DENVER — Playoffs? Darn straight, Jim Mora, the Broncos are thinking playoffs.
There are seven playoff spots for each conference. In the AFC, the two top teams, Baltimore and Miami, have three losses. Then three teams are tied for third with 8-5 records – the Chiefs, Jaguars and Browns. Tied for sixth are six teams with 7-6 records, including the Broncos.
That’s six teams vying for two spots with four games remaining.
“I’m sure we’ve seen it like this either in the NFC or the AFC, but I can’t recall having been a part of it,’’ Payton said.
He is setting his sights higher than one of those last wildcard spots.
“Obviously, we’re a game out in our division, and that’s how we’re looking at it,’’ Payton said. “We kind of talked about this last week. This next quarter poll is going to obviously define a lot for a lot of teams, and fortunately, we’re one of those teams. We just have to focus on the next job. It is unusual. I think it probably comes up a little more than we think and moves around from the NFC to the AFC.’’
While the Broncos are the NFL’s best team over the past eight weeks with six wins in their last seven games – including impressive victories against the playoff-contending Chiefs, Browns and Bills – it won’t be easy to catch Kansas City. Yes, the Broncos have a relatively easy schedule in their final four games with games at Detroit (9-4 but losers in two of their last three), 3-10 New England, the 5-8 Chargers and at the 5-8 Raiders.
But so do the Chiefs. They finish with home games against the Patriots, Raiders and 7-6 Bengals before finishing up at the Chargers.
There is a common-opponent tiebreaker that would favor the Broncos if the Chiefs lose to either Raiders or Chargers. And the common-opponent tiebreaker is a step ahead of the conference record tiebreaker - which if it comes into play, would favor the Chiefs as they are 6-2 in the AFC while the Broncos are 4-5.
Still, we're talking about a complicated scenario where the Broncos would have to win out to finish 11-6 and the Chiefs would have to lose to either the Raiders or Chargers for Denver to win the division.
So while there's a chance, a division title for the Broncos would not be the way to bet at this point.
A wild-card spot, though, would be quite the accomplishment for a team that started 0-3 with a 70-20 loss at Miami, and 1-5 with an embarrassing home loss to the New York Jets.
“It makes it exciting for the fans, and certainly for the TV,’’ Payton said.
"I mean, we know those things, but it's definitely not something I think about all the time,'' said Broncos' long hair on fire inside linebacker Alex Singleton. "We've got to go play Detroit (Saturday night), we've got four more games. We can kind of control our own destiny so take one week at a time, do what we've been doing these last six or seven weeks and control what we can control."
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