The Denver Broncos are sending five players to the Pro Bowl.  25-year old WR Brandon Marshall started the year in Josh McDaniel’s Dog House but he kicked the door down on it and had a fine season.  Marshall has played in 15 games this season for the Broncos and he has caught 101 passes for 1,120 yards (11.1 avg) with 10 TD grabs and he has also rushed for 39 yards on 7 carries (5.6 ypc).  23-year old OT Ryan Clady will also be making the trip to Miami if the Broncos aren’t in the Super Bowl.  Clady is a big guy at 6′6″, 325 pounds and he loves to push defensive linemen around both in the running game and against the pass.  25-year old DE Elvis Dumervil was a beast against the passing game and it earned him a trip to Miami.  He has played in 15 games for the Broncos this season and he has made 48 tackles, forced 4 fumbles, defensed 3 passes and he sacked the opposing QB a stunning 17 times.  31-year old CB Champ Bailey is still playing at a high enough level to be invited to the Pro Bowl once again.  He has played in 15 games for the Broncos this season and he has made 72 tackles, 3 tackles for a loss, forced 1 fumble, defensed 13 passes and he has 3 interceptions.  36-year old strong safety Brian Dawkins rounds out the crew heading to Miami.  He has played in 15 games for the Broncos this season and he has made 108 tackles, 7 tackles for a loss, forced 1 fumble, defensed 11 passes and he has 2 interceptions.  These five players are the main reasons that the Broncos can still make the playoffs with a win and some help this Sunday.

31-year old RB Correll Buckhalter has been solid all year long for the Broncos.  He has played in 13 games for the Broncos this season and he has carried the ball 114 times for 624 yards (5.5 ypc) with 1 TD grab.  He also has caught 29 passes for 237 yards (8.2 avg) this season for the Broncos.  Buckhalter even helps out on special teams once in a while as he has returned 7 kickoffs for 164 yards (23.4 avg) but the Broncos were smart not to use him too much in that role due to his injury prone past. 

The Broncos fell a tad short in this game as Eagles’ kicker David Akers hit a 28-yard field goal with 4 seconds left.  Kyle Orton did a solid job in this game completing 27 of 41 passes for 189 yards with 3 TD passes and 1 INT.  Correll Buckhalter led the way on the ground for the Broncos yesterday with 5 carries for 42 yards (8.4 ypc) and he also caught 2 passes for 12 yards (6.0 avg).  Knowshon Moreno pitched in with 18 yards rushing on 9 carries (2.0 ypc) and he also caught 3 passes for 17 yards (5.7 avg) with a TD grab.  Jabar Gaffney led the way in the passing game for the Broncos in this game with 7 grabs for 69 yards (9.9 avg) with 2 TD grabs.  The Broncos finished up with only 241 total yards on offense (70 rushing, 171 passing) in this game.

Safety Brian Dawkins (8 tackles) and CB Champ Bailey (3 tackles, 1 pass defensed and 1 interception) led the way for the Broncos on D in this game.  The Eagles finished up with 394 total yards in this game (105 rushing, 289 passing).  The Broncos are now 8-7 and they will need help in order to make the playoffs now.

The Denver Broncos (8-6) defense gave up way too many rushing yards leading to an upset loss to the Oakland Raiders (5-9).  They gave up 241 rushing yards, with Michael Bush doing most of the damage with 133 yards and 1 touchdown on 18 carries.  Although they gave up a ton of yards on the ground, it was JaMarcus Russell’s arm that ended up beating them.  Russell has been awful all season for the Raiders, came in during the 4th quarter for an injured Charlie Frye and finished with a game-winning touchdown pass and 47 yards on 5/11 passes.

The Broncos should have won this game and had a perfect opportunity to seal it when Brandon Stokley caught a quick pass and ran 63 yards towards the endzone.  Stokley was caught at the 4-yard line by Stanford Routt, who took him down with a horse-collar putting the Broncos at the 2-yard line.  They couldn’t get the two yards though, and settled for a field goal that kept the Raiders in the game.  Orton played well, throwing for 278 yards and 1 touchdown on 19/34 passes, but he didn’t get enough from the running game.  The Broncos only rushed for 80 yards on 28 carries, which is 161 yards less than what the Raiders rushed for.  This was not a good sign for the Broncos.

The Denver Broncos are hosting the Oakland Raiders Sunday, and they should have a similar result as their first matchup where they won 23-3.  The Broncos offense looked very strong last game, especially Brandon Marshall and the passing game.  Marshall caught an NFL-record 21 passes, amounting for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns.  If Orton can continue to find Marshall the Broncos should be able to cruise to an easy win.

On defense, the Broncos need to pressure the Raiders’ quarterback Charlie Frye.  Frye is making his first start of the season since Bruce Gradkowski is hurt.  The Raiders have lost all faith in JaMarcus Russell, so Frye is getting the start despite having a career 70.4 QB rating.  They will likely try and run the ball a lot so Frye doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to make mistakes.  The Raiders aren’t particularly good at running the ball either though, so the Broncos should have no problem in this game.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Denver Broncos 24, Oakland Raiders 10