Hoping for a Raiders win

When you can’t beat the Oakland Raiders and their third-string quarterback at home.

When you can’t beat the Washington Redskins anywhere.

When you can’t find a way to set up a home contest against Kansas City as a playoff cinch.

When you can’t do those things, you really can’t hope to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia. And if you can’t beat Philly when beating Philly is all you need to do, when the fate of your playoff life is hanging in the balance, then you might not deserve a postseason berth.

Denver has been an extraordinary team this season. Everything that comes with that description, the good connotations and the bad, fits like a glove on your quarterback’s hand.

Of course, the Broncos have come a long way since Kyle Orton was forced to protect an injured finger. We’ve seen a scintillating six-game win streak to start the season, followed shortly by the agony of a four-game skid. We’ve seen a glimmer of hope in a solid beating of the New York Giants and a blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs. We’ve had to watch as time and time again the Colts handed away a huge victory, only to see the Broncos politely hand it back.

And no one will ever forget the pants-less, laser-pointer-induced choke job at the hands of Jamarcus Russell at Invesco Field.

But none of that, not even the hoarse voices of Raiders fans ringing in our ears, compares with the crippling shot fired by David Akers at Lincoln Financial on Sunday.

Even after running right so many times in a loss to Oakland that Tom Cable had to feel like he was on a hidden camera show, the Broncos somehow still controlled their own destiny. Want to make the playoffs? Fine, just win your last two games and you’re in.

It was a simple equation before Sunday’s loss. Now, it’s an advanced calculus final after a three-day bender.

No more beat these two teams and we’ll see you in mid-January. The Broncos playoff hopes read like a forwarded e-mail from your mom – hard to focus on, hard to understand, no real hope for the promises it contains, and really a lot easier to delete than believe in.

But that’s how the Broncos have played all year. Before the football flirted with Bengals’ defenders and landed softly in Brandon Stokley’s hands, no one thought 6-0 was possible with a schedule that got out of the gate with New England, Dallas and San Diego. When Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Washington took turns embarrassing Denver, the playoffs were a pipe dream to most, an impossible goal. And now that it will take a handful of small miracles to actually sneak in at 9-7, the doubt is once again at an all-time high.

And not for lack of evidence. “Beat Philadelphia, then beat Kansas City” has been replaced with this magic formula: Beat Kansas City, have the Ravens or the Jets lose, and have Pittsburgh lose or Houston win.

What?

To put that in better perspective, here’s another way to look at the scenario. This weekend, the last of the 2009 NFL season, the Broncos need Oakland, without Bruce Gradkowski, to beat the Ravens. Of course, if by some strange chance that doesn’t happen, we could benefit from the Jets, a team also fighting for their playoff lives, losing at home to the Bengals, who have already clinched.

Not hard enough? Now we just need one of those scenarios to couple with the Steelers losing, which by the way they don’t do when the playoffs are on the line, at Miami. Or maybe, just maybe, we should bank our hopes on Houston somehow knocking off New England. Yes, the same New England with Tom Brady, who recently burned Jacksonville for four TDs and 23-26 passing.

And at the end of the day, if the planets align and the universe moves out of the way allowing all of those stipulations to pass, Denver still must beat Kansas City. Laugh all you want. We couldn’t beat Oakland at home.

The hardest part, however, is the reliance. The fact that the Broncos know now that their fate lies with other teams. There is nothing they can do on their own. Sure, Denver has to beat Kansas City, but even a 60-point win will be for naught if Baltimore and New York win by 1. For a team that has risen to most occasions, stepped up when the odds were down, rallied around each other when no one else believed, the hardest part about the Broncos’ playoff hopes is that this indomitable team is no longer in control of the outcome.

So here’s hoping that the Broncos show up against the Chiefs, no matter what the situation. Here’s hoping that this team takes hold of yet one more chance to prove that there is no quit in the locker room. That even when the odds are stacked one final time, a grand finale of improbability, the Broncos strive on and finish this season.

Here’s hoping that the Bengals, Dolphins, Patriots, and yes even the Raiders, all have a victorious New Year. It’s our only hope.

See more from Hunter Ansley at DraftZoo.com