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Denver Broncos
Manning vs Brady. That's all the talk this week in Denver. After taking care of the Oakland Raiders at home, optimism has returned to the Broncos and their fans. I mean after all, a 37-6 trouncing of a divisional opponent is reason to celebrate in itself. But the Broncos are packing their bags heading to Foxboro this week to meet with a Patriots team that just dismantled one of their divisional opponents, beating the Buffalo Bills 52-28, including 45 (!) unanswered points in that game.
The fines keep coming down on the Broncos as now LB Von Miller has been fined $15,750 by the NFL for a hit he made on Texans QB Matt Schaub.
Injuries continue to plague the Broncos as they've placed two more players on Injured-Reserve: Safety Quinton Carter with a knee injury, and their starting Center JD Walton with a broken ankle. Though they've had a few players go on IR, it's not all bad news as only two players were limited in practice yesterday; the Patriots weren't as lucky.
More Denver Broncos News:
- Broncos Kicker Named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week
- Broncos add LB Mike Mohamed, WR Bert Reed, OT Darrion Weems to practice squad
Kansas City Chiefs
After their Overtime victory over the New Orleans Saints, optimism started to seep back into Kansas City again. Confidence was high and fans were coming around to their team. Then, the San Diego Chargers forced 6 turnovers and blew the Chiefs out in their own home. Terrible for Chiefs fans, great for Chargers fans.
Once again, the Chiefs live and die by Matt Cassel. The fans are well aware now that Cassel is not the answer at Quarterback anymore. In fact, a few Chiefs fans have banded together and bought a banner to be flown over Arrowhead Stadium during Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens. The banner reads: "WE DESERVE BETTER? FIRE PIOLI - BENCH CASSEL". I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen a "FIRE NORV" banner flown over Qualcomm yet.
As mentioned above, the Chiefs play the Ravens on Sunday. So optimism can't be too high in Kansas City this week either. If the Chiefs lose to the Ravens this week, it looks like any playoff hopes are all but over. The Chiefs have not played well at all this season and 1-4 is definitely a tough hole to climb out of, for any team.
On the injury front, the Chiefs are still struggling to stay healthy. Kevin Boss was placed on IR, and on Wednesday they had 8 players miss practice including two new names: CB Brandon Flowers and WR Jon Baldwin. Meanwhile, Baltimore had zero players miss practice; in fact, no players were even limited. Kansas City just can't catch the breaks (not that I'm complaining).
More Kansas City Chiefs News:
- The Kansas City Chiefs hope to be one of these teams
- Brady Quinn talks Matt Cassel, the Chiefs starting QB and practice reps
- Odds to win AFC West: KC Chiefs aren't last
Oakland Raiders
The Raiders beat the Steelers! They're Super Bowl-bound! Okay, not so much. After upsetting the Steelers last week, the Raiders ran into the buzzsaw that is Peyton Manning. It seems such a tough loss has sucked all the humor out of Oakland.
Oakland is sitting at 1-3 right now, and that includes an 0-2 record against the division. There was a lot of hope and high expectations for the Raiders this year, not just in Oakland but nationally, but so far those expectations haven't come to fruition. The Raiders have a bye this week and they will take this time to lick their wounds.
And they'll need to take take this time to lick those wounds. The Raiders have been struggling with injuries this year much like the Chiefs. Their roster has more turnover than a McDonald's franchise. The good news for Oakland though is Darrius Heyward-Bey back to practicing, it's good to see him back already after that scary incident against Pittsburgh.
More Oakland Raiders News: