In a tight AFC West divisional race, the Denver Broncos have dug themselves into a hole after a heart-wrenching loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite having a solid 7-4 record, the Broncos sit third in their division behind the Chiefs and the 9-2 Oakland Raiders.
Now two games behind Oakland—who manages to keep winning close games—Denver must also begin to consider the race in the AFC Wild Card, where they’ll have to contend with the Chiefs and the 7-4 Miami Dolphins. The Broncos have their work cut out for them now with an upcoming schedule that includes games against the New England Patriots, Raiders, and Chiefs.
“Obviously this one stinks, and we’ve got a bad taste in our mouth,” quarterback Trevor Siemian said following the Sunday night loss. “But I think one of our strengths as a team is we’ve got a real resilient group, and it starts with [Head Coach Gary Kubiak]. I think guys are already chomping at the bit to get back to work.”
While Siemian was ready to get right back to competing even immediately after a five-quarter war against KC, Von Miller doesn’t think maintaining confidence while being third in the standings will be an issue at all.
“When you look at it,” said the star linebacker coming off his best game of the year. “It’s not really a tough thing to do. I have T.J. [Ward] and [Aqib] Talib and Chis Harris Jr. and all of these guys who are elite guys. We have great leaders in our locker room. It’s not like were going to go in there and just put the pads up. We still have a lot of big games. Anything can happen. We saw it play out last year. We didn’t know how the season was going to end up. We ended up playing it out, and we got the No. 1 seed. We just have to keep playing. It’s the National Football League. People are going to make plays. We’ve been on the better side of these types of games for the longest. It was just one that got away from us.”
If anything, the loss has appeared to light an even bigger fire under the defending champs, who might have might have found themselves a quarterback in the Sunday night loss.
“I don’t think any of us need any more motivation to play hard,” said Siemian. “I think that’s one of [Kubiak]’s messages that we all kind of embrace. [It’s] just play hard. Play harder than the other team. It just so happened they made a few more plays than us. I’m disappointed.”
Linebacker Shane Ray’s assessment of the situation was even more cut and dry.
“Win,” said Ray about the key to bouncing back from the loss. “This locker room is full of great leaders. I’ve been lucky to be around great vets that have the mentality that we’re going to play hard every snap and do whatever we have to do to win. We’re going to come in like we do after any win or any loss and try to get better. Focus more, pay more attention to detail, and we’ve got to try to win out. That’s what it is.”
“It’s a tough division. I mean, the statistics speak for itself,” added wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders. “If you look at everybody’s record, everybody’s coming in the different games, and they’re playing well. We’ve definitely got our hands full. But if we want to make the playoffs and we want to go on a run and we want to go back to back, we’ve got to pretty much win out and just keep going and get hot. That’s what it’s about.”
This group was able to do it last year with their backs against the wall; only time will tell if they can do it all again. One thing’s for sure, though, there’s no doubt in that locker room that the Broncos can still achieve every goal they’ve set out for themselves.
