The Season is Not Over – On the Edge, but Not Over

The offense played very well for the third straight game Sunday. Photo Courtesy (AP/M. Spencer Green)

I was so angry and upset over Sunday’s loss I was ready to post a “season-ending” story. That’s the kind of loss Sunday was – the kind that ends a season for a football team. At 5-6, do the Broncos really belong in the playoffs? Should they be in the Super Bowl discussion?

I had to read this article I wrote three weeks ago, days after the Detroit debacle, to set myself straight. We’re not out yet, Broncos fans. The idiotic moments we had yesterday are, luckily, of the fixable kind. A few changes here and there and we’re right back in the mix.

For 54 1/2 minutes, the Broncos dominated the Bears. The Bears didn’t have a drive of 50 yards. The offense scored no touchdowns. In the first three quarters the Bears barely eclipsed 150 yards total offense. The Broncos nearly had that much in 2 plays, both passes, to Andre Hall and Brandon Marshall.

I completely blame assistant coaches Scott O’Brien and Jim Bates for ridiculous decisions in the second half. Of course, punting the ball to Devin Hester was obviously a huge mistake. The defense fell apart in those final minutes of the game, and many have pointed to the fact that the Broncos switched to a prevent defense. Can’t disagree there. While I agree that there were some bogus questionable calls by the refs, there’s no excuse for letting Rex Grossman manhandle us the way he did. Their offense was a non-factor the entire game; we switch to prevent defense and suddenly they’re juggernauts. Even in overtime it looked like we were playing prevent. Unacceptable.

We are now officially on the edge. Consider this the playoffs. One and done. We cannot afford to lose another game. The Chargers have the advantage in the West now, and we will absolutely have to beat them, and everyone else on our schedule, to win the division. Even if the Chargers struggle in one or two of their games, would we want to win the West without beating San Diego?

Other than that Christmas Eve battle, the rest of our schedule looks very winnable. No team has a winning record, and if we can find a way to beat the Chargers we’ll be AFC West champs.

Win the division and we have a home playoff game. We’d be riding a 5-game winning streak with a ton of momentum. Then take the schedule one game at a time – we’d have a home playoff game, then a visit to Foxboro and maybe, just maybe, another shot at the big game.

The room for error is gone now. It’s time for the Broncos to win out, or embrace 2008. For me personally, I’m still all about 2007.

But, like the Broncos, I’m on the edge.