12, Costa Mesa 2
Firebaugh 9, Pioneer 8
Chadwick 6, Desert Christian Academy 1
Cathedral City 2, Artesia 1
Orange 9, Bellflower 3
Santa Ana 10, Hawthorne 0
Culver City 9, Temecula Prep 8
DIVISION 8
Banning 20, Redlands Adventist 3
SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE
(Games at 3:15 p.m. unless noted)
SECOND ROUND
DIVISION 1
La Habra at Murrieta Mesa, noon
Chino Hills at Orange Lutheran
Etiwanda at Westlake
La Mirada at Palos Verdes, noon
Garden Grove Pacifica at Cypress, noon
Ayala at JSerra
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at Oaks Christian, 1 p.m.
Norco at Riverside Poly
DIVISION 2
Bonita at Ganesha, 11 a.m.
Whittier Christian at Warren
Simi Valley at St. Paul
Moorpark at Lakewood St. Joseph, 11 a.m.
Temescal Canyon at San Clemente, 12:30 p.m.
Huntington Beach at Camarillo, Monday
Saugus at Vista Murrieta, 12:30 p.m.
Mater Dei at Gahr, noon
DIVISION 3
Great Oak at Rancho Cucamonga
Edison at El Toro, Monday
Murrieta Valley at North Torrance
West Ranch at San Juan Hills
Riverside Prep at Oak Park, 12:30 p.m.
La Serna at Highland
Dos Pueblos at La Salle, Monday
Villa Park at Liberty, 1 p.m.
DIVISION 4
St. Bonaventure at Harvard-Westlake, 11 a.m.
Apple Valley at Oxnard
Don Lugo at Monrovia, 1:30 p.m.
La Quinta at Mira Costa
Rio Mesa at Mission Viejo, 10 a.m.
Oak Hills at Sunny Hills
Ramona at Paramount
Burbank Burroughs at Rosary, Monday
DIVISION 5
Anaheim vs. Santa Clara at Beck Park
Temple City at Patriot
Crean Lutheran at Grace
Viewpoint at Shadow Hills
San Marcos at Irvine University, noon
South El Monte at Covina
Santa Monica at Muir, 10:30 a.m.
Northwood at Ontario, 1 p.m.
DIVISION 6
Irvine at Lakeside
Alhambra at Heritage
Eastside at Granite Hills, noon
El Monte at St. Genevieve
Sierra Vista vs. Southlands Christian at Brea Canyon Cutoff Rd
Hesperia Christian vs. St. Monica Prep at Memorial Park, 2 p.m.
Arroyo at Lancaster
San Jacinto at Jurupa Valley
DIVISION 7
Bloomington at Ramona Convent
Miller at Santa Ana Calvary Chapel
Faith Baptist at Twentynine Palms, Monday
Firebaugh vs. Riverside Notre Dame at Ramona
Chadwick at Cathedral City
Orange at Victor Valley, 11 a.m.
Santa Ana at Culver City, Monday
Windward at Edgewood, Monday at 3:30 p.m.
DIVISION 8
ACE at Avalon
Bolsa Grande vs. San Bernardino, Monday at San Bernardino College
Workman at Glendale
Cobalt at Santa Rosa Academy
Bell Gardens vs. Brentwood at John Anson Ford Park
Pomona Catholic vs. Capistrano Valley Christian at Laguna Hills, 2 p.m.
Fontana at Banning
Hawthorne MSA at Arroyo Valley, 1 p.m.
Note: Quarterfinals May 20; Semifinals May 23; Finals May 28-30 at Bill Barber Memorial Park, Irvine.
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After a slow first round at Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia on Thursday, pace of play was a point of emphasis at the PGA Championship on Friday.
However, when an official approached Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley, they became animated.
Thomas, a longtime Team USA Ryder Cup member, and Bradley, last year’s United States captain, were on the fourth hole when they were approached by an official in a cart, and the conversation quickly turned into finger-pointing.
Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley watch from the tenth green during the second round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on May 15, 2026. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Thomas said after the round that he, Bradley and fellow USA Ryder Cupper Cameron Young, who won the Cadillac Championship earlier this month, were put on the clock, with the official telling them to pick up the pace. However, both Bradley and Thomas appeared to point at the group in front of them.
“We just didn’t really agree with it,” Thomas said, citing course conditions, high winds and tough pins. “We were behind. That wasn’t our issue… It’s just the fact that we weren’t holding up the group behind us.”
Thomas said they were caught up with the pace on the very next hole.
Justin Thomas plays his shot on the 15th tee during the second round of the PGA Championship in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, on May 15, 2026. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
GARRICK HIGGO SHARES BAFFLING COMMENTS WHILE REACTING TO TWO-SHOT PENALTY AT PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Thomas had a lengthy conversation with the official, while Bradley appeared to make his point short and sweet — though he was definitely not happy with the call.
It is a large PGA Championship field, with 156 golfers at the course and groups even starting their rounds on the back nine. The scores have also been rather high, with just 25 players below par at the time of publishing.
Aronimink also features a shared tee box on 1 and 10, holes 9 and 17 crossing paths, and a lengthy par-3 eighth hole that’s causing problems. Three par-3s are over 200 yards on the course, and there is also a 457-yard par 4 on the fourth.
Keegan Bradley prepares to putt on the 14th green during the first round of the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, on May 14, 2026. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
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As Chris Gotterup put it on Friday, “You’re not going to get any four-and-a-half hour rounds out here.”
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