The Denver Broncos are in control of their destiny down the stretch with aspirations of clinching the American Football Conference West division as well as the No. 1 seed and first-round bye in the playoffs.
At 12-2, the Broncos have already punched their playoff ticket, but a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars and a Los Angeles Chargers loss clinches the AFC West division title for the first time since 2015.
At 10-4, the Jaguars lead the AFC South division by one game over the Houston Texans but their path to clinching the division isn’t as easy as Denver’s.
Jacksonville and quarterback Trevor Lawrence have been cooking in recent weeks, with Lawrence arguably having his best four-game stretch in his career. Lawrence has thrown nine touchdown passes and no interceptions during the Jaguars’ five-game winning streak.
Lawrence thrives in the red zone, while Denver’s impressive defense excels at limiting teams in that area.
“A good matchup will be the Jaguars' red zone offense versus the Broncos' red zone defense, which is the best in the NFL,” ESPN’s Michael DiRocco wrote Friday. “Teams have scored touchdowns on only 38.5% of their red zone drives against the Broncos, the only team holding opponents to TDs on less than 45% of their drives. The Jaguars' offense ranks 13th in the red zone, but during the team's five-game win streak, it has scored TDs on 70.8% of its red zone drives. QB Trevor Lawrence has an NFL-high 10 passing TDs in the red zone during the streak.”
This matchup will be another great test for the Broncos defense, which has already set a franchise record for sacks in a single season. Sacks have been the most important aspect of the team’s unit, but they may have a tough time getting to Lawrence this week.
“Over the past five games, Lawrence has thrown 12 touchdown passes and three interceptions, and he has nine touchdowns and no interceptions over the past four,” wrote ESPN’s Jeff Legwold. “With the Broncos in position to clinch the AFC West title for the first time since 2015, how the league's best pass rush affects Lawrence is important. The Broncos are the league's best at quick pressures, while Lawrence has been one of the more difficult QBs to get quick pressure on this season (18th at 11.4% of his dropbacks), and he wasn't sacked in three of the Jaguars' past five games. Denver's defense has 27 sacks in its seven home games.”
This will be a thrilling battle given playoff seeding implications and could be the game of the week, although the Thursday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks was one of the best games of the year.