NFL Playoff Picture: Denver Broncos and More Guaranteed First-Round Losers

Not every team in the playoffs has a chance to win the Super Bowl.  Despite the conclusion of the regular season, not every pretender has been weeded out.  Here are two teams that won’t make it out of Wild Card weekend.

Denver Broncos

If you can’t take care of business in a must-win game on your own home turf against the Kansas City Chiefs, how in the world do you expect to knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers?  Tim Tebow has lost that magic in his fingertips that he had during the Denver Broncos’ miraculous winning streak.  Even though their comeback from irrelevancy is extremely impressive, winning the AFC West with an 8-8 record isn’t.

Kansas City’s defense is mediocre and the Broncos couldn’t even get into the end zone once against them.  Finding pay dirt against the different animal that is Dick Lebeau’s defensive machine of domination is a lost cause.  The underdog story was fun while it lasted, but Tebow Time has struck midnight.

Detroit Lions

Now fans, don’t get it twisted.  The Lions aren’t a pretender that I mentioned in the intro.  Their early elimination is simply a consequence of an unfortunate seeding.

If the Lions were able to take out the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, they would’ve locked up the fifth seed in the NFC playoffs.  Then the winner of the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants would be on this list instead of the Lions because the Matt Stafford to Calvin Johnson connection is on fire.  They couldn’t cut the cheese, though, so instead of preparing to drop 40-plus points on the Giants or Cowboys in a blowout, Detroit now must drop 40-plus points just to keep pace with the New Orleans Saints.

Drew Brees and company are arguably the hottest team in the entire NFL right now and drawing them in the first round is tough luck.

David Daniels is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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