The Broncos earned their first playoff berth since the 2005 season by virtue of coming out on top of the most closely contested division in the NFL this season.
Three teams finished tied atop the AFC West with 8-8 records and the fourth place team, Kansas City, came in just one game back at 7-9. No other division had fewer than four games separate the top from the bottom.
Denver, Oakland and San Diego were so even-matched throughout the season that it took the third tiebreaker to determine a division champ. With three teams tied, the NFL’s initial tiebreaker is head-to-head record amongst the tied teams. Every team in the division split its games against the other three AFC west clubs, so it was on to the next tiebreaker.
Tiebreaker No. 2 is the win-loss percentage withing division games. Since all four teams finished 3-3 in divisional play, the process moved on to tiebreaker No. 3, which is win-loss percentage in games against common opponents.
Each AFC West team played the four clubs in the NFC North (Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay and Minnesota) and the four members of the AFC East (Buffalo, Miami, New England and N.Y. Jets). Those eight games, along with six AFC West games that each team had in common added up to 14 common opponents between Denver, Oakland and San Diego.
This is the tiebreaker that gave the Broncos the AFC West after the team finished one game better than Oakland and San Diego in this comparison. Denver posted a 7-7 record to Oakland’s and San Diego’s 6-8.
If you are trying to pinpoint specific games that factored into the team’s division title more than others, Denver’s wins over Miami, Chicago and the New York Jets were the difference makers in this tiebreaker. Those also happened to be three of the Broncos’ most improbable victories of the year.
The Broncos and Raiders fared the same against every one of their common opponents with the exception of the Dolphins. Denver overcame a 15-0 deficit late in the fourth quarter to come away with an 18-15 overtime victory, while Oakland lost to Miami 34-14.
Denver earned the advantage over San Diego with wins over Chicago and the New York Jets — both of whom defeated the Chargers. San Diego did come out on top of Buffalo, who Denver lost to, but the wins over the Bears and Jets gave the Broncos a one-game edge in this comparison. Both of those wins also saw Denver overcome late deficits to earn the victories.
Below is a game-by-game comparison of how the three teams fared against common opponents:
Denver: San Diego and Oakland each went 1-1 against the Broncos.
Oakland: Denver and San Diego each went 1-1 against the Raiders.
San Diego: Denver and Oakland each went 1-1 against the Chargers.
Kansas City: Denver, San Diego and Oakland each went 1-1 against the Chiefs.
Chicago: Denver won 13-10, Oakland won 25-20, San Diego lost 31-20.
Detroit: Denver lost 45-10, Oakland lost 28-17 and San Diego lost 38-10.
Green Bay: Denver lost 49-23, Oakland lost 46-16 and San Diego lost 45-38.
Minnesota: Denver won 35-32, Oakland won 27-21 and San Diego won 24-17.
Buffalo: Denver lost 40-13, Oakland lost 38-35 and San Diego won 37-10.
Miami: Denver won 18-15, Oakland lost 34-14, San Diego won 26-16.
New England: Denver lost 41-21, Oakland lost 31-19 and San Diego lost 35-21.
New York Jets: Denver won 17-13, Oakland won 34-24 and San Diego lost 23-20.
-Stuart Zaas
Tags: AFC West, Common Opponents, Tiebreakers, Wild Card
thanks miami for blowing the raiders out lol.
Fact based but no picker upper.
This is the type of game where we must have the “ridiculous turnover”. The one where we either pick one off or recover a fumble and return it for a TD. to be a “ridiculous turnover” it must be returned for at least 50 yards with nothing but the end zone in the players way. The one where every fan is just screaming and jumping up and down and in circles while the player is still running. Those are the greatest moments in any football game. We need one of those, and we have to have one of those.
Curt
The way I see it we played Miami in the nick of time, one week later and they were good already.
In life it’s all about timing, in the NFL too.
Timing was totally on our side most of the year, like we played teams right after they lost key personel over and over, no one can say that we weren’t extremely lucky and fortunate this season.
What’s the saying?
