Raiders, Broncos Will Decide Future Sunday : A Loss at Denver Would Leave L.A. in an Uncomfortable Playoff Position

For those of you who have missed part of the Raiders season, relax. They’re playing the whole thing Sunday in Denver’s Mile High Stadium.

The Raiders and Broncos are tied at 9-4, atop the AFC West. The Broncos, like the Raiders, are approaching it as if it were the end of civilization as we know it.

Bronco owner Pat Bowlen: “This is it, right here, this one. It seems like we say the same thing every Sunday, but this is the one that will tell us what our future is.”

The Raiders, however, are a little closer to the edge.

1.) The Broncos are playing at home, where they’ve won 18 of their last 20 regular-season games. One loss was 27-24 to Seattle last season, when Rich Karlis bounced a 27-yard field goal in the closing seconds off an upright. The other was this season, 30-26, to the Miami Dolphins.

2.) If the Broncos beat the Raiders, they have only to win one of their next two games--like the one at Mile High the next week against the Kansas City Chiefs--to clinch the division title.

The first tiebreaker is the teams’ record in the division, and the Broncos have accomplished one thing the Raiders haven’t. They’ve won a division game on the road, at Kansas City. The Broncos are 3-2 against the AFC West, the Raiders 3-3.

And, should the Raiders get shunted off into the wild-card race, their prospects could get dicey.

There are three other 9-4 teams, all in the AFC East--the New York Jets, Dolphins and New England Patriots.

Should the Raiders finish in a tie for the last wild-card spot with either the Jets or Patriots, the Raiders would be in. They’ve beaten both teams in a head-to-head meeting.

But, should the Raiders finish tied for the last spot with the Dolphins, there would have been no head-to-head meeting. The second tiebreaker is AFC record, but both teams are 7-3.

The third tie-break is winning percentage in games against common opponents. The Raiders are 3-1 and the Dolphins 3-2.

However, the are two more games to be played, the Raiders’ game in Denver, and the Dolphins’ game at home against the Patriots. Should the Raiders lose in Denver and the Dolphins beat the Patriots, both teams would be 4-2 and they’d proceed to the next tiebreaker, net points in AFC games.

The Raiders are 11 points ahead of their AFC opponents, after 10 games. The Dolphins are 60 ahead, after 10. To overhaul them, the Raiders would have to run up a score on somebody that would make Jimmy Johnson look like Albert Schweitzer.

Schedules of the candidates:

Miami--At Green Bay: New England; Buffalo. They’ll be favored in all three.

New York--At Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland. They’ll be favored in two, and an underdog to the Bears.

New England--Detroit, at Miami, Cincinnati. They’ll be favored in two and an underdog at Miami.

Denver--Raiders; Kansas City; at Seattle. They’ll be favored in two, and probably an underdog at Seattle.

Raiders--At Denver, Seattle, at Rams. They’re 2 1/2-point underdogs at Denver. They’ll be favored over the Seahawks at home. Who knows who will be favored at Anaheim?

And a Raider official, on the prospect of the game in Anaheim deciding whether the Rams make the playoffs:

“Wouldn’t that be sweet?”