A subtle flag, a wiped-out TD and a new AFC West leader in Denver

DENVER (AP) — Rarely has a procedural penalty been so subtle yet so consequential as the false start by Kansas City right tackle Jaylon Moore in the Chiefs' 28-24 loss at Denver.

The flag from Clete Blakeman's officiating crew wiped out Patrick Mahomes' winning touchdown throw to Rashee Rice on fourth-and-goal from the 1 as time expired. And it erased what essentially would have been a three-game lead over the Broncos in the AFC West race.

Instead, the Chiefs were pushed back to the 6 and, on the do-over, Jonathon Cooper and Nick Bonitto collapsed the pocket from the edges, allowing Malcolm Roach to sack Mahomes and preserve Denver's latest come-from-behind victory.

With the season split against the Chiefs, it's the Broncos (6-2) who are sitting atop the division, a half-game ahead of Kansas City (5-2).

Broncos coach Sean Payton said after his 200th career NFL victory that this was literally a case of the crowd winning the game for Denver because the din was so loud that it led to Moore's infraction, which Mahomes and his coach, Andy Reid, argued shouldn't have merited a yellow flag at all.

Reid called the flag “one man's opinion" and insisted, “I saw him move his head but I didn't see the false start.”

Cooper did.

He started pointing right away as the ball was snapped and the play blown dead.

“I mean, at the end of the day, you got to go with whatever’s called," Mahomes said. "But a lot of times in those big moments, the little stuff doesn’t get called like that.”

It was one of the main ingredients in the Broncos saddling Mahomes with just his third loss in 83 games in which the Chiefs held a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter.

The Broncos went three-and-out on their first three possessions after halftime, but this is a team that's won 15 consecutive one-score games and Nix is the NFL's new Captain Comeback with 15 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime in his first three seasons.

Kansas City's collapse began with another flag on Moore earlier in the fourth quarter and a peculiar move by the officials that left the Chiefs and their fans flummoxed.

Leading 24-13 early with 13:36 remaining, the Chiefs faced a third-and-6 from their 36 when Mahomes hit rookie running back Emmett Johnson with a quick pass to his right. Cooper and Alex Singleton stopped Johnson short of the first-down marker and there was a flag on the play.

After a prolonged discussion regarding an illegal man downfield — Moore — the spotter had the ball two yards shy of the first-down marker. Seeing that, Payton declined the penalty, bringing up fourth down and bringing out Kansas City's punt team.

With both teams lined up for the punt, the officials re-spotted the ball less than a foot from the first-down marker, catching everyone, including the broadcast crew, off-guard.

Reid didn't call timeout to reconsider and Matt Araiza punted the ball through the end zone, giving Denver the ball at its 20.

Asked if he would have kept the offense on the field if that had been the original spot, Reid said, "That’s all hindsight, but it would have made for a good decision right there.”

“We didn’t see until we sent the punt team out there," Mahomes said. “We asked because we were trying to decide if they were going to go for it or not. Obviously, fourth-and-inches is a lot different than fourth-and-2 and we had the lead in that spot.”

Of course, the Broncos wouldn't have declined the penalty on Moore had it been fourth-and-inches for Kansas City instead of fourth-and-2.

Reid gave the officials an earful about the late re-spot during the subsequent commercial break.

Now, it was comeback time for the Broncos, who have scored 26, 37 and 36 points in quarters 1-3 this season but 70 in the fourth quarter.

Nix pulled Denver to 24-21 on a two-yard TD toss to Nate Adkins on fourth-and-goal and found Jaylen Waddle for the 2-point conversion.

The Chiefs reached the Broncos 30-yard line on the ensuing possession but Singleton sacked Mahomes for a six-yard loss on third down. Now, here's a decision Reid might be kicking himself over: sending out his scuffling kicker Harrison Butker for a 54-yard try in the steady rain.

Butker was wide right, his fifth miss in seven tries from 50-plus yards this season. His struggles from long range were the reason the Chiefs signed five-time All-Pro Justin Tucker to their practice squad last week.

So, the Broncos got the ball at their 44 with 2:31 remaining and they needed just two plays and 35 seconds to take the lead on rookie Jonah Coleman's five-yard TD run that followed his 51-yard catch-and-run.

That left Mahomes and the Chiefs just under two minutes to salvage the win, which Nix admitted made him nervous, especially after Johnson's 44-yard kickoff return set K.C. up at midfield.

Mahomes and the Chiefs reached the Denver 1 with 15 seconds left.

“Pat Mahomes with the ball at the 1?" Roach said. “I'm like, ‘Oh, Lord, here we go.’”

Denver's defense put together the game-saving goal-line stand, with a little help from Moore's far-reaching false start.

“Every loss is tough," Moore said, "but it being so tight and the situation that it was, it hurts even more.”