Better lucky than good.
Well it applies perfectly to our season.
The improbable comebacks cam to be the deciding factor.
Anyone who thinks Suggs is anything more than a talented idiot is beyond me. I believe Killer Kod said he agreed. To each his own but nothing suggs said made sense.
First of all Tebow has never said God won the games for him. The media does. Second of all everyone prays on the sidelines and after games, so once again he is debunked. Everyone takes a knee. Flacco is not as awesome as he seems to believe. Thier losses came agaisnt crap teams that all they needed was “2 drives to beat”. If u ever listened to Tebow Mic’ed up he prayed for God to give him and his team mates strength and to protect them … similar to what sug says they pray for. And if he is seriously trying to tell me that people on each sideline don’t pray for a fumble an interception or whatever … he is once again …stupid. Don’t need players runnign out of bounds? really? Last i checked thats part of the game … thats like saying “don’t count on defenders ignoring thier gap” or “Don’t count on blown coverage” … he is an ignoramous. All these things are part of what goes on in every game to win it. And to say he doesn’t need a kicker to make a 62 yard FB (im pretty sure it was 59) is as good as tellign his kicker that the team doesn’t need him. God forbid kickers do thier job. I would like to hear cundiffs take on that. The guy is an idiot.
TRB
He is a great football player.
It’s all perception.
I think Marshall is an idiot, LOL.
And once again we are lucky to have mendenhall out and a hobbled Ben. Luck is almost as part of this league as skills. Sometimes the game just falls your way. Its like saying and some have “The only reason we lost those first couple of games was because doom and champ were out. The defense won it for us during the streak.” Exploiting peoples losses is what its all about. Thats almost like calling us lucky because we have a stadium that some people can’t hang in because of the air. Injuries are part of the game. And like Bay said its all about Timing … like Tebow Time or should i say Bronco Time. TRB
TEBOW TEBOW TEBOW, THANK YOU JESUS
lol He probably is. Never said suggs wasn’t talented tho but I like guys like those eating thier words. Man went out of his way to disrespect Tebow or in actuality this whole team … and we aren’t even playing them. Funniest part about all this is that TT and this team don’t talk trash. TRB
I’m just hoping for a good game. Winning would be amazing. I kind of expect to lose, but it will be a real bummer if we get blown out.
Even so, as I said a couple days ago, for me this season will go down as one of the most exciting in at least a decade.
That’s funny, it’s like the third time this last two weeks olderthandirt comes on just to say that, LOL.
If I didn’t know any better I’d say olderthandirt is Suggs, haha.
Funny to read game impressions of the last time we played the Steelers in our best showing of the 2010 preseason, home game we won 34-17:
• All eyes were on rookie QB Tim Tebow during his second-half performance. It was a typical showing by the southpaw. He made a few very strong power throws, but his elongated release resulted in some inaccurate throws. But the least talked about facet of the issues with his mechanics lies in the long stride into his passes. Because he has a long stride, he’s unable to consistently match up his release point with his forward step. Meaning, his delivery isn’t in sync. While many point to shortening up his release, what he needs to do his shorten up his stride into his throws. This is something that former NFL QB Scott Brunner pointed out to me recently.
• Veteran RB LenDale White got the start for Denver. It’s amazing he went from out of the league after the Seattle Seahawks released him to starting in an important preseason game. He’ll likely stick on the roster for a while since RBs Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter are just coming back from their injuries.
• With OLB Elvis Dumervil (pectoral) expected to miss at least half of the regular season, Denver is desperately looking for pass rushing help. Second-year OLB Robert Ayers, who posted five sacks as a rookie, posted two sacks in this game. He will be expected to pick up the slack in Dumervil’s absence. Denver likely will be scouring the transaction wire this coming Saturday when teams have to set their 53-man rosters.
• While finding a pass rush is going to be a problem for this team, Denver’s secondary will not be the issue for the defense. While all four starters are in their 30s, all of them have something left in the tank. Fifth-round pick CB Perrish Cox, who had an interception in the game, is very polished for being a rookie. Personnel sources said he dropped in the draft because of a low character grade, but the defensive back clearly has enough talent to play right away.
