Parker Gabriel, Post Broncos reporter
The bye week is in the rearview mirror and a trip to Tennessee kicks off a nine-game second half for the Broncos. Denver is 3-5 and two full games outside the Wild Card. First-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett has said a couple of times recently that any team that wants to make the playoffs has to get hot at some point. Given the Broncos beat Jacksonville in London before the off week and the way the schedule shapes up from here, this is his group’s best chance to do that. But it’s not going to be easy, particularly this weekend against a tough-as-nails Titans outfit that runs the ball, stops the run and has a powerful defensive front. After that, Denver has a home game against reeling Las Vegas and a winnable road trip to Carolina. Three wins puts the Broncos at 6-5 and right back in the Wild Card hunt. Not impossible, but that’s pretty aspirational at this point. Let’s say they find a way to get two of the next three and head into December at 5-6. Next up from there: at Baltimore and Kansas City at home. Still feels very much like a long shot.
Kyle Newman, Post Broncos reporter
Anyone in apountry who thinks Denver still has a legit shot at the playoffs is fooling themselves. Per FiveThirtyEight, the Broncos’ odds stand at a measly 8% entering their Week 10 road tester in Tennessee, where Denver’s defensive kryptonite — getting gashed in the run game — could get exposed by Derrick Henry & Co. And despite Las Vegas’ roller-coaster season, the Raiders are liable to rack up a sixth consecutive win in the series in Week 11. And looking beyond the next three games, even when the Chiefs play poorly they find ways to win, and that’s why K.C. will be favored to extend its winning streak over the Broncos to 15 games with wins in Week 14 and Week 17. Nathaniel Hackett blew his margin for error with four narrow losses, two of them in OT, in the first half. He’s not coaching for the playoffs anymore — he’s coaching to try to keep this team from imploding and to keep his job.
Sean Keeler, Post sports columnist
Only with two wins, minimum. And Vegas has to be one of them. The cool news? At least one AFC playoff team is likely sneaking into the bracket at 9-8. Less cool? The Broncos (3-5) have a ton of climbing to do to get there. Tennessee on the road is a great measuring stick and whether that fourth-quarter London comeback is genuine mojo thatap come back to Dove Valley from across the pond … or was just the Jags being Jags. Among AFC squads, only the Steelers (1-5) and the Texans (1-4-1) have a worse conference winning percentage than the Broncos’ 2-4, so thatap where dropping games to the Jets and Colts at home really comes back and bites you on the backside. Best make hay in November, Nathaniel Hackett — after Week 12, Team Russ may only be favored in a game just one more time (vs. Arizona, Dec. 18) the rest of the way.
