Bye-week blues

Okay, so the Broncos pounded the Eagles. They didn't just pound them, they humiliated them. The game looked iffy for about ten minutes in the third quarter and then the Broncos went on a tear. It was ridiculous. Apparently no one on th Eagles was capable of tackling Tatum Bell. Jake Plummer never looked so good. The defense did exactly what it was supposed to do, and the formerly mediocre offense finally found themselves and won a game. It was delightful just to sit on the sofa and watch the Broncos coalesce.

So I'm going to get bold here for a minute and make a few predictions. The Broncos are going to win the AFC West. They're going to secure homefield advantage in the playoffs and get that coveted first-round bye. They're going to play either Cincinatti or the Steelers, whichever makes it out of the AFC North, in their first game & they're going to win because they'll be playing at home and most of the key players will be healthy. In the end, the Broncos will meet up with the Colts for the AFC championship. As a Broncos fan I'd like to take that extra step and say the Broncos will make it to Super Bowl (where they'd face either Carolina or the Giants). As a realist, I can't say that the Broncos will beat the Colts until at least one other team in the league manages to do it first. The Colts remain the Broncos biggest roadblock on the way to greatness.

Which reminds me - to beat those bye-week blues, be sure to check out the Monday night match-up between the Colts and the Patriots. There are a few other interesting games, but because of all the injuries to big name players none of the games has the lure of MNF. The Colts are the clear favorites, but Patriot's coach Bill Belichich is probably the only guy in the league who can figure out a way to beat the Colts.

This is the time of year when football gets exciting people. There's a bunch of teams that have no shot of making the playoffs - In the NFC, Green Bay and Minnesota are out and so are Arizona, San Fran and New Orleans. The AFC has some clear losers too - Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston and the Jets. But there's another handful that are on the bubble. Those are the teams to watch because they're dangerous. Right now any of the lesser three teams in the AFC West hav a chance at the wildcard. So do Jacksonville and Miami, especially Miami with the way their running game is starting to improve. The NFC East and the NFC South are both up for grabs, so all those teams are dangerous too. These teams are hungry and they're dangerous.

The Broncos are in a rough spot in the second half of the season. They have five games against bubble teams and three against the losers. They should clean up against the bubble teams, but if they're not careful they'll drop one or even two to the never-had-a-chance teams. But I'll stick to my guns. The Broncos should dominate in the second-half on their way to playoff glory if not Super Bowl success.

-If anyone wants to write a "guest column" for the Broncos Update during the bye week, let me know.