There should be a way to run a quick play to take out someone like Harrison or Polamalu. You get them matched on someone like Royal in the slot. He runs a drag route with Polamalu right on his hip. When he catches it and keeps running to the sideline that is when someone like Fells who was split wide, cuts his deep route short, cones back and complete blindsides Polamalu with a decleater. It could happen right?
A lot of it is just way too much like back to the future, haha.
Good day to all in Broncos Country.
It would be great to see some forced turnovers, as Dumervil has had a knack for producing turnovers/sacks in previous matchups vs. Steelers.
A few years back, he strip-sacked Big Ben and former Bronco Tim Crowder picked up the rock and ran back for a score.
In 2009, Kenny Peterson strip-sacked Big Ben, and Ayers picked up the rock and ran back for a 54 yd score. Unfortunately, that was the only TD of that game for Broncos.
On the flip side Steelers D hasn’t produced too many this year, or as of late anyway.
Offense is the big “If” this weekend. Hope they can get at least 10 pts. It’s going to be a tough matchup. Overall just thankful we made this far. Will root hard for the Team on Sunday.
Is Suggs trying some reverse psychcology on Tebow? Don’t think he would like to play Steelers again, as it’s tough to beat a Team more than twice in one season. jmo
Ya, I was at the Crowder game. That was one of the best “ridiculous turnovers” ever.
rbf1, I already asked that earlier a while back, since you were at the KC game what was it like in the stadium with the fans when Tebow came on for the last drive and what was their reaction after they found out the magic was not going to happen.
That had to be an incredible moment of high and low I would imagine…
all game, every drive, I kept saying……….it’s gonna happen on this drive, it’s gonna happen………
Especially on the final drive, I thought for sure something great would happen……….
It didn’t…………
I don’t believe in magic……….
I believe in effort and execution……..and that’s exactly what it’s gonna take to have a shot at taking down the steelers.
That’s what I mean, it was even intense at my house, so I’d love to hear it from someone who was at the game, were the fans that hopeful and going crazy when Tebow last came on and were they that deflated later, did they say we sucked and stormed off, or all tried to find out the Raider score? Wish I would of been there.
Problem is Dooms strip sacks have been none existent. i think its because of the 4-3. In the 3-4 the angle he came from allowed him to get behind the QB and do kind like a double windmill over the back of the QB tackle. But in the 4-3 he rarely gets behind them to do that. Look at his 2009 season. Most of his strip sacks came with tackles on the QB from behind. TRB
Not only did it not, but it wasnt even close. I hate to say it, i really do, i like every player almost equally, but right now, Tebow is killing us.
It was a letdown to see just how ineffective we were, yet just hanging on for a small gimmer of hope. Depressing bay….
D stepped up and made some good plays. Marcus Thomas looked good!
Stadium was packed but started to empty out at the end.
It looked like real conservative play calling as I’m sure you guys saw that as well. Same deep patterns being run with no WR’s working any comeback routes…
Oh, you asked same question, sorry if I missed it.
well, we all know that 3 points just ain’t gonna cut the mustard! Our D can play great but pitching a shut out is pretty improbable.
On TV it looked like a real huge moment when Tebow came in at the end, like everyone in the stands was still thinking Tebow will get it done for sure, so I imagine it had to be a mass depression at the end like you say, we just didn’t get to see that part on TV.
Yeah, if anyone can pich a shutout it would be the NFL #1 D.
So you are going to the game again?
NFL network just showed a Recap of the Steelers Cardinals superbowl. I wanted to Cards to win that one so much. I hate the steelers.
Like rubbing salt into the wounds with this big playoff game coming up against my least favorite team.
Wanted the cardinals to win that superbowl too.
