Sunday was a big day for the Broncos beyond their beatdown of the Lions

DENVER — Sunday was for Demaryius Thomas.

Denver’s former star receiver was honored at nearly every turn at Empower Field at Mile High before, during and following the Broncos-Lions game, after passing away late Thursday night at only 33 years old.

“We had something bigger to play for today. We were playing for ‘DT,’” Javonte Williams stated after the game.

Thomas’ spiritual presence helped propelled the Broncos to a much-needed 38-10 beat down of the Lions and put them that much closer to the playoffs.

On Dec. 12, the Denver Broncos have a winning record.

In the middle of December, the Denver Broncos are right in the thick of the playoff race.

At 7-6, Vic Fangio’s group has the same record as the final two wild card teams.

In fact, in terms of the playoff picture, Sunday was even better for the Broncos than just their 28-point victory.

Entering the weekend, sitting with the 12th seed in the AFC, Denver was one game back of all three wild card teams. For the Broncos to jump in the standings, they needed help.

Fortunately, they were given a lot of help.

It started on Thursday Night Football with the Steelers falling just short of an epic comeback against the Vikings. The now 6-6-1 Steelers sit behind the Broncos in the playoff picture.

On Sunday, the good fortunate continued to pour in for the Broncos outside of Denver too.

Of the five other teams in the wild card hunt that played on Sunday, three of them lost.

The Broncos can ship out thank you notes to the Buccaneers for beating the Bills, the 49ers for beating the Bengals and the Chiefs for beating the Raiders. Okay, maybe don’t send a thank you card to Kansas City.

The only two teams in the hunt for wild card spots that won were the Chargers and the Browns.

Thanks to those four key losses over the weekend, along with the Broncos win, the 7-6 Broncos are tied with the Colts, Bills, Browns and Bengals for the final two wild card spots.

However, with the way the tiebreakers are, Denver is currently the 10th seed in the AFC. Thanks to the Steelers and Raiders losses, the Broncos did jump two spots.

A win next week against the Bengals, who currently are the ninth-seed, and the Broncos are guaranteed to jump at least one more spot.

“We need to come back ready to go against a really good ‘Cincy’ team,” Justin Simmons stated. “That win right there will set us up for the last three games of the season. It’s still that 1-0 mentality. It’s a must-win on Sunday.”

Three of Denver’s final four games are against teams currently competing for the three wild card spots. After hosting the 7-6 Bengals next Sunday, the Broncos have back-to-back road games against the 6-7 Raiders and the 8-5 Chargers before finishing the season at home against the 9-4 Chiefs, who are the No. 3 seed.

“We’re going to approach every game like it’s a must-win and go at it like that and see how many we can get in these next four weeks,” Fangio stated after the Broncos dominant win.

For the first time since 2016, the Denver Broncos have a winning record in December and are playing meaningful football games in the final month of the season.