Sorry, I couldn't resist. What you say is true, but I'm not sold on the Broncos yet; they're 3-0 with some good numbers, but against some pretty bad teams (I don't care if the Bengals did manage to beat the defending Champs, I still don't think they're a good team, but maybe that's residual Oiler fan hatred. ' />) Mind, I hope you're right here, and you could be; it really depends on which Cowboys team shows up, the one that beat the Colts a few years ago or the one that keeps blowing games to inferior Giants teams. Hopefully they'll be resting on their laurels again after the game against Carolina, though they shouldn't be; they let a poor team stay in that game almost to the end. Don't be surprised if Wade Phillips is looking for some payback against Denver fans who booed him out of town; he certainly knows how hard it is for anyone but Denver to win at Mile High.

It's a game I think we need if we're going to make the playoffs (which I don't think we will, but I'd be happy to be wrong. ) I hadn't looked ahead on the schedule, but was thinking it had been four years since we played the NFC East, consistently the toughest Division in the League. That means we still have to play the Giants, another tough game, and the Eagles, who have Donovan McNabb back now (speaking of which, they just released Jeff Garcia, and I'd love to see Denver pick him up. ) Assuming we do as well against the 'Skins as Detroit did, we could still go 1-3 against the NFC East, with games against Baltimore and at Pitt to come. Since Tennesse managed to win their Division last year and we managed to lose ours, we also get to go to Indy, which is always fun (for them. ) Since the Dolphins managed to win THAT Division we host the Pats. That's before we face the Bolts or go to Arrowhead (I hate the Arrowhead game.... ) SO:

3-0 now, but figure best case scenario we split with either the Bolts or Chiefs (i.e. we can't sweep both. ) If we beat the Raiders again, 5-3 or 6-2.

Beat the 'Skins and it's 6-3 or 7-2, but then it gets tough. Beat Dallas this week and we could get as high as 8-2, but best case scenario I see in the NFC East is 3-1 IF we beat 2/3 of Dallas, NY (both of whom we host) and Philly, taking the overall record as high as 9-3.

In this best case scenario, winning one of the following four games would probably give us a wildcard on Conference record:

NE at Denver (next week)
Denver at Baltimore (two weeks later, with a visit to SD in between)
Pitt at Denver (the following week; hopefully this goes better than their last visit to Mile High.... )
Denver at Indy (two weeks before Christmas. )

I think we can beat the Pats and Steelers at Mile High, though it won't be easy, and might even beat Baltimore on the road, but again, I think .500 is the best we can reasonably expect in this stretch. IF we also manage to go 3-1 against the Leagues toughest Division AND 4-2 in our own, the two wins against the Bungles and Browns would put us at 11-5. But that's best case; more likely we'll be 2-2 against the NFC East, 1-3 in the four games I just listed and and 3-3 in the Division, which drops us down around 8-8 and out of the playoffs. If even two of those things happens we're 9-7 and probably miss out for the fourth year straight. Hence my favorite teams this year are Denver, Houston, Dallas, Minnesota and whoever's playing the Bears (nothing personal, I'd just like a top ten draft pick for once. ) And hence I'm reliving past glories in the thread I just posted on the CMB. ' />