A quick rundown of the carnage from Sunday’s game: As everyone knows, Denver is no longer in first place of the AFC West, a game behind 7-3 San Diego. The Broncos could have won the tiebreaker based on a season sweep, but they still could win the tiebreaker, especially if the Chargers slip up against Oakland or Kansas City. Record against AFC West opponents is the second tiebreaker among division teams after head-to-head record (the Chargers and Broncos each have one loss, against each other) and record against common opponents is the second tiebreaker. The Broncos are 3-3 against non-AFC West common opponents and the Chargers are 2-2. Denver plays one such common opponent, the New York Giants, on Thursday.

At 6-4 the Broncos don’t need to win the AFC West to make the playoffs, but there will be plenty of competition for those two wild-card spots. Among current non-division leaders, Pittsburgh and Jacksonville are 6-4, Houston is 5-4 (and plays tonight), and Miami and Baltimore are tied at 5-5. The Broncos have lost the heads-up tiebreaker to Pittsburgh and Baltimore based on losses to those teams this month.

At the moment, the Broncos would be out of the playoffs. The Jaguars have the best conference record at 5-2 (first tiebreaker in a three-team tie if one team hasn’t swept the other two), which is better than Denver at 5-3 and Pittsburgh at 4-3. They would get the first spot, then the Steelers would get the second when the tiebreaker is re-run between themselves and the Broncos.

That’s quite a fast fall for the Broncos, who were 6-0 with four quality wins – Cincinnati, Dallas, New England and San Diego – and led the division by three-and-a-half games. But the Broncos and all other teams realize there is a lot of football to be played to determine the AFC West title or the playoff spots.

“No question,” quarterback Kyle Orton said when asked if he felt the Broncos still controlled their own destiny. “We’ve got four losses – and that’s not the way we wanted things to go after starting the way we did – but good teams bounce back.”

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