Zach Allen got to Patrick Mahomes again on Monday night, bringing down the Chiefs quarterback for his second sack of the game as Denver finally broke through the protection. The play gave the Broncos a long-awaited stop, but it did not change the shape of the night, with the Chiefs still in front 31-10 in the fourth quarter.
That mattered because this was the first Monday Night Football game of the 2026 season, and the pressure on Mahomes was one of the few clear signs that Denver could bother the Chiefs offense. Allen’s second sack showed that the Broncos could win a rep against one of the league’s most difficult quarterbacks to catch, even if the scoreboard stayed lopsided.
The context around the game stretched beyond one snap. Steve Spagnuolo has run the Chiefs defense since 2019, and Kevin Demoff publicly argued that Spagnuolo was set up to fail in his first head-coaching chance with the then-St. Louis Rams from 2009 to 2011. That backdrop hovered over a meeting that was being watched as much for the personnel and coaching thread as for the action on the field.
Denver had already shown it could generate pressure, and this was the payoff: a second sack from Allen after the Broncos sent heat at Mahomes. The Chiefs had still opened one drive with four straight carries by Kenneth Walker, then moved the chains when Mahomes found Travis Kelce on third-and-2, a reminder that Kansas City could answer pressure with efficiency even while taking a hit.
The game state leaves the Broncos with a sharp but narrow takeaway. They got Mahomes on the ground twice from Allen, but the Chiefs were still controlling the scoreboard late, and that is the part that will matter most when the film gets reviewed. For Denver, the question is less whether Allen flashed and more whether the pass rush can carry that pressure into a stretch where the result is not already slipping away.
