It’s one thing to say you want to keep Peyton Manning off the field and control the clock.

It’s an entirely different thing to actually get it done.

Give the Chiefs credit. They barely gave the Broncos the ball in the second half, and they converted a ton of long third downs.

It got so bad, John Fox later joked his defense was operating as a “ball-control” defense.

The joke will be on the Broncos, though, if they continue to negate touchdowns with stupid penalties.

That’s because next week the Seahawks won’t let them continue to take the second half off.

The Positives

Well, that was quick. The Broncos were up 7-0 before your mother-in-law could tell you to turn down the TV. The lesson? Stop living with your mother-in-law, loser. Peyton Manning completed an astounding 80.8 percent of his passes. You don't want to play darts with him. If you ever wanted proof that Julius Thomas is the Ultimate Warrior of tight ends, notice how difficult it was for Pro Bowler Eric Berry to cover him. Berry is six feet tall, but is still five inches too small. Who can cover Thomas at this point? Nobody, that’s who. Expect Julius to see a ton of bracket coverage in the future. Once that happens, expect Manning to work Wes Welker across the field underneath Thomas. It’s never a bad time to get Demaryius Thomas into space. He gets from zero to sixty in the time it takes from you to think about getting a cold one. Jacob Tamme’s touchdown was a lesson in using route combinations to gain space at the goal line. Montee Ball may not break ankles, but he breaks tackles, and that’s good enough. I’m not sure if John Fox made the call to go for it at midfield, but if he did, we salute the hell out of him. Emmanuel Sanders can “take the top off the defense,” as Randy Moss might say. Von Miller had seven tackles and a sack. I call that a good start. I need to dive into the tape, but right now, Manny Ramirez is playing better than any of the offensive linemen.

The Negatives

Most meaningful stat of the afternoon: Kansas City was 11 for 16 on third down, otherwise known as the money down. It seemed like most of those conversions came on third and long. If you can’t get any push up the middle, you can’t get anywhere off of play-action passes. Montee Ball’s first quarter went like this: five rushes, seven yards. That’s as hideous as the girl you took home last night. I didn’t have a reason to dislike Chris Clark, but negating a Demaryius Thomas touchdown is reason enough. 14-3 is a much different game than 7-3. The Broncos could have rendered the Chiefs one dimensional by the second quarter. Instead, the Chiefs were able to actually take the lead for a few minutes, which is a few minutes too many. It’s two games in, and the Broncos’ defense is out of position way too often. DeMarcus Ware was a ghost for most of the game. Bradley Roby was beat repeatedly on the same deep crossing route. The defensive backs had to play linebacker in addition to their coverage responsibilities. Silly personal foul call on Malik Jackson to extend the Chiefs’ drive in the third quarter. Even so, the Chiefs had a ten-minute drive and came away with no points. Sure, you want to eat clock and keep Peyton Manning off the field, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t score. The Broncos should have taken a few more shots downfield, which they finally did in the fourth quarter. For most of the game, the Chiefs did what they typically don’t do, which is to drop a lot of guys into zone coverage. This will probably sound crazy, but without injuries, I think the Broncos beat them a lot worse today because they would have played more man coverage. The Broncos destroy man coverage. You’ll never see a better catch than the one Anthony Fasano had midway through the fourth quarter. Luck is part of football. And you need truckloads of it to beat Peyton Manning. I’ll need to go back to the tape, but even though Brandon Marshall had a lot of tackles, he seemed out of position at lot, not just in coverage, but also in the running game. Quanterus Smith negated a sweet pick-six by Aqib Talib by jumping into the neutral zone, but that was the theme of today’s game. I never thought I’d say this, but Louis Vasquez and Orlando Franklin were very average guards today.

The Who The Heck Knows