Most painful thing about losign the chance at the superbowl in 05 was that the seahawks sucked and we woulda probably beat them as well. That was abck when the AFC ruled
TRB
We all know that feeling we get when our opponents have third abd medium, we all think, dang it, they are going to get this. And it seems like against Rivers, Brady, Ben they usually do. Its starting to feel like that every time we have our own third down. We all think, dang it, we arent going to get this, and about 80% of the time we are right. Those plays make or break games, we have to convert. If Tebow cant get it done, then we need to find someone who can, and next year, not after we “try” Tim fir another year or two. If we do that it’ll set us back years, just like carnage said.
Curt
Yes, we’ll be there…. I’m starting to get flasbacks to the last time we made AFC championship vs. Steelers. Hope it’s not deja vu…
Alot of fans are pulling for TT so it was pretty somber mood riding the light rail back to Littleton.
IDK. I would like to see what Tebow looks like in the opening game of the 2012 season, after a full off season to go over film, visualize what was happening, get some quality QB coaching by Elway and Co. with an entire off season, OTAs and everything else as the starter.
bay, a couple of fans relayed the Chargers were ahead of the Raiders, so yes…tabs were being kept. Also they flashed the score on the magatron at halftime. It would’ve been great to get in with a win.
One fan says on the ride back…. “Tebow loses and he still gets to go to the playoffs.. crazy year”
And Orton didn’t, LOL, thanks for all that info, I know it’s different to see it from in the stadium, you get the fan barometer much better that way.
I’m still finding it hard to get over the fact that we lost that game 7-3. I’ve seen hockey scores with that outcome. LOL
THREE MEAZLY STINKING AWEFUL POINTS!
Slow score prediction week so far.
We are indeed having it once more this season.
Feel free to place your picks.
Saturday midnight deadline.
You know what funny. All i hear is that Broncos don’t deserve to be in playoffs. Only reason they got in was because raiders couldnt beat Chargers …. ummm, i beleive that means that the Raiders weren’t deserving either. After all they lost too. And I believe that there are no mistakes. There are tie breakers for a reason … the reason the broncos were able to make it to the playoffs was because they handled their business during the season to be gauranteed a spot pretty much win or lose. Thats the true fact of the matter … whether u wanna call those wins during the year lucky or fluke …. its a body of work and Broncos put up a slightly better one this year unlike thier counterparts.
Either way … its the playoffs now. All teams are 0-0 and your previous record means NOTHING. 11-5 lost to 7-9 last year. Will wins in the playoffs. Tenacity wins. (also game planning and skill) but the point is sunday in and sunday out the team that shows up to play the best is worthy of the win everytime. Hopefully that will be us this sunday. There are no mistakes when it comes to making the playoffs.
TRB
And by “all i hear” im refering to NFL.com and comments ive read on other sites and other articles ive read.
Now TRB, don’t make the team any more nervous than they already must be, LOL.
If Tebow truly strives on adversity like most of us believe, this would be it!
In my mind Tebow has played three good games out of 11, Minny, Oakland, and San Diego. So If we are going to teach a QB in the offseason, help him learn with Elway, go over the offense, then why do it with a guy that we arent sure if he has the skills to even do it. Why”see what happens?” Find a guy in the draft that has the skills and can run an offense. Has a gimmick offense won a Super Bowl? No, sorry, it hasnt. I just feel like we are wasting our time and we dont have to. I like Tebow but it just doesnt feel promising.
Curt
Love the people that say we arent deserving. Oh really? Who was then? No one got “snubbed”. It isnt like a committe chose us over someone else. They didnt have a top six record in the conference, we did, the end.
Ok maybe tennessee had a better record, but u know what i mean, ha.
The point also was made that we made the playoffs due to the 6 game winning streak, so TT got his props on the ride back.
Overall feeling- is the fans are grateful, just feel like the Tebow train has come off the tracks lately.
Why is everybody suddenly blaming Tebow? Sure he is responsible to a certain extent for the last three games as much as he is for the 7 wins.
What people have forgetten, and we complained about it during the wins too, was the vanilla, inept play calling.
Why aren’t fingers still being pointed at the OC and QB coach for playcalling and QB progression?
Team first!!
Go Broncos!!!