When Wil Lutz looked down and saw his holder was kneeling at the 25-yard line, he did indeed think back to Nov. 10, 2024.

Playing at Kansas City that day, the Broncos kicker had a 35-yard field-goal attempt blocked on the final play in Denver’s excruciating 16-14 loss. And here he was Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High about to try to win a game on the final play against the Chiefs with a 35-yard boot.

This time there were no issues. Lutz’s field goal gave the Broncos a 22-19 win over the Chiefs and they took complete control of the AFC West. Denver won its eighth straight game to move to 9-2 while Kansas City is 5-5 and the Los Angeles Chargers are 7-4 after being walloped 35-6 at Jacksonville.

“It’s obviously something you think about,’’ Lutz said of last year’s loss to the Chiefs. “When you’re part of a loss like that, you just don’t forget about it. When I looked down and saw we were on the line again making it a 35-yard field goal, I was kind of like, ‘Shoot, here we are.’ … I’ve been waiting for a game like that.”

Whatever the distance was, it didn’t matter Sunday to Lutz. He made all five of his field goal attempts, including a 54-yard boot that tied the score 19-19 with 4:10 left in the game.

In one of the Broncos’ biggest games in the past decade, they won their 11^th straight at home, the longest current NFL streak. They have made it extremely difficult for the Chiefs to win a 10^th straight division title.

“They’ve been the champs for the last nine years in a row of this division, so we knew that in order to continue to try to achieve the things that we think we can, it starts with that,’’ said Broncos guard Quinn Meinerz. “It starts with winning our division and then the rest will kind of take care of itself.”

The Broncos head into their bye week as the No. 1 seed in the AFC. They are ahead of 9-2 New England due to a tiebreaker and 8-2 Indianapolis had a bye week.

“It felt loud to me, and I say this respectfully for the first time since I’ve been here, but really loud,’’ Broncos coach Sean Payton said of the raucous crowd being important in the win. It was a big win. It got us to nine (wins), and it kept them at five.”

Sunday’s solid win came after some lackluster performances by the offense, including by quarterback Bo Nix. Their previous victory had been an ugly 10-7 win over hapless Las Vegas on Nov. 6 at home.

“There’s been a lot of noise. … I hear some of the narratives, and I just want to cry,’’ Payton said of criticism the team has faced.

Nix bounced back Sunday to complete 24 of 37 passes for 295 yards. With the score tied 19-19, he led the Broncos on the game-winning 58-yard drive, which included hitting Courtland Sutton for 20 yards on third-and-15 at the Denver 21 and Troy Franklin for 32 yards to the Chiefs 15 with 45 seconds remaining.

“(The Chiefs) were at the top and if you want to be the best you have to beat the best,’’ Nix said. “Some say, ‘If you’re scared, go to church.’ If you’re going to play this sport, if you’re going to play this game for too long, you can’t really be intimidated or there’s really no sense in going out there. … We work hard and we put together a great team to win games like (on Sunday).”

Nix’s strong game helped make up for Broncos star running back J.K. Dobbins being placed on injured reserve Saturday with a foot injury that likely will end his season. Denver struggled in the running game, having 21 carries for 59 yards. Dobbins’ replacement RJ Harvey had 11 carries for 30 yards and Jaleel McLaughlin came off the bench to have six attempts for 19 yards, which did include a 4-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that put Denver up 13-6.

The Broncos on defense were without star cornerback Patrick Surtain II (pectoral), starting linebacker Alex Singleton (testicular cancer surgery) and outside linebacker Jonah Elliss (hamstring).

Nevertheless, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes had a pedestrian game. He completed 29 of 45 passes for 276 yards with one touchdown and one interception and had a mediocre passer rating of 79.5.

“Obviously it’s going to be tough to get back in the division race, but at the end of the day, the goal is to get into the playoffs and try to make a run at it,” said a disappointed Mahomes. “We haven’t been consistent enough to win football games. But it starts with me.”

The Broncos, who lead the NFL with 49 sacks, had just three Sunday but they bothered Mahomes throughout the game, having eight quarterback hits. Cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian had two sacks coming off the edge and had an interception, earning him a game ball from Payton.

“In order for us to take that next step, we had to beat them guys, get through them, and it was a wonderful win for us,’’ said McMillian, whose Broncos next play Nov. 30 at Washington.

Broncos defensive tackle Malcolm Roach said the game plan was to “chase” Mahomes. Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto said Denver’s defense was able to fluster the legendary quarterback.

“The way we rush, we’re going to make him a little bit uncomfortable in the pocket and obviously with the back end we have, they’re going make him hold it,’’ Bonitto said. “I can see how that can be for him as far as just being a little frustrated as the game goes on. … (We were) able to get after him and force him to make bad mistakes, and he made one (Sunday).”

That mistake came after the game was tied 6-6 at halftime, with Lutz getting two field goals and Kansas City’s Harrison Butker hitting two. On the Chiefs’ first drive of the second half, Mahomes blew what would have been an easy field-goal attempt by being picked off by McMillian on third-and-14 at the Denver 21. McMillian returned the pick 62 yards but a blindside block penalty on John Franklin-Myers on Mahomes moved the ball back to the Broncos 11.

“(Mahomes) doesn’t want that, I don’t want it,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid of that and other opportunities the Chiefs had that didn’t result in points.

After McMillian’s interception, the Broncos drove 89 yards for McLaughlin’s touchdown. The Chiefs followed that up with a 2-yard touchdown run by Kareem Hunt late in the third quarter that tied the score 13-13.

The Chiefs took their only lead of the game at 19-16 when Mahomes hit Travis Kelce for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 9:57 left in the game. But offensive lineman Frank Crum blocked the extra point.

That was one of many big special teams plays for the Broncos. They also got a 70-yard punt return by Marvin Mims Jr. in the first quarter that led to a Lutz field goal and Jeremy Crawshaw averaged 52.8 yards on four punts.

And of course, Lutz was perfect on field goals. That included the 35-yard boot that this time went through the uprights.

“There was some irony, obviously,’’ Payton said.