A season after winning the Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos are facing elimination from the playoffs. The Carolina Panthers, the team that lost to the Broncos in Super Bowl 50, have already been eliminated. Denver is just hanging on with eight wins, and it needs to both beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 16 and to win in the regular season finale.
Broncos vs. Chiefs 2016: Time, TV schedule for ‘Sunday Night Football’
The Chiefs can secure a spot in the playoffs if they beat the Broncos on Sunday Night Football.
The Chiefs will play host to the Broncos in a Christmas Day edition of Sunday Night Football for Week 16. The game will be broadcast on NBC in the United States, and a live stream will be available online here at NBC Sports.
The Broncos also need some help from other teams. Winning both games won’t be enough, because there are some strong wild card teams at this stage in the AFC. The Chiefs are one of them, and the Miami Dolphins are the other. Both teams have 10 wins right now.
The Broncos are three games behind the Oakland Raiders and two games behind the Chiefs in the AFC West. To make matters worse, they’ve lost to the Chiefs and Raiders once already this season. They will play the Raiders to close out their season on Jan. 1.
After the Broncos, the Chiefs will take on the San Diego Chargers to close out their regular season.
For both teams, it’s a story of struggling offenses and big defenses. They rank nearly identically in many of the big offensive stats. Denver puts up 326.7 yards per game (24th in the NFL) while Kansas City comes in at 331.4 yards (23rd in the NFL). Denver scores 21.4 points per game (21st in the league) while the Chiefs put up 22.8 points per game (15th in the league).
Defensively, things are quite a bit better. Denver ranks second in the league in yards allowed per game, and the secondary has allowed just 183 passing yards per game, for the top spot in the league. They come in at fourth place in points allowed at 18.4 per game.
Then there’s the Chiefs, who give up a lot of yards, specifically on the ground, and rank in the back half of the league in those stats. But they lead the league in takeaways with 28 and have a plus-13 turnover ratio, good for second in the league behind the Raiders.
The last time these two teams played, it was also a Sunday Night Football matchup. The game went into overtime and looked like it might actually end in a tie. But the Broncos made a gutsy call to go for it on fourth down, and the Chiefs punished them in the form of a Cairo Santos field goal that doinked off the left upright before bouncing in for the 30-27 victory.
Obviously, the Broncos will be hoping things go a bit better for them this time around. Below is all you need to watch Sunday’s action on NBC.
How to Watch Broncos vs. Chiefs on Sunday
Time: 8:30 p.m. ET
Location: Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Mo.
TV: NBC
Announcers: Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya
Online Streaming: NBC Sports
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