Not Too Late

The Broncos have only won the AFC West once since winning Super Bowl XXIII. They've had some good teams, but there has always been a better team.

This isn’t the worst Broncos team of my lifetime, and it certainly isn’t the best. But it might be the strangest. The season was looking pretty hopeless a mere two weeks ago, with the Broncos sitting at 4-4 after losing twice at home and getting blown out on Monday Night Football. The two best players on what was already an unimpressive Bronco defense, D.J. Williams and Champ Bailey, were out with injuries. Offensively, the Broncos were down to their fourth-string tailback. And three of their next four games were on the road. It took some effort for one to remind oneself that the Broncos were still in first place in the stanky AFC West division.

In the first half of their Thursday night game with the Cleveland Browns, it appeared that the Broncos were going to continue to sink to the depths of the NFL. And then they scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to prevail, 34-30, although Brandon Marshall almost ruined it with an Obama tribute after scoring the winning touchdown. The aforementioned fourth-string tailback, Ryan Torain, the much-hyped late-round draft choice who some had pegged as the second coming of Terrell Davis, was lost for the season in this game. Starting middle linebacker Nate Webster was also injured.

So for the much hyped rematch with former kicker Jason Elam this past Sunday, the Broncos trotted out rookies such as Spencer Larsen, Wesley Woodyard, and Peyton Hillis to carry them on to a 24-20 victory over the Atlanta Falcons. P.J. Pope, who I had never heard of, came up from the practice squad to make his debut in the Broncos backfield. Tatum Bell, who had been selling cell phones at the Aurora Mall and working out at Smoky Hill High School since being cut by the worst team in the NFL last summer, was resigned by the Broncos a year and a half after being traded away. For some reason, a lot of people thought this was a huge upset as the Falcons are apparently destined to become the greatest team since the 1966 Green Bay Packers. Whatever.

Anyways, the Broncos are still maintaining a two-game lead in the AFC West over the San Diego Chargers. Two of their next three games are home games against Oakland and Kansas City – which should be sure wins – although you never know with this year’s edition of the Broncos. If the Broncos get to 10 wins, they win the division. I’m thinking that it’s going to come down to that last game – Broncos v. Chargers in San Diego – to determine the AFC West champ and a playoff spot. The Broncos will be 9-6, the Chargers will be 8-7 but would have the tiebreaker if they win the last game (due to the Broncos losing that game to the Chiefs). And the winner would host a playoff game versus the Dolphins, Patriots, Ravens, or Colts.