What is the level of confidence in the Denver Broncos right this minute, Broncos Country?
Are you eager for the Broncos’ first AFC playoff game… or are you dreading it? Probably somewhere in between?
The newly minted AFC West champions finished off a remarkable regular season as the top seed in the upcoming AFC playoffs. They tied with New England and Seattle for the best record in football. In their illustrious history, the Broncos have been the one-seed eight times previously – and gone on to the Super Bowl in six of those seasons. Sounds pretty good, right?
It is good. Damn good. Especially in a season where expectations were present… but limited. Most predicted a 10 or 11-win season and another wild card berth. Two wins over the Chiefs? A win over the Super Bowl champs in Philly? All those come-from-behind and one-score wins?
No one predicted any of that.
Sean Payton and the entire Broncos organization overachieved, and deserve all the kudos that are coming their way.
Why then, are so many so uneasy about this team heading into the postseason?
Because if you watched the games, you watched a team that didn’t necessarily look the part of a division champion and Super Bowl favorite. Oftentimes, not even close. In their final regular-season game against the Los Angeles Chargers, they looked like a team that, for all the great defense being played by the guys in orange, were lucky to even score on offense. No running game to speak of. Mediocre pass protection at best. A young quarterback who looked more like Tim Tebow than John Elway. Gamebreakers? Playmakers? Missing and/or AWOL.
In a lot of ways, this Broncos team defies explanation. An offense that finished the season ranked 14th in the NFL. A minus-3 turnover margin that ranked 20th in the league. Spotty special teams. Yet they still won 14 games – 12 by one score – and could have easily won two more. Head-scratching.
In the Year of the Coach, Denver’s Sean Payton will get a few Coach of the Year votes. He too, however, will finish in the middle of that pack.
The big question is, can they somehow keep this magic up in the playoffs?
You’re excused if you’re still skeptical. You watched what you watched, and you saw what you saw. Nothing short of an offensive transformation will erase those images.
Maybe ‘Mile High Magic’ will carry the day? Home field typically makes a big difference in the postseason. Add in a defense with a newfound penchant for creating turnovers (at least for one game) and game-changing stops, and a special teams unit that can actually be special once in a while, and you never know.
The Broncos could end up facing one of four teams: Pittsburgh, Los Angeles (for the third time this season), Buffalo and Houston. The most likely is the Texans, who will probably take out the Steelers this weekend. Yes, Denver defeated the Texans in Houston earlier in the season, but remember that Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud was hurt early in that game (he’s back now) and Denver’s J.K. Dobbins was healthy (he’s out injured now.) And it’s the Texans that finished the season as the top-ranked defense in the NFL, not Denver.
Nobody wants to come to Mile High, but there are teams the Broncos would rather not host, too. Teams like the Texans or the Chargers, who seem to have the formula for locking down the Denver offense.
The way the Broncos’ fortunes have gone this season, it will probably be Pittsburgh that ends up coming to Denver. That would be the best-case scenario for the Broncos. The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game in a decade. And with the Artist Formerly Known as Aaron Rodgers taking the snaps, the Denver pass rush could have a field day.
We can hope.
At this point, it’s more than fair to be excited… and more than fair to be skeptical. Perhaps both at the same time. The entire NFL is a coin flip this season, but at least the Broncos have possession of the coin.
