Broncos still might crash the party

Dave Christie, Special to the News

Published December 12, 2006 at midnight

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This is odd.

With three weeks left in the season, the Broncos now find themselves in the NFC. How else do you explain the fact that they are 7-6 and still in the mix for making the playoffs?

All year long the AFC was insisting that any team with fewer than 11 wins would not be allowed into its elite playoff party. Now the party isn’t quite so exclusive and, improbably, the Broncos are still hanging around outside with a chance to talk their way in. They don’t look so good, wearing a four-game losing streak like a Billy Ray Cyrus mullet, but the rest of the conference isn’t red-carpet material either.

The Chargers are already in the club, drinking Cristal with Britney and Paris in the VIP area. The Colts and Patriots will be in attendance, but they’re unexpectedly late and looking more B-list with every game. (By the way, if Belichick is getting in, there’s obviously no dress code.)

That leaves the Broncos among five teams with a reasonable shot at the two remaining playoff spots. As much as they’ve tried to play themselves into oblivion, three meaningful games remain.

Sunday’s contest at Arizona is the most intriguing. Darrent Williams should feel right at home in University of Phoenix Stadium, considering how often he’s been taken to school this season. That trend will continue, as he’ll be across from either Larry Fitzgerald or Anquan Boldin, but the Cardinals don’t have a dependable run game to provide any balance. The Broncos get to 8-6 in a squeaker.

On Christmas Eve, Mayor Hickenlooper will put the city on lockdown when the paddy wagon drops the Bengals off in Denver. This is a horrible matchup for the Broncos. Expect Denver’s pass defense to get torched, which is fitting since the Bengals’ unis make them resemble the Heat Miser. Cincinnati wins big, and Denver drops a few tears in its egg nog.

But buck up, little Broncos campers. Here comes San Francisco, which is actually worse than its dismal record indicates, to close out the regular season. The Niners defense is the gift that keeps on giving, and Jay Cutler has the best performance of his then five-game career. A 9-7 record has the Broncos cleaning out their lockers, right?

Not so fast. The Bengals make the playoffs, leaving the Broncos, Chiefs, Jaguars and Jets to fight it out for the last golden ticket. Jacksonville has been schizophrenic all season, the Chiefs will be underdogs in two of their last three, and the Jets are the worst of the lot. It’s very possible that Broncos fans will be watching the scoreboard on New Year’s Eve much closer than some goofy ball in Times Square.

So the Broncos might make it past the velvet rope after all. Everybody else would be wondering who was responsible for letting in the riffraff, and they’d probably be among the first to leave, but it sure beats being left out in the cold.

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