The Broncos have a 2-4 record coming into this Sunday’s matchup against the Oakland Raiders, but sometimes you have to dig below the actual won-lost record for full meaning.
No one at Dove Valley is happy to be 2-4, but anyone choosing to do the match can find that through six games the Broncos’ opponents have the best combined won-lost record in the National Football League.
Further, every team will have a final record when the season is over, but it is not over yet. In fact, in some ways it is just getting started.
Denver has six games remaining-which is to say, all of them-against their fellow American Football Conference Western Division foes. The only two teams in the league that have not yet played a game against a division opponent are Denver and the New York Giants.
You have to play the games on the field, but this means that these two teams have the maximum possible number of chances to impact their own fates. And that is a really big deal as the math continues to get added up throughout the year.
The Broncos are in a dead heat with their division foes, and it might not be a pretty race right now, but again, the race is just getting warmed up.
With 10 games remaining, those six games pit the Broncos against their fiercest opponents in a true “original” pro football division.
When the American Football League and the Broncos began play in 1960, the original AFL West consisted of: the Denver Broncos, the Oakland Raiders-who subsequently moved to Los Angeles, then returned to Oakland; the Los Angeles Chargers, who moved to San Diego in 1961; and the Dallas Texans, who became the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963. So franchise in the division has never moved from the division, even though they have changed their mailing addresses some here and there.
Of the eight divisions making up the NFL, the AFC West is the only one with the exact four teams that it had in 1960.
And the rivalries are always intense among the four.
These three opponents are the ones that Denver has faced the most in franchise history, and naturally each rivalry has been everything from lopsided to a dead-even blood feud for the players, the fans, and the cities.
Including regular season, post season, and preseason games, the Broncos have faced the Raiders 112 times, the Chiefs 108 and the Chargers 107.
You might wonder why they would play in preseason, given the chances for coaches to watch players and plays ever so closely, and the answer is none of those games has been recent. But in the 1960′s travel costs were such that teams stuck very close to home to play their exhibition games (as they were then called), and so sometimes the Broncos actually faced the Raiders twice before the season even began.
The game is a sellout once again this week, and there will be a lot of orange and blue in the stands once again as these two old rivals renew acquaintances for the first time in 2010.
There is plenty of history in Denver between the Broncos and the Raiders.
They played each other in the first-ever Broncos home game-in fact, legendary Raider quarterback and coach Tom Flores, now their color commentator, was the first opponent starting quarterback ever for a Bronco home game. They faced each other in the first Monday Night Football game in Denver history, a legendary 23-23 tie that helped put the Mile High City on the map in terms of national NFL recognition — that game helped propel the Broncos to their first winning season ever, in 1973.
The Broncos defeated the Raiders here in 1977 to earn Denver’s first AFC championship and Super Bowl berth, and that snapped a string of Oakland success in Denver that had seen the Broncos post just two ties in home games against Oakland from 1963 through the 1977 regular season. It has been rivalry with fierce emotional attachments for Broncos fans.
There is nothing like AFC West football to a fan of these original four rivals, and this week promises to be another fierce battle, and for the Broncos the first of six remaining over the balance of the season.
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Jim Saccomano
Great post Jim,it’s fascinating that we have 6 divisional games in our last 10 games,so we still got a shot,but we need to win every chance we get and start scoring off turnovers.
Would be a great time for a winning streak,huh.
I LOVE ME SOME BRONCOS HISTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Raiders are still the ones we love to hate, I do anyway and probably always will.
In my season predictions, as it seems to be a favorite topic today, I had us at 2-4 at this point, so far so good, well, not really but you know what I mean, but I have us winning the next 3, so obviously that’s where it actually gets tough, no more games we can actually afford to lose, that in itself makes the games a little tougher even so the opponents are not as good as the ones we already played, couple that with 6 games being against division opponents, and there really won’t be any easy game, at least that’s how I look at it, even the Rams are much improved, and the Niners will be played in Wembley, a whole different new set of circumstances. In short I’m not ready to say we are hitting the easy part of the schedule, even if on paper it says so, every game will be a tough challenge, and hopefully that’s how the team will approach each and every game.
