Broncos now in prime playoff position

Travel and work have kept me away from the blog for about a week but I wanted to put a quick post to wrap-up this weekend's events in the NFL which have made the Broncos a favorite for one of the wild card slots. Pittsburgh and Baltimore (both teams that hold the tie-breaker over Denver) lost this week and are left at 6-6. Pittsburgh's loss to Oakland was particularly bad - but should also signal a warning to anybody who thinks the upcoming Oakland game is a guaranteed win. The Dolphins and the Jets are also both 6-6 but Denver has a better in-conference record so owns the tie-breakers with both of them. Jacksonville sits at 7-5. With Denver, these are the 6 teams competing for 2 wild card slots.

A few knockout games make me especially confident at this point that Denver will make the playoffs with 10 wins:

Baltimore faces Pittsburgh. Both teams would have to win their last 4 games to tie denver at 10-6. Since they face eachother, that is impossible.

Pittsburgh faces Miami. This will be a good game for Denver regardless since this eliminates another 6-6 team from getting to 10 wins.

Jacksonville faces Miami. Another matchup of two teams behind the Broncos. Good for Denver either way, but I'd rather see Jacksonville win and knock Miami out.

New York has a game at Indy and finishes at home vs Cincinatti. However, Indy may be resting players and so may Cincinatti. Their other two games are versus Tampa Bay and Atlanta. I think there is a loss in there somewhere.

Denver seems to be back on track in the last two game - very convincing wins over the Giants and Kansas City. While these may have been struggling opponents, Denver beat them the way they should have.

The key to the rest of the season, in my opinion, is how Denver can bounce back from their likely loss to Indianapolis this weekend. THis is not a game we need to win, but Denver cannot afford to spiral into another losing streak.