Good night, 2007.
The Broncos’ season of discontent officially was slammed shut on them Sunday. Just as it was most of the season, Sunday was a miserable day to be a Bronco.
The Broncos put themselves in a tight spot with a 31-13 loss at Houston on Thursday night to drop to 6-8. Thus, heading into Sunday’s action, the Broncos needed San Diego to lose at home to Detroit to stay alive in the AFC West race, and they needed Buffalo to win at Cleveland to stay in the AFC wild-card race.
Neither happened. Season over.
San Diego won its second straight division crown with a 51-14 rout of Detroit, which has lost six straight games since crushing the Broncos 44-7 on Nov. 4. Denver’s wild-card hopes were dashed when the Browns beat the Bills 8-0 in a snowstorm. The Chargers and Browns both improved to 9-5.
“Just looking at the veteran leadership we have on defense, I was very excited to being here and I still look forward to being here,” first-year Denver cornerback Dre Bly said Thursday night, reflecting on a soon-to-be-lost season. “I am just going to keep fighting and keep trying to do all I can do to help this team win.”
This is the second consecutive season Denver did not advance to the playoffs. The last time the Broncos missed the postseason in consecutive seasons was 2001 and 2002 when they went 8-8 and 9-7, respectively.
Now the Broncos enter the final two weeks of the season playing games that essentially are meaningless. Denver, which is on pace to pick in the No. 10 to No. 15 range in the first round of the April draft, ends the season with a Dec. 24 game at San Diego and a Dec. 30 home game against Minnesota. The Chargers are working for the AFC’s No. 3 seed in the playoffs, and the Vikings currently hold the final spot in the NFC wild-card race.
The Broncos will have to work to avoid their second sub-.500 season in the 13-year Mike Shanahan era. In 1999, in what was an injury-ravaged season and the first year of the team’s post-John Elway life, the Broncos went 6-10.
While all the Broncos can do is try to reach .500, they aren’t used to playing for nothing but pride. The Broncos’ last game that didn’t have playoff meaning was the final game of the 2005 season, but that was because they had the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs locked up.
Two weeks ago, after a 34-20 loss at Oakland, Shanahan made it clear the team would “play to win” the rest of the season even though the Broncos’ postseason chances appeared bleak. Now that the playoff chances officially have disappeared, expect Shanahan to keep the mantra.
“You put everything in the past behind you,” rookie running back Selvin Young said Thursday night. “I am the type of person that is going to keep on fighting and there are a lot of guys in the room that will keep on fighting. We are going to figure out a way to get this thing going back to the old Broncos days.”
Often, teams that are eliminated from contention turn to younger players to get an eye on the future. However, because of several injuries, the Broncos have been playing with a young cast virtually all season — 10 of Denver’s 22 starters are in their third season or less.
So the only lineup changes in the final two games likely will be determined by injuries. Tight end Daniel Graham is dealing with a high ankle sprain, and linebacker Ian Gold has a knee injury. Graham and Gold were injured during the Houston game. If Graham can’t play, Tony Scheffler will play more. Jamie Winborn would replace Gold.
“You’ve got a couple days off and you’ve got two games left,” Shanahan said after the Broncos’ loss to the Texans. “I expect the team to play much better than they did today.”
Bill Williamson: 303-954-1262 or bwilliamson@denverpost.com
