KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — One of the greatest efforts of his career left Champ Bailey with only an empty feeling.
The Denver cornerback didn’t merely shut down the hottest wide receiver in the NFL. He stopped him cold, turned him from hero to zero — as in no touchdowns, no catches, no anything.
Kansas City’s Dwayne Bowe, who’d had at least one touchdown catch in a team-record seven straight games, was shut out entirely Sunday. It may have been one of the finest performances a defensive back has had all year. But it came in a 10-6 loss to the Chiefs that dropped the Broncos to 3-9.
“It’s one of those bittersweet moments because we got the loss,” Bailey said. “I did what I had to do. He didn’t have any catches. If I could have done a little more maybe we could have won. I just hate when you have a game like that and you don’t even win. It takes away from it.”
Jamaal Charles ran for 116 yards and Matt Cassel threw a 3-yard pass to a wide open Leonard Pope for the only touchdown to help the Chiefs (8-4) improve to 6-0 at home and remain in first place in the AFC West.
Bowe did catch two passes. But on the first, the Broncos prevailed in a replay when he was ruled out of bounds. And on the second, the play was called back when Bowe was flagged for pass interference.
“He has been doing that since I’ve known him,” Bailey said. “I always warn the refs about it, so when they see it they call it. It was a great call by the ref. I told Bowe to just keep fighting. I told him I was proud of the way he has grown up and he is playing like I expected him to.”
Bowe didn”t hide from the fact that Bailey got the better of their matchup.
“He’s the best defender I ever went up against, and he told me that I’m one of the greatest he’s ever gone against,” Bowe said. “As we battled it out, he said, ‘My game plan was to not let you get anything.’
“I think I’ve grown up and I don’t let that stuff bother me. As long as there’s a ‘W’ at the end of the day and I ran well and blocked well, I’m OK with that.”
It was a vengeance game for Kansas City, making up for the 20-point humiliation the Chiefs suffered in Denver three weeks earlier, a game where they set a team record by falling behind 35-0 in the first half.
“The performance they put on us three weeks ago was disheartening. It was embarrassing,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “We had a sick feeling in us.”
Knowshon Moreno ran for 161 yards for the Broncos in their 17th loss in their last 22 games under coach Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels, who was snubbed in the postgame handshake by Chiefs coach Todd Haley after the 49-29 loss in Denver, actually got a postgame hug and a pat on the head this time.
“There were some penalties and turnovers and different things that kind of swayed momentum a little bit,” McDaniels said. “We just never could finish once we got down there in the red zone. They deserve a lot of credit, that’s why they’re where they’re at. They played and coached well today. That’s why they are on top of the division.”
NOTES — The Broncos had only one first down in the third quarter. ... Moreno’s 23-yard run in the fourth quarter was Denver’s first 20-plus run by a running back this year. ... Since their lopsided loss in Denver, the Chiefs are 3-0 and the Broncos are 0-3.