Broncos Journal: Twenty-two years after first meeting, Vic Fangio and Andy Reid match wits again

Ten things about the Broncos entering Sunday night’s game at Kansas City:

1. Despite their significant play-calling experience, teams with Broncos coach Vic Fangio (18th year as a play-caller) and Chiefs coach Andy Reid (23rd year) have met only nine times. Reid (Kansas City and Philadelphia) has a 5-4 edge with averages of 25.2 points and 343.4 yards against Fangio (Indianapolis, Houston, San Francisco, Chicago and the Broncos). Fangio’s defenses have forced 14 turnovers.

2. The first Fangio-Reid game was in 1999 when Fangio was with Indianapolis and Reid was the Eagles’ first-year coach. The Colts won 44-17, holding Philadelphia to 212 yards and forcing five turnovers. In 2011, Fangio’s 49ers won 24-23 despite allowing 513 yards (they forced three takeaways). Reid has won all four games against the Fangio-coached Broncos.

3. Reid on Fangio: “He does a great job every year. His mind is special when it comes to the defensive side of the football. They have an influx of young players and new players and they’re playing their tails off. You put the tape on and they’re playing hard and they’re very sound at what they do.”

4. Fangio on Reid: “It’s a difficult offense to defend by the design of it. It’s a spread-out offense. The guys running the offense are really, really fast. You have those ingredients and then put (Patrick) Mahomes in there. They run a similar offense that they ran when Alex Smith was there. Mahomes is Mahomes. That makes it a lot better.”

5. Do the Chiefs just run more stuff offensively? Yes. “There is a variety of things,” defensive backs coach Christian Parker said. “You talk about formations, the actual concepts, where guys line up; a lot of teams, you can dial in and say, ‘This guy does this, that guy does that.’ You can’t dial in with these guys. They do a good job breaking their tendencies each and every week so you have to know yourself, know your rules and go play ball.”

6. Even though he’s eligible to return from injured reserve, Broncos cornerback Bryce Callahan (knee) never got out of the blocks and will miss a fourth consecutive game. Kyle Fuller will get the call as the nickel back and he’s had his moments playing in tight quarters, but the Chargers completed eight of nine passes in man coverage against him last week.

7. Parker on Fuller making the adjustment to a nickel role: “Even when he wasn’t playing, he was practicing hard and he was running extra gassers on the sideline during the special teams periods to stay in shape because he’s been in this game long enough, he knows he can be called on in a moment’s notice and it happened when we played the Raiders (in Week 6). Pat (Surtain II) got banged up and you didn’t even need to look for Kyle to go in — he was on the field, they targeted him and he made a stop on third down.”

8. Fuller also blitzed three times against the Chargers and drew a holding penalty to open the third quarter. “He didn’t do it a lot in Chicago, but when he was at Virginia Tech, they played Georgia Tech with the triple option, they moved him inside to linebacker and he would go get it,” Parker said when asked about Fuller being used in that role.

9. Broncos outside linebacker Bradley Chubb could be available for full duty after playing 30 snaps against the Chargers in his return from ankle surgery (out since Week 2). “He brings that toughness to the edge,” defensive coordinator Ed Donatell said. “He just raises our level. Everybody feels better when he’s in there. We know we’re a stronger team when he’s in there.”

10. Carl Cheffers gets the big whistle as Sunday night’s referee. His crew’s 11 games have averaged 15.3 enforced penalties including two 20-penalty games. The home team is 5-5 (Week 1 was the Green Bay-New Orleans neutral site game in Jacksonville). Cheffers had Kansas City’s home loss to Buffalo earlier this year.