Don’t look now but the road to the Super Bowl may go through Denver after all.
What a great day for the Denver Broncos.
They not only won their NFL-record 15th straight road divisional game, the vaunted, mighty New England Patriots lost their second-straight. The Broncos now sit in the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs thanks to this fortuitous Sunday.
It all started for Denver thanks to a 17-3 win in San Diego in front of an orange-clad Qualcomm “Mile High” Stadium. As has been the case the last few years, it was a ninth home game for the Broncos.
The win wasn’t pretty, especially when you take into account the injuries – C.J. Anderson, Vernon Davis and Danny Trevathan. That’s on top of DeMarcus Ware, T.J. Ward and Sylvester Williams, who were already out. Regardless of how Denver has made it look the last five seasons, it’s hard to win on the road and on the road in the division. As the old cliche goes, you can throw the records out when you play in the division.
Minus the first drive of the game for Denver, the offense held on for dear life. Who would have thought the Broncos could win when the offense scores 10 points?
When you have the best defense in the NFL, it makes that possible. Constant pressure on Philip Rivers, great coverage by the secondary and three turnovers with one returned for a touchdown were the highlights. It should have been two defensive touchdowns after the awful defensive holding call on Chris Harris that negated his pick-six, but we don’t live in New England.
This was a special performance by the Broncos defense, and one that was needed. To hold Rivers to 202 yards passing, and the Chargers to 272 total yards and three points is impressive. When you consider the injuries, that shoots up. When the Denver defense plays like that, Brock Osweiler and the offense don’t have to play lights out. They can simply “hold on.” They can grind out the game and make it as ugly as possible as long as the team wins.
And how about Von Miller? Two sacks, a fumble recovery and he did it without Ware, who should return next week. Wow, boy. Look out.
Plus, the Broncos were still able to run the ball, though not as effectively the last two weeks. Still, 134 yards on 39 attempts, without Anderson in the second half, isn’t too shabby.
Without the win in San Diego, it wouldn’t have mattered what unfolded in Foxborough – a 35-28 Philadelphia Eagles win. I thought Tom Brady and New England were on a “revenge tour.” Huh. As was said earlier this week, the defending champs are soft.
As for the No. 1 seed, just like with Sunday, Denver has to hold serve. The big one is no doubt the Monday Night affair with the Cincinnati Bengals in the penultimate game of the season. That would give Denver the head-to-head advantage over both the Bengals and Patriots. But the focus has to turn to the Oakland Raiders next week, just as Gary Kubiak said in his post game news conference. Continue to win and let the rest play out. Take care of what Denver can control.
Still, the fact that the Broncos are in this spot with four games remaining has to fire up this team. With three of those four games in Mile High should kindle that fire even more.
To be in this spot with the injuries has to give them even more confidence.
Prior to Sunday’s game, I said Denver needed to continue to mold its playoff identity. Mission accomplished.
If the Broncos continue to play defense and run the football as they did against the Chargers, the road to the Super Bowl will go through Denver.
