Take a trip around the AFC West as we head into the final week of the NFL’s 2018 season to find out what happened in Week 16 and look ahead to Week 17.
Welcome back Addicts, to another edition of Around the AFC West. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are getting excited to head into an important and determinitive Week 17 in the AFC West. Before we discuss that, let’s take a look at what the rest of the AFC West did as we head into Week 17.
Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos traveled to Oakland to take on the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football. Both Denver and Oakland have been eliminated from playoff contention so what appeared to be a good showdown before the season started turned into a game that many forgot even happened.
The Raiders were looking to defend their turf for what could be the very last time and the Broncos’ head coach Vance Joseph was looking to defend his job. The Raiders walked away victorious, defeating the Broncos 27-14. This is the first time since 1971-72 wherein Denver had losing seasons.
For the Broncos, this was a story of penalties and inconsistent offense. This has been the case for Denver throughout the season as many good drives are eliminated or stalled by bad penalties. Then when penalties aren’t there, poor play dominates.
On top of that, the Broncos star undrafted rookie running back Phillip Lindsay suffered a wrist injury that will end his season. That also means he will not be playing in the Pro Bowl. Unfortunate for him as he was having a great season – one that even included talk of rookie of the year.
Next week, the Broncos host the Los Angeles Chargers in a matchup that is important for only one team. The Chargers have to win in order to keep their hopes of the number one overall seed alive. The Broncos really just have to show up to collect a paycheck. After the humbling loss to the Ravens last week, I anticipate the Chargers will beat the Broncos. Game time is 3:25 p.m.