Follow along throughout the day as the Broncos wait to see if they can qualify for a wildcard.

There are many angles to look at for the Sunday game against the KC Chiefs.  We could breakdown the Xs and Os, we could compare the teams, we could look at the players, or we could even evaluate our playoff chances.  There are many ways to approach this.

But I'm going to take a different tack.  I'm going to look at the locker room issues that have come up lately, and see if I can make some sense of what is going on for this team, now and going into the off season.  Keep in mind I scrapped my entire rough draft I prepared for this game due to the news of Marshall and Scheffler's de-activation for Sunday's game.

I hope that I can lend some credible and reasoned opinions about what is happening (or may be happening), and that the discussion generated is healthy and cordial.  Remember folks, this doesn't need to be "McDaniels haters" versus "Marshall haters".  This is about the Broncos, and what the team needs to do moving forward.  Let's keep the discussion respectful, and let me start it off today with my own take.

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Here are the Broncos inactives for today's game against Philadelphia -

QB Tom Brandstater
WR Eddie Royal
CB Ty Law
RB LaMont Jordan
DB Vernon Fox
FB/LB Spencer Larsen
OL Seth Olsen
DL Chris Baker

John and various members of the staff here are once again competing in the annual MHR Pick'em challenge. You will notice the Denver Broncos game is not included.  We'll just say everyone roots for the Broncos each week! Guru's wife is a Patriots fan, so her pick will be of the Broncos game.  Just so homerism doesn't affect the outcome again this year.

WEEK 15
-	John	Steve	Tim	Doug	Ted	Mdierk	Guru Wife
SD @ TEN	SD	SD	SD	SD	TEN	TEN	SD
BUF @ ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL	ATL
SEA @ GB/td>	GB	GB	GB	GB	GB	GB	GB
CAR @ NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG
TB @ NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO
BAL @ PIT	PIT	PIT	PIT	BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL
JAX @ NE	NE	NE	NE	NE	NE	NE	PHI
HOU @ MIA	MIA	MIA	MIA	HOU	MIA	MIA	MIA
KC @ CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN	CIN
OAK @ CLE	OAK	CLE	CLE	OAK	OAK	CLE	CLE
STL @ ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI
DET @ SF	SF	SF	SF	SF	SF	SF	SF
NYJ @ IND	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND
DAL @ WAS	DAL	DAL	DAL	DAL	DAL	DAL	DAL
MIN @ CHI	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN
Last Week	11-4	8-7	9-6	10-5	10-5	9-6	8-7
Season Record	143-66	140-69	141-68	136-73	135-74	140-69	141-68

Merry Christmas!  Read this breakdown of the upcoming Broncos / Eagles game, then get back to your family and the Christmas cheer!

The Denver Broncos control their own destiny.  If they can beat the Eagles at Philly and the Chiefs at home, they get into the playoffs.  In fact, Denver can get into the playoffs with just a win this week (with losses by MIA, JAX, PIT, and NYJ).  With a loss this week, they can still get in, but the odds would be real long and Denver would need a lot of help.

As I thought some time ago, the game against PHI will be huge for Denver.  I didn't expect a playoff spot this year, nor did I predict a record better than 8 wins (though I was confident the team would look much better).  Now the team looks SO much better that fans are getting upset that the team might not make the playoffs at all.  If anything, this shows how far we've come as a team.  But I knew deep down that the PHI game represented the last game on the schedule that looked to me like a tough match-up.  It seemed to me that if there was going to be any chance of a playoff spot, the Eagles game would be key.

What should we watch for in this game?

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I take an inordinate amount of notes on the upcoming games throughout the week, culled from all of Doug's great links in Tracks, emails with local and not-so-local sportswriters and analysts, and a few rare gems that I manage to find the time to dig up myself.

I finally decided it was time to settle on a format and share the info with MHR, so bear with me if this seems clumsy or ham-handed in its first incarnation;  as in any analysis, whether it is draft prospects or short yardage running games, the choice isn't "what do I include?" but, "what do I leave out?"  Let's see how it goes.  Welcome to Sunday Morning Scout, the best way to begin a Broncos Sunday:  MHR style!

With three weeks to go, this is pretty easy:  beat Oakland and beat Kansas City, two sub-.500 teams whom Denver has beaten by double digits already this year.

Worst-case scenario if they do this is 10 wins, which can only be challenged by both Miami (7-6) and Baltimore (7-6) going 3-0 and having Miami's Strength of Victory clock in higher than Denver's.  Denver currently owns the higher (adjusted for assumed wins and losses by the above scenario) strength of victory, and a little projective number crunching puts the remaining variables in Denver's favor by a slight 2-1 edge (out of 27 variable games Denver only requires 9 favorable outcomes compared to Miami's 18).

The NFL is a game of percentages over time, and those percentages say that in the above tiebreak scenario, Denver's slight advantage is all they need, so Denver's job is as clear as it has ever been:  win division games at home.  That was true on day one of the season, and it will still be true on day 119.

Continue reading this post »

John and various members of the staff here are once again competing in the annual MHR Pick'em challenge. You will notice the Denver Broncos game is not included.  We'll just say everyone roots for the Broncos each week! Guru's wife is a Patriots fan, so her pick will be of the Broncos game.  Just so homerism doesn't affect the outcome again this year.

WEEK 15
-	John	Steve	Tim	Doug	Ted	Mdierk	Guru Wife
IND @ JAX	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND	IND
DAL @ NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	DAL	NO	NO
CHI @ BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL	BAL
NE @ BUF	NE	NE	NE	NE	NE	NE	DEN
ARI @ DET	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI	ARI
CLE @ KC	CLE	KC	CLE	CLE	CLE	KC	KC
ATL @ NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ	NYJ
SF @ PHI	PHI	PHI	PHI	PHI	PHI	PHI	PHI
GB @ PIT	PIT	GB	GB	GB	GB	GB	GB
HOU @ STL	HOU	HOU	HOU	HOU	HOU	HOU	HOU
MIA @ TEN	TEN	MIA	TEN	TEN	TEN	TEN	TEN
CIN @ SD	SD	SD	SD	SD	CIN	SD	SD
TB @ SEA	SEA	SEA	SEA	SEA	SEA	SEA	SEA
MIN @ CAR	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN	MIN
NYG @ WAS	NYG	NYG	WAS	NYG	NYG	NYG	NYG
Last Week	6-9	12-3	7-8	10-5	9-6	9-6	10-5
Season Record	132-62	132-62	132-62	126-68	125-69	131-63	133-61