The Denver Broncos didn’t have to do a lot to win the AFC West yesterday. The Broncos basically notched an armchair victory as they got to sit back and watch the Los Angeles Chargers implode in their 20-16 loss to the Houston Texans, which gave Denver its first title since 2015.
Surprisingly, coach Sean Payton didn’t mind getting the title this way all that much. Payton knows his team dodged a bullet on Christmas night against the Kansas City Chiefs, and when a team like the Chargers hands you a post-Christmas gift, it’s not polite to turn it down.
“It will be relaxing,” Payton said to Nick Kosmider of The Athletic when he was asked about the prospect after the Chiefs game. “It will be nice.”
The Broncos are now guaranteed a home playoff game, which is obviously important. But they still need a win over the Chargers to get a first-round bye, which may be even more important.
“We still have our minds set on what’s coming,” tight end Evan Engram said.
There’s a fair amount of controversy surrounding this issue, too. The Broncos have had their struggles lately—the defense has slipped in recent weeks, plus Denver has no running game, and quarterback Bo Nix has struggled with inconsistency all season. There are those who feel the Broncos need that bye if they’re going to make a Super Bowl run, and they might not be wrong.
Nix knows all about those issues. He’s been hearing about the offensive ones for months now, but he still hasn’t conquered them completely. He’s also never beaten the Chargers in his career, so taking care of business next week will be yet another important challenge for him.
“We have to play the final game, and we have to take care of it,” said Nix after the Chiefs game.
In theory the Chargers will be primed and ready, but the reality is that coach Jim Harbaugh has no idea what to expect from his charges in a game like this. Harbaugh has dismissed the idea of “Chargering” as a unique way of losing games on multiple occasions, but against the Texans it came back with a vengeance as kicker Cameron Dicker missed an extra point and a short field goal to add his contributions to the concept.
A Chargers win would have set next week’s contest up as one of the games of the year, but now it’s something of an afterthought. Not for the Broncos, however, who can’t afford to rest on their laurels if they want to make that deep playoff run.