The Broncos are in for a different kind of test this Sunday.
As the team heads to upstate New York to face the Bills, they’ll need to do more than just survive #BillsMafia getting from the parking lot to the stadium on Sunday morning.
Yes, Buffalo fans are the craziest in the NFL – just Google some of their antics the last few years – but it won’t just be a riled-up crowd Denver has to fight off.
The Broncos will be battling themselves – and that little inclination to look ahead.
In the next few days you’ll hear and read a lot of similar quotes out of Dove Valley. The sole focus is Buffalo, escaping with a win, and nothing else.
That’s the correct response – the team should be focused on the Bills – even if it’s not the most honest one. But no one will blame the Broncos for fibbing a bit.
The Buffalo wings are just the appetizer.
The main course arrives Oct. 1 in the form of the Oakland Raiders.
There are only 16 games in an NFL season, and no team should ever be overlooked, but it’s hard to imagine the Broncos don’t have the game against their most hated rival circled.
Odds are Denver will be 3-0. Odds are Oakland will be 3-0.
It may be early, but the winner of that game will have the upper hand on a coveted playoff berth out of football’s toughest division. Normally, you’d say whomever emerges victorious would be in the driver’s seat of the AFC West, but after beating the Patriots in New England in Week 1, the Chiefs are currently hogging the left lane.
That’s what makes it so tempting to want to jump in a hot tub time machine and skip the trip to Buffalo.
Assuming the Broncos win the games they should win, like the one this Sunday, the season will come down to four games. That may sound like a simplification, but considering they’re all against division rivals who could play in the Super Bowl, it isn’t.
The aforementioned Oct. 1 game against Oakland. A trip to Kansas City for Monday Night Football on Oct. 30. One of the last ever trips to the Black Hole on Nov. 26. And New Year’s Eve in Denver against the Chiefs.
Go 4-0 or 3-1, and the Broncos will have their eyes on a division crown and first-round bye. A mark of 2-2 should have them right there for a Wild Card spot. Finish 1-3 (like they did last year) or 0-4, and it’ll be another January spent on the couch.
Never in the last five-plus years have AFC West games been so important. Between the Raiders being craptastic, Chargers being mediocre and Peyton Manning never, ever losing division games, it was a foregone conclusion the Broncos would be the best of the bunch. Until 2016 rolled around.
Manning retired, the Raiders suddenly became really good, and the Chiefs added dynamic playmakers around a boring, yet steady quarterback. There’s a reason this group is the crown jewel of the NFL. Three out of the four teams could legitimately hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
And with that, let’s regress, back to those pesky Bills.
They’ve got playmakers on both sides of the ball, a starved offense that will eventually break out and the team plays in an electric environment fueled by an absurd fan base.
Just look at what they threw on the damn field last year. These people are animals.
The Broncos can’t get trapped. They can’t, somehow, stumble into that Oakland game at 2-1 off a bitter loss. Battering the Cowboys was far too big a high to somehow lose on Sunday to a bottom-tier AFC team.
That’s why this weekend is a unique test. It’s a self-administered one that Denver must pass by having laser-sharp focus on the task at hand.
Oakland will be here on the first day of October regardless.
The Broncos must lock in this Sunday to make sure they’re undefeated entering the following one.
