Six games into the 2017 Denver Broncos season, it’s starting to look like the Broncos will need at least six more wins if they want to have any chance of making the playoffs.

Six more wins could be a reach. After starting 3-1, Denver has stumbled to a 3-3 mark, looking worse for wear in each of their last two games. And nine wins wasn’t enough to get the job done last season.

The team that scored 42 points against Dallas in Week 2 has scored that same number over the past four games – combined. The Denver defense, which looks as strong as ever, can’t carry the load forever – as we learned the hard way in 2016.

With three tough opponents on the horizon (at Kansas City, at Philadelphia and home against New England), a 3-6 record through nine games seems more probable than plausible – especially after Sunday’s letdown in Los Angeles. Opponents like Cincinnati, the Jets and (at) Indianapolis provide a glimmer of hope for picking up at least three W’s, but the Giants and Chargers were supposed to be easy victories (if such a thing exists in the NFL), as well. Another three after that? Well, six wins total might be more realistic than six more wins this year.

There was an understandable cloud of doom and gloom hanging over the Centennial State after the Broncos were shut out for the first time in 25 years (and for the first time ever the Buffs were shut out on the same weekend as the Broncos), but there is reason for optimism in Colorado.

While the sports conversation in our state will always begin and end with the orange and blue, there are plenty of great Colorado sports stories to fill in the middle these days. Six more wins may or not be in the cards for the Broncos this season, but there are at least six teams in Colorado that deserve your attention while the Broncos figure things out.

No. 6 – Colorado Eagles

The reigning ECHL champions haven’t missed a step (or is it skate?) through the first four games of the 2017-18 campaign. The Eagles are off to a 4-0 start to the season, including an opening-weekend sweep of a home-and-home series with division rival Utah and a 12-goal showing against Norfolk in two games this past weekend.

2017 Kelly Cup MVP and Defenseman of the Year Matt Register joins captain Matt Garbowsky in a leadership corps that knows how to win during the grind of the regular season and when the pressure ratchets up in the playoffs. Last year’s primary goaltender, Kent Simpson, is gone, but the trio of Sam Brittain, Joe Cannata and Lukas Hafner (who was 14-2 in the playoffs last season) appears up for the task of defending the net in Loveland.

This will be Colorado’s final season in the ECHL before promotion to the AHL as the Avs’ top affiliate. You can bet they’d like to exit the old league in style with back-to-back titles.

No. 5 – Denver Nuggets

For the first time since George Karl was let go after winning NBA Coach of the Year, there is legitimate optimism surrounding the Denver Nuggets. Not hopes and wishes, but a bona fide belief that the pieces are in place to make the playoffs and surprise a few people.

The offseason acquisition of Paul Millsap and the constant rumors that other big names could be headed to the Mile High City (previously Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, etc.; currently Eric Bledsoe) has Denver abuzz about a return to relevance in the Western Conference.

Yes, the West is vastly improved this season as the arms race to catch Golden State has swept through Houston, Minnesota and Oklahoma City. And yes, it will take this current roster some time to find chemistry. But the Nuggets appear to be just one piece – which could be as simple as Jamal Murray blossoming into the start everyone believes he can be – away from being a dangerous squad for any team to contend with night in and night out.

No. 4 – Northern Colorado Men’s Basketball

Don’t let last year’s 11-18 (7-11 Big Sky) record fool you. The 2016-17 campaign in Greeley was a building-block year for Jeff Linder, who enters his second year as head coach believing his Bears have a legitimate shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

Linder managed to squeeze double-digit wins out of a depleted roster ravaged by self-imposed sanctions caused by the previous regime. This year he returns the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, guard Jonah Radebaugh, now a resdshirt sophomore, a preseason all-conference guard in junior Jordan Davis, and the player Linder believes will be the best player in the conference this season, transfer and redshirt senior guard Andre Spight.

Spight averaged just 6.6 points over 19.5 minutes per game in his lone season of action with Arizona State (2015-16), but the Burbank, Calif. native has all the talent necessary to dominate in the Big Sky. Keep an eye on Spight and the resot Linder’s Bears to surprise some people this season.

No. 3 – University of Denver Hockey

How did the defending national champions open up their 2017-18 season? Jim Montgomery’s Denver Pioneers went to South Bend, Ind. and took a pair of games from Notre Dame, who just happened to be the team DU beat in the national semifinals en route to their eighth national title. (Technically they picked up a win and a tie in the record book, defeating the Irish in a shootout to open the season and doubling them up the next night.)

The No. 1-ranked Pioneers earned another win and a tie in their home-opening series with Lake Superior State this past weekend. The Pios didn’t shy away from a tough schedule to start the season. They are in Boston this weekend for a split series with BU and BC, then face tough conference foes in Western Michigan, St. Cloud State, North Dakota and Minnesota Duluth (last year’s national runners-up), in that order, in the weeks that follow.

Fortunately for Montgomery, Denver’s core from last year’s championship squad remains intact – minus Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher. Denver has a habit of winning back-to-back titles (doing so in 1960 & ’61, 1968 & ’69 and 2004 & ’05). This year’s bunch appears primed for yet another repeat performance.

No. 2 – Colorado State Rams Football

With at least four games still remaining on the schedule (five if they make the MW Championship), the Rams are already bowl eligible at 6-2. And that’s not even close to the most exciting thing about Mike Bobo’s team this fall.

Colorado State is 4-0 in Mountain West play and sits atop the Mountain Division standings. Nick Stevens is among 20 quarterbacks still vying for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and Michael Gallup was recently named by Pro Football Focus as one of the two top receivers in the FCS. Bobo is getting contributions up and down the roster beyond his stars, and the Rams are playing with extreme confidence heading into the toughest stretch of their conference schedule.

This weekend’s home tilt with always-pesky Air Force is the prelude to what is sure to be a Border War battle for the ages against Wyoming the following week. If the Rams can survive those two games, it will set the stage for what could be a game to decide the division champion at home against Boise State on Nov. 11.

Consider that CSU still holds claim to the most points scored against No. 1-ranked (and still undefeated) Alabama this season and it’s easy to see why there’s tremendous optimism in Fort Collins these days.

No. 1 – Furniture Row Racing

While the Broncos were getting shut out for the first time in 25 years, Martin Truex Jr. and the team behind the No. 78 car were pulling out an improbable and record-setting victory at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR Playoffs.

After winning the pole, Truex was twice knocked to the back of the pack after a restart violation and then an unscheduled pitstop. Driving in honor of crew member Jim Watson, who passed away the night prior of a heart attack, Truex battled back to win the race and earn his Cup Series-leading seventh checkered flag of the season (and third win of the playoffs). It was a record sixth win this year at a 1.5-mile track and his fourth consecutive win on tracks of that length.

Truex enters the Round of 8 carrying a 27-point cushion on second-place Kyle Busch. With three races remaining to earn a spot in the winner-take-all final at Miami, Truex claims the most wins, stage wins, laps led, top-5 finishes and top-10 finishes in the circuit.

Simply put, Truex and the Denver-based No. 78 car have been the most dominant team in NASCAR this season. Now they have a fallen teammate to honor down the home stretch.

That’s six teams well worth your attention, regardless of whether the Broncos win another six games (or six games total) this season.