Behind the Call analyzes the biggest decisions in the NFL during the season.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Denver Broncos' Bo Nix smiles after an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Denver, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid calls a play during the first half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos in Denver, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Broncos' Alex Singleton sacks Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes during the second half of an NFL football game in Denver, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Broncos' Bo Nix embraces Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes after an NFL football game in Denver, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

PAGOSA SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Skies began to clear Tuesday, but while floodwaters from almost two weeks of on-and-off heavy rain still inundated parts of the U.S. Southwest, other areas left mud-caked by receding torrents presented homeowners and businessowners with the filthy work of cleanup.

Jack Ellis, a retired schoolteacher, surveyed damage along the San Juan River in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, which has suffered through multiple rounds of severe flooding in recent weeks.

“This is quite a disaster for everybody, especially in the low-lying areas,” Ellis said. “We dig in and dig out, and that’s what it’s going to take."

In all, more than 20 trillion gallons (76 trillion liters) of rain — 10 months of the flow over Niagara Falls — have fallen on the Four Corners states and Nevada in the past two weeks, according to former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue.

The U.S. Southwest has endured two recent major rounds of storms, with rain falling on ground already saturated from an especially wet fall.

One person died in floodwaters, and police suspect a second death was weather-related.

Skies were clearing after some rivers crested at levels lower than forecasted overnight, offering a measure of relief to areas that were bracing for more catastrophic flooding, including Shiprock and Farmington in northwestern New Mexico. Devin Neeley, a spokesperson for San Juan County, New Mexico, said major rivers in the area remained above flood stage.

“Now it’s a waiting game for the waters to recede,” Neeley said, adding that the county would likely soon lift evacuation orders impacting at least 20,000 residents and begin to focus on recovery.

The situation wasn’t unique to the region. As downpours swamped eastern Florida, at least 20 polling places were changed in at least eight counties after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency declaration.

Flooded areas included Brevard County on the east-central coast, where over 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain has fallen since Sunday. In Palm Beach County in southeast Florida, over 20 inches (51 centimeters) fell, cutting off access to condominiums and submerging cars in parking places.

Some communities in Colorado and Utah, too, had to make alternative Election Day voting plans because of the flooding.

Alyssa Gallegos, a contract mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, spent Tuesday morning helping get mail-in ballots from mailboxes to the post office in time for a 7 p.m. deadline for counting.

“Regardless if we’re in a crisis and having a hard time, the world doesn’t stop turning,” Gallegos said. “They’re not gonna wait for us, so we just gotta stay with it.”

In Rock Point, Arizona, in the Navajo Nation, officials were forced to relocate a polling place because of flooding impacts. Valinda Shirley, vice president of the Rock Point Chapter, the local seat of tribal government, said hundreds of voters are still unable to cast ballots in both the U.S. midterms and the Navajo Nation presidential election because a major bridge closure and washed-out dirt roads have left them stranded on election day.

“I have people that are still texting me asking how I can get them out so they can vote,” Shirley said Tuesday afternoon.

An eighth-generation Pagosa Springs local, Gallegos said her ancestors went through a catastrophic flood in 1911 but no one alive in her family expected anything like it in their lifetimes.

She was watching videos of the devastation on social media Monday when she spotted her stepfather’s home swept off its foundation by raging floodwaters. Inside, she knew, were old photographs and other treasured possessions from her childhood.

“My heart’s crushed,” Gallegos said. “And it’s not just him, it’s all the people.”

Cleanup and repairs could take weeks or more in Pagosa Springs, a tourist town famous for hotels with riverside hot springs.

The downtown area remained closed to traffic Tuesday while workers used heavy equipment to clear mud, water and debris from roads.

Walkways and bridges collapsed or were heavily damaged. Outside a resort entrance stacked with sandbags, a sign read “Love Pagosa.”

In Durango, about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) to the west, Willow Bradner's ranch-style home was surrounded by about 2 feet (60 centimeters) of mud. Nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water from an overflowing creek poured inside at one point.

“Our basement became a soup bowl,” she said.

The basement had been a selling point when she bought the property in 2024. Bradner said she and her husband once asked if they needed flood insurance and were told they were not in a flood zone.

They and their teenage daughter had been offered a place to stay through the end of the year. But the loss of their home and uncertainty about the future were overwhelming, Bradner said.

"The majority of our savings is in this house,” she said. “We have to dig deep, and we have to rebuild.”

Peters reported from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Gruver from Fort Collins, Colorado. Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed.

A resort along the San Juan River is damaged by heavy flooding Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Pagosa Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Finnley Ewing uses a shovel to dig mud from a street in his neighborhood after a series of storms on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Durango, Colo. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Maggie Emerson clears mud from her property after a series of storms on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Durango, Colo. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Residents at a local RV park survey the damage of their mobile home after flooding along the Verde River in Camp Verde, Ariz., Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

After heavy rains flood waters flow through the Continental Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Mobile homes, cottages and vehicles are strewn along the Verde River after severe flooding at a local RV park in Camp Verde, Ariz., Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Neighbors clear mud and debris from a street after a series of storms on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Durango, Colo. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)