The Denver Broncos get the luxury of watching the first week of the NFL playoffs on television. The AFC's No. 1 seed has a first-round bye and will play the lowest remaining seed in the divisional round of the playoffs.
But the team is not being considered a serious contender by many of those within the NFL media and among them is Tyler Sullivan of CBS Sports, who sees the Broncos facing a quick playoff exit.
Sullivan predicted the entire playoff bracket game-by-game and came up with several unique picks. But Broncos Country won't be happy about his choices as he has the Houston Texans coming into Empower Field at Mile High and knocking the Broncos out in the divisional round, 24-20.
"I don't know what to make of the Broncos. On the one hand, they have a great home-field advantage and a stellar defense, which should be the recipe for playoff success. That said, I still have trouble fully buying into this offense taking down elite competition, no matter where the game is held. They sort of play up or down to their competition, which included a Week 9 matchup against the Texans, where they narrowly escaped Houston with an 18-15 win, despite facing Davis Mills for the bulk of the contest, with C.J. Stroud getting injured.
Houston has a defense that can stifle Bo Nix (limited him to 4.7 yards per attempt in that prior matchup), and Stroud has the talent to make the necessary plays against Denver's unit. After recording their first-ever road playoff win over Wild Card Weekend, Houston makes even more history by winning its first divisional round matchup in franchise history (0-5 all-time)", wrote Sullivan.
Broncos fans aren't going to enjoy seeing a prediction like this, but it's hard to argue that if they did get matched up with the Texans, it would be a difficult game. The Texans have not lost a game since that three-point loss back on November 2. A win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round would make 10 straight victories for Demeco Ryans and his bunch and they would come to Denver riding a major hot streak and looking for a slice of revenge.
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Escaped. Survived. Saved by the final whistle. Those are the kinds of words and phrases that have been used to describe that victory over the Texans. But if the Broncos could beat them again, sending them to the AFC Championship Game, many of their critics would have to take a step back and give them much more credit.
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