Jacksonville's loss boosts Broncos ... not that they noticed

ENGLEWOOD – Josh McDaniels said he didn’t find out until this morning that Jacksonville lost on Thursday night. Despite his nonchalance, that outcome was pretty big for his Denver Broncos.

Jacksonville was one of four teams that was bunched up at 7-6, behind the 8-5 Broncos in the playoff race. Now that group is down to three: Miami, New York Jets and Baltimore. If the Broncos win two of their last three games, they will be 10-6 and in great shape to make the playoffs. They are a game ahead of every other second-place team in the AFC, and the 7-6 teams would have to win out to just tie a 10-win Broncos team.

That’s good news, but McDaniels doesn’t want to hear it. Denver plays against Oakland on Sunday, and the Broncos aren’t looking for any help. If they win their final three games they are guaranteed a playoff berth.

“We can’t control what anybody else does, I can’t control what the tiebreaker system is,” McDaniels said. “What we can control is if we win our games, right now we’re in position to make the playoffs. That’s really the only thing I care about. If I start worrying about all those other things, I’m distracting myself or our team, and if they worry about it, it’s the same thing.”

The Broncos go into their game against the Raiders with a few injury questions. Running back Correll Buckhalter and safety Renaldo Hill, who were out on Wednesday and Thursday with ankle injuries, weren’t present at the beginning of practice, but that was closed to the media before the entire team had come out of the locker room. Cornerback Ty Law, who has a hamstring injury, appeared he would attempt to practice for the first time this week.