Broncos falling to a wild card would leave sour taste on great season

The Denver Broncos need to finish the job.

They’ve had too much go well this season not to.

And that task is winning their last two games, taking the AFC West and earning the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The road to the Super Bowl has to go through Empower Field at Mile High for the Broncos to have a realistic chance of reaching Santa Clara.

A wild card simply isn’t going to cut it.

Not after Denver won 11 games in a row in the middle of a magical year. They had heartbreaking losses to the Colts and Chargers in Weeks 2 and 3 then used that as fuel to go on an amazing streak.

Sure, the loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday was disappointing and exposed some holes. The defense is looking leaky down the stretch… again. The offense misses J.K. Dobbins and Bo Nix can’t be Superman every week. Plus, the injuries are starting to pile up.

But why stop now after everything the Broncos have accomplished?

The good news is they can’t.

Denver is 12-3, but received no help in the standings. Dallas got smacked by the Chargers, sending Los Angeles to 11-4. If they beat the Texans on Saturday then the Broncos the following week, L.A. is AFC West champions. The best seed Sean Payton’s bunch could earn would be the No. 5 in the AFC playoffs.

That sentence makes your stomach churn.

We’re all Broncos fans, but let’s be realistic about this. If Denver has to win two home games to go to Super Bowl LX, it could absolutely still happen. If they have to win three road games? The odds plummet. They might not even survive wild card weekend in Pittsburgh or Baltimore.

As the guy who wrote two weeks ago that Denver losing one game wouldn’t be a bad thing, here we are. Even Nix said after the Jaguars 34-20 win that the Broncos got hit in the mouth, but this is also a good chance to hit the reset button.

They won’t have a 14-game winning streak entering the postseason and maybe that’s decent news.

However, it’ll only be a good thing if they take down the battered Chiefs on Christmas night then handle the Chargers in the finale at home. The Texans could also do the Broncos a big favor this weekend, but let’s not count on it.

At the end of the day, a path to a title hinges on the next two games. And if Denver loses one (or both) and falters in the division, it’s going to leave a sour taste on a great season.

No one wants that and there’s still a path to the No. 1 seed that involves everything in the Broncos control. It’s two victories and they won’t have to get on a plane until February to head to the Super Bowl.

But by losing to the Jaguars, even with a potential renewed focus, the Broncos definitely made their jobs harder over the next 12 days. There will be no relaxing, no debating about whether or not the starters should sit in Week 18. It’s all systems go down the stretch.

It does make the end of the regular season more exciting, but Denver fans probably would’ve been fine coasting to the finish line. That can no longer happen in a wildly competitive division and conference.

So, grab your favorite food and drink, claim a comfortable seat and lock in. This storybook season has been too much fun for the Broncos to only be a wild card.

To the Denver players: Find a way to prevail the next two games, wrap up the division / conference and join us on the couch with a bye during the first weekend of the playoffs.

Related

Bo Nix won’t play in Broncos first preseason game, QB plan revealedBroncos list Jarrett Stidham as No. 2 QB on first depth chart of 2026 seasonBroncos 15th most valuable franchise in NFL, worth more than $9 billionA Week 1 win in Kansas City would change the national Broncos narrativeJonah Coleman looks like a first-round running back during training campIf Broncos need an emergency center, Quinn Meinerz is ready