Broncos will play Sunday afternoon with playoffs on the line

The Denver Broncos know what to do — and now they officially know when they’ll have to do it.

Sunday night, the NFL officially set the start times for Week 18, and the league opted to put the Broncos’ regular-season finale in the late-afternoon window Sunday with a 2:25 p.m. MST kickoff.

The game will be broadcast on CBS.

In setting the game times for the three teams left pursuing the No. 7 seed in the AFC, the NFL opted to thread a needle that allowed them to spotlight the Cincinnati Bengals in prime time on Saturday night while neither advancing nor eliminating either the Broncos or the Miami Dolphins.

If the Bengals win at Pittsburgh on Saturday night in a game broadcast by ESPN, they must still wait on the results of the Broncos and Dolphins games, as they need defeats by both teams in order to return to the playoffs. But a Bengals loss changes nothing for Denver and Miami, as the Broncos still have full control of the race for the No. 7 seed, advancing with a win or a tie against Kansas City.

Miami needs a win over the New York Jets and a Broncos loss in order to return to the postseason for a third-straight season. Cincinnati needs a win at Pittsburgh and losses by Denver and Miami.

At 9-7, Denver leads the Bengals and Dolphins by one game after losing back-to-back games to the Chargers and Bengals.

BRONCOS NO LONGER COMPETING WITH THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS

Miami defeated Cleveland 20-3 on Sunday afternoon to remain in the race, but Indianapolis fell out of the picture with a 45-33 defeat to the woeful New York Giants.

The loss by the Colts didn’t appreciably affect the Broncos when it came to the No. 7 seed. That’s because Denver won a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Colts, but would have lost all other tiebreakers involving the Dolphins and Bengals if some or all of those teams finished 9-8. Indianapolis would have won those tiebreakers by virtue of a superior conference record and a head-to-head win over the Miami Dolphins.

The Broncos will have a 5-7 record against AFC foes if they lose next week, which is why they fall in all potential tiebreakers with a 9-8 overall finish.

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