KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 14: Emmett Johnson #10 of the Kansas City Chiefs runs with the ba...
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 14: Emmett Johnson #10 of the Kansas City Chiefs runs with the ba...
The Denver Broncos’ tackling Monday night was worse than the day Miami hung 70 on them.
That is not hyperbole — it is a number.
Denver’s 28 missed tackles produced 247 missed tackle yards allowed — the most in a single game in the entire Next Gen Stats database, dating to 2018. Their 29.8% missed tackle rate was the third-worst single-game mark in that span. For context, the Broncos posted a 25.0% missed tackle rate in Week 3 of 2023, the day the Dolphins scored 70 points in the most lopsided game in modern NFL history.
Monday was worse. On the tackling ledger, at least, this was the new low. And it wasn’t concentrated. Eight different Broncos defenders missed multiple tackles on the night — linebackers, linemen, defensive backs. All three levels.
No player embodied the issue more than Alex Singleton. The veteran linebacker who just signed an extension this offseason, may have led the Broncos with 15 tackles when his next closest teammate had six — but the issues were glaring. He missed five tackles, several of them on plays that tilted the game, grasping at jerseys and sliding off ball carriers in moments Denver needed a stop. He even made one worse by doubling down with a unnecessary roughness after a play that set up KC’s final score on the ensuing play.
Simply said: the tackles he made didn’t matter as much as the ones he didn’t.
“We’re gonna be fine,” Singleton said. “We’re gonna work on it this week. We’re gonna do what we need to do, and we’re gonna be fine with that.”
Fine is a word that does a lot of heavy lifting after a 31-10 loss. When pressed on what frustrated him most, Singleton pointed inward — but to a different issue than the whiffs themselves.
“Letting one play become the next play,” he said. “When one play happens, we can’t get down on it. We can’t let it carry over to the next play.”
But they did, repeatedly. Kenneth Walker III was the primary beneficiary. The Chiefs’ prized free-agent addition ripped through Denver for 144 rush yards after contact alone — a figure that ranks ninth among 5,386 qualifying running back performances since 2022. Kansas City ran the ball 38 times against just 27 pass attempts. The Broncos’ defensive game plan was to force the Chiefs to throw. They never came close.
The Denver Broncos had a 26.37% missed tackle rate on Monday night, which is the 3rd worst in a single game since 2022, per @SumerSports live data
Kenneth Walker's 144 rush yards after contact tonight ranks 9th out of 5,386 qualifying RBs since 2022 pic.twitter.com/cp5wJYKJ8B
— Shawn Syed (@SyedSchemes) September 15, 2026
“Our job is to stop them and stop the run and force them to throw the ball,” cornerback Riley Moss said. “We didn’t do that tonight.”
Moss was burned on a missed tackle by not setting the edge on the play that resulted in Walker’s 60-yard touchdown, the longest rush for Kansas City in the 2020s.
“The big run was one that hurt,” Payton said. “Bounces outside. We don’t set an edge. We miss a tackle. That one hurt.”
Singleton felt Walker, too.
“You knew they were gonna go heavy to Walker,” Singleton said. “We had guys in spots, and we got to make those plays and just get off the field.”
Moss, one of the eight defenders who missed multiple tackles, didn’t sugarcoat his own night.
“Personally, I didn’t tackle well enough, and I’m going to fix that this week,” Moss said. “I’m harder on myself than I should be, because that’s an easy thing to do. But that’s why I’m in the position that I’m in — because I can make those plays. And that’s just frustrating.”
When asked what he could learn from the embarrassment, Moss got straight to it.
“The little things,” Moss said. “It’s not trying to make crazy plays. It’s just the simple — make a tackle. It sounds easy. It is easy. But we just have to get it done, and we didn’t.”
Payton didn’t have much to say about the issue.
“Yeah,” Payton said. “Look, we’ll look at the technique. We’ll look at it. I understand the question.”
Singleton promised accountability — just not public mourning.
“The expectations we have on ourselves are higher than everybody else,” he said. “We’re gonna point more fingers at ourselves than anybody outside of here can. We have to get better. And we’re gonna be ready for next week.”
Twenty-eight missed tackles will make for a long film session. Singleton said he’d start watching in 15 minutes. Given what’s on tape, he might want to delete it.