In the spirit of the holidays, those bumbling, fumbling Oakland Raiders weren’t about to help out the Broncos.
Had the Raiders managed to win at home Saturday night against the AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs, the Broncos would have had a chance to clinch a wild-card playoff berth today with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Invesco Field at Mile High.
While a win over Cincinnati would put the Broncos in great shape for one of the final AFC playoff seeds heading into their regular- season finale next Sunday at home against San Francisco, they can’t clinch today after the Chiefs defeated the Raiders 20-9.
There are two ways, however, the Broncos could be eliminated from the playoffs with a loss today.
One, the Broncos’ season essentially would be finished if Cincinnati wins today, Jacksonville wins at home against New England and the New York Jets win at Miami on Monday night.
The second dark scenario for the Broncos would be if they lose, Jacksonville wins and Buffalo loses today at home against Tennessee.
While these two scenarios would doom the Broncos’ quest for a fourth consecutive playoff appearance, there are numerous other combinations in which they would not be eliminated by defeat.
The Broncos, though, weren’t counting on the Raiders anyway.
“We’ve known for a couple weeks now that the important thing is for us to take care of business,” Broncos safety John Lynch said. “We take care of business, we don’t need help from anybody else.”
Indeed, if the Broncos win today, they would be in possession of the No. 5 seed in the six-team AFC playoffs and would stay there if they also beat the San Francisco 49ers next weekend at Invesco Field.
Two more wins and Denver is in.
Snowballs not allowed
Ever seen more than 76,000 pairs of snow boots crammed into one place?
The Broncos hope to this afternoon. The big, bad blizzard at midweek dumped more snow than Colorado’s solar system, and stranded workforce, could remove.
Mac Freeman, in charge of Invesco Field stadium operations, said Saturday that while inner parking lots, stairs, concourses and aisles have been cleared, there will be snow under and between seats.
“So wear boots and please don’t throw snowballs,” Freeman said.
Footnotes
Bengals offensive left tackle Levi Jones is expected to play today for the first time since he suffered a knee injury Oct. 15 at Tampa Bay. Jones’ return comes one week after rookie left tackle Andrew Whitworth allowed three sacks to Indianapolis Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney….The Bengals had a 30- minute walk-through Saturday at Invesco Field and reported no footing problems. “The field’s in terrific shape,” Freeman said.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com.
