L.A. Times’ Sam Farmer predicts winner of Chiefs-Broncos game on Thursday

NFL Thursday

KANSAS CITY (4-2)
AT DENVER (2-4)

TV: 5:15 p.m. PDT, Fox, NFL.
Line: Chiefs by 3.
Over/under: 48 1/2.
Sam Farmer’s pick: The Broncos can run the ball on Kansas City’s defense, which keeps Patrick Mahomes on the sideline. Still, don’t write off the Chiefs after back-to-back home losses. They’re still an excellent team. Chiefs 24, Broncos 20

Troy Aikman says: Denver is playing better defensively. Even though Kansas City isn’t firing on all cylinders, this is still a great test and we’ll see how much progress Denver has made since the first month of the season. I don’t know if you can draw any conclusions off of two Kansas City losses.

Joe Buck says: I’ve never read quotes that are so critical of a team’s run defense by the actual team itself. The Chiefs are just killing their own defense. They say they’ve gone from trying to learn a new scheme to now they’re starting to talk about effort and tackling. That’s got to be a little unnerving.