FanPost

Road to the AFCW championship


The month of November is behind us as Broncos fans - and what a way to end it! I am sure many here shared my frustration as we saw our team virtually self distruct. Last nights game was such a big win in terms of keeping any playoff hopes alive - but it was much more than that. It was an emotional lift for the team and the whole Rocky Mountain area. Went to 7-11 this morning for a cup a joe .... it was so great to once again hear the clerks and customers laughing and joking with the Broncos as the center of the conversation. It is so great to see our Mo... F...in team return and dominate in all three phases of the game. I bet the retailers up and down the front range as seeing just a little bit more joy in the cash registers ---- the gloom is gone!

When I got back from the store I decided I should see just how much damage November did in terms of play off position. We are obviously in the thick of the wild card race. We have a loss to the Steelers and will not play the Jags. We have five games left. Two look to be very tough - Indy and Philly. If we can split those and win the others we will finish at 11-5. I see that as the best likely outcome. To make it into the playoffs we will need some help.

Obvioulsy in November we surrendered control of the AFC West to the Chargers and now sit one game behind them. If the Charges can get through their final 6 games with only one loss then they are the AFC West champs - nothing we can do about it. Assuming we win our remaining divisional games and SD beats the Chiefs this Sunday we will have split the head to head series and have identical divisional records. The third tie breaker is winning percentage in common games. This year we share 7 non divisional opponents. So far Denver is 3-3 with one game left to play. The Chargers are 2-2 with 3 to play.

Of that group Denver has yet to play the Eagles. SD has a real tough stretch - playing at Dallas, hosting Cincy, (titans) and then the final game against Washington. To win the Division SD must win two of those matchups and lose no more than 2 games in the final six. If Denver fails to beat the Eagles it is pretty much over for the AFC West.

We lost the head to head against the Steelers, so we need a better record to beat them out for a wild card slot. The Steelers will play the Ravins twice, host the Pack and finish at Miami. They need to lose 2 games and have a pretty good chance of doing so.

Teams of note the Jags have to play yet: INDY, Huston (come on Kube - help us out) and New England. The Jags are 5-2 in conference play. The Broncos are 5-3. The two team each play 5 games against 4 common opponents which bring up tie breaker number 3. Assume Denver loses to Indy and wins twice against KC. The Jags would need to win only one of the games against Indy/NE to edge Denver out in both tiebreakers. If Denver beats Indy then the Jags need both wins.

It is very possible that an 11-5 team will not be invited to playoffs this year. Denver trails in most tiebreakers due to the poor performance in November. This is where the season becomes a lot of fun. Every game from here on out is critical. No one game is a make or break yet, but the race for both the division and the wild cards is very very tight going down the stretch. The two games remaining of greatest significance are against Indy and Philly - but any loss makes the goal of the Division or the Playoff just that much harder.

Here is hoping for yet another six game winning streak!

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.