Being overly optimistic can have a negative effect on a team, we’ve all seen what happened when we thought we would own our division opponents at home last year, 3 games, 3 losses. So to balance out some of these really positive blogs I like to counter them with a bit of caution as to keep everyone honest, mainly the team, I don’t even want to think that they are thinking they are entering the soft part of the schedule, one game at a time, and every one just as tough as the other, that’s the only way we are going to climb out of this early hole we dug for ourselves, keeping it real, not falling into any trap.
If fans want to think we are in good shape at 2-4 because we are hitting the easy part of the schedule, that’s one thing, but unfortunately that can have a tendency to rub off the wrong way on the team, just my opinion. Measured enthusiasm would be the way to go at this point in our season is how I see it, getting down to business, nothing will be easy, not this Sunday, not any other game, period.
This game will be my first time ever to go to a Broncos game. Denver, here I go!! This season is still young and many things could/will happen. While 2-4 is indeed a sad record, I guess it becomes worse when you watch the games, because the Broncos have played better than the numbers show (except in Baltimore, of course). But going back to offseason, there were some Broncos fans and analysts that predicted exactly what’s been happening (maybe just switching the Jacksonville and Tennessee L & W). Almost all of them predicted Denver going 4-4 to bye week and still gave them a lot of chances to get into playoffs.
I guess I’ve been with that theory in my mind and that’s what this game is so important… besides I’m going to be there LIVE baby!!! lol.
Go Broncooos!
Enjoy your Bronco baptism #1!
Don’t get overly excited guys, LOL, first move on trade deadline day:
LB Dyrial Briggs has been promoted from PS to active roster. Briggs is a second-year player who was an undrafted rookie in 2009. He played four games for the 49ers last year. He made the 49ers’ active roster after the preseason but was released after playing in San Francisco’s Week 1 loss to Seattle. He has been on the Broncos practice squad since.
Sorry, that’s the best I got so far, haha.
The Broncos have now three vacant spots on the practice squad to fill.
Briggs took Willis’ spot since he was placed on IR.
3 vacant spots on the PS is room for 3 new players…
Surprised Harris wasn’t traded for a pick, heard he was on the trade block.
He might as well have been, some of the trades we won’t find out until tomorrow I imagine, the teams and the NFL have enough work to do with these last minute trades without sharing it right away to the press. Then again maybe there won’t be any, but then why does McD have three open spots on his PS?
I would be worried about aby trades cuz McD has a bad track record for trades
Great article Jim!
It’s Raiders Week, baby!!!!
Iam with Imapone
I have not posted for sometime. So Hello to everyone! And I wish you and your families a very fine Raider week. Yup RAIDER WEEK!! That means our whole focus is on beating this team with a joy. I want a 51-0 payback Game. Read the DP rag on -Broncos fans love to hate the Raiders, but why?
By Patrick Saunders
The Denver Post
Read more: Broncos fans love to hate the Raiders, but why? – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_16377597#ixzz12r1VxCCU
I can come up with a few stories myself but will not bore you all. McD should read it also!
Yeah I know some think –Let It Go—Its in the past—screw that. The players might forget but fans never do!! Time to get pumped and forget standings. Lets kick some Raider butt!!
BFE92 you go Bro! ILMSDB.
More to come.
FTR
Time to get my raider-hater shirt out.
FTR, check out the post of r8r hrdude, posted today on the Mark Cooper blog at 9:34 am, you’ll love it.
“Fierce emotional attachment”- is the best I’ve ever heard it put!
I’ve seen our Broncos play these Raiders of California in 1988, 1999 now will be 2010. 3 decades of it. F.T.R lol
GO BRONCOS
Blow out…
31-10 Denver kicks some ass….