INDIANAPOLIS – Last year, the pain was in Kansas City. On Sunday, it was in Indianapolis.

For the second straight year, the Broncos lost a game at the end due to a screw-up on a field-goal team. The latest one came when Shane Shrader took advantage of a leverage penalty on Denver outside linebacker Dondrea Tillman and drilled a 45-yard field goal for a 29-28 Colts win at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The winning kick came after Shrader had missed a 60-yard attempt on a play that started with 1 second on the clock. But after the penalty for Tillman illegally going over the right guard was assessed, he was given a chance at a much easier attempt with no time on the clock.

“There’s no way we should have lost this game,’’ said Broncos tackle Mike McGlinchey. “Coach (Sean Payton) said it best after the game, ‘You got to learn to win.’ But in order to do that you got to stop losing and we gave that game away.”

Sound familiar?

On Nov. 10, 2024, Wil Lutz had a chip-shot 35-yard field-goal attempt on the final play with the Broncos training the Chiefs 16-14. But offensive lineman Alex Forsyth was bowled over and the attempt was blocked.

The Broncos then made a change on the field-goal team by moving Forsyth farther to the outside. It will be seen if any changes are made after Sunday’s game.

“I got to go back and watch the film and just see how I can learn from it,’’ Tillman said. “I’m trying to do everything I can to help this team out. I just got to be better.”

Before Tillman’s penalty, the Colts strangely had stuck to the ground and ran the clock down even though Shrader in five previous NFL regular-season games had never made a field goal longer than 48 yards.

“That’s football,’’ said Colts coach Shane Steichen, mostly shrugging off his late-game thinking. “We got the penalty that helped us out and found a way to win it. It’s electric (in the locker room) right now.”

It was incorrectly announced on the field that the leverage penalty was on defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike. Tillman didn’t find out until later that the flag was on him.

Referee Craig Wrolstad told a pool reporter that Tillman “came across the line to the right guard and he put his hands on the right guard and pushed off him to elevate himself.” That by rule is not allowed.

“Obviously, a disappointing loss,’’ Payton said. “We did a lot of things late in that game to keep us from winning. It will be painful to watch that film. We’ll get the corrections made. It starts with me and my staff. … We shot ourselves in the foot too many times. … It will be a bitter taste in our mouth for a little bit. … We’ll look at the (penalty on Tillman)”

The Broncos (1-1) led 28-23 and had a chance to put the game away but Bo Nix threw an interception to Cam Bynum at the Indianapolis 9 with 11:25 left in the game on a ball that was tipped at the line of scrimmage with the Broncos facing third-and-3 at Colts 28. A field goal would have given Denver an eight-point lead, but the Colts (2-0) instead drove to cut the deficit to 28-26 on a 28-yard field goal by Shrader with 8:33 remaining.

Lutz then missed a 42-yard field goal with 3:15 left that could have put Denver up 31-26.

“The ball didn’t feel good at all,’’ Lutz said. “I missed. The team deserved to win this game. So my number was called on fourth down and the ball didn’t go in. Got to be better.”

At least the Broncos’ offense was better than it had been in a 20-12 win over lowly Tennessee in the opener the previous Sunday. Nix in that game threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

Against the Colts, Nix completed 22 of 30 passes for 206 yards with three touchdowns while having the one interception. He had scoring throws of 23 yards to Marvin Mims Jr. in the first quarter and of 3 yards to Troy Franklin and 2 yards to Adam Trautman in the second quarter.

“I felt like it slipped away from us,’’ Nix said. “It got away. We played well for three quarters, but we’ve got to finish in the fourth against a good team like that.”

Franklin looked good, having eight catches for 89 yards, including a 42-yard grab. The Broncos had some good moments on the ground, with J.K. Dobbins carrying 14 times for 76 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown run that put Denver up 28-20 with 11:13 left in the third quarter.

“I thought we ran the ball well,’’ Nix said. “Our O-line did really good.”

Denver’s defense was another story. After allowing a meager 133 yards to the Titans to rank No. 1 in the NFL in total defense after Week 1, the Broncos gave up a whopping 473 yards. A week after having six sacks, they had just one on Daniel Jones, that by linebacker Justin Strnad.

Jones completed 23 of 34 passes for 316 yards and a touchdown. The Colts got 165 yards on 25 carries by Jonathan Taylor, including a 68-yard jaunt in the fourth quarter.

“We got to finish certain areas, especially on defense and just kind of get out of our own way some times,’’ said linebacker Alex Singleton.

Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto put some of the blame on himself. He pointed among other things to a personal foul he had for a hit on Jones and for a missed tackle he had.

“It’s heartbreaking,’’ Bonitto said of the loss. “A lot of mental mistakes.”

During the drive that ended in Lutz’s missed field goal, the Broncos got a five-yard delay penalty when Dobbins spiked the ball after a run and Trautman had a 15-yard penalty for a face mask.

“You get behind the chains that severely, first and 20-some, the percentage of making a first down just bottomed out,’’ McGlinchey said of the penalty on Trautman making it first-and-25.

McGlinchey didn’t want to compare the loss to some other tough ones he has had in his eight-year career but said “it definitely hurts because this one should have been ours.”

Broncos players said basically the same thing last November after the loss to the Chiefs all but ended their chances to overtake them in the AFC West. And Sunday’s defeat denied Denver a chance to move two games in the division ahead of Kansas City, which dropped to 0-2 with a 20-17 loss to Philadelphia.