Cool little Stat

[cdumler7]

So was reading on MileHighReport this morning and saw a stat that I thought was pretty darn cool. The Broncos with winning 3 more games than the Raiders this season pass them on the all-time wins list for the AFC West. We have not been at the top since 1962 as the Raiders dominated us after that. Right now as it stands the records go...

Raiders 434 wins
Broncos 432 wins
Chiefs 415 wins
Chargers 408 wins

At one point the Raiders had almost a 40 game lead on us (so 2 1/2 seasons worth of wins) but we have slowly climbed out of the hole.

Now we just need to get that one more Super Bowl win to tie them and truly be able to call ourselves the greatest franchise in AFC West history.

 

[iknowftbll]

That is a cool stat. Does it count playoff wins? This is as good a season as any to fully and officially take control. I think it is highly likely the Broncos pass them in total wins. The Broncos could go 11-5 but I highly doubt the Raiders go 8-8. As for that Super Bowl, that's possible, maybe even probable. And while 3 wins is better than 2, 7 appearances is better than 5. It indicates more successful trips deep into the playoffs. That's worth something.

 

[cdumler7]

The article says all-time wins so my guess is that includes playoffs. I definitely agree the 7 looks a lot better than the 5 and honestly right now I would put us ahead of the Raiders as the all-time franchise but I do know any time Raiders fans get into this conversation first thing they do is point to the 3 Championships. Would love to take that argument out of the equation not only to shut them up but hey another Super Bowl win sounds wonderful!

 

[MrDoc420]

Good stuff. We'll pass them here before too long.

 

[iknowftbll]

I just checked wikipedia, and the 432 wins counts regular season wins only. The Broncos regular season record is 432-378-10 in the regular season, and 20-18 in the playoffs, including 7 Super Bowls with 2 Super Bowl wins.

The Raiders are 434-375-11 in the regular season and 25-18 in the playoffs, with 5 Super Bowl trips and 3 Super Bowl wins.

Overall I'd say the Broncos are every bit the Raiders equal in terms of franchise achievement. But they are well on their way toward surpassing them due to relevancy and recency. The Raiders had a stretch in the 1960s and 70s where they were always in the playoffs. However, they've made the playoffs just 3 times in the last 20 years. To their credit, one of those does include a Super Bowl appearance, but the trend is toward irrelevancy for the Raiders.

If the Broncos surpass them in regular season wins this season and go on to equal the Raiders for Super Bowl wins, this won't even be a discussion worth having. The Broncos will be considered the vastly superior franchise as a whole by pretty much everyone but the most die-hard of Raiders fans.

 

[Broncos6482]

Once we take that away from the Raiders, and once we match them in Super Bowl wins (hopefully both happen this season), there's only one left that they can hold over - the all time head to head record. Unfortunately it's not pretty. We're 46-59-2 all time against the Raiders, which means we're looking at 7 years at least until we pass them, and of course that requires us winning every time we play them.

We also need to take the head to head record away from the Chiefs. The good news is we're a lot closer to that. We're 51-56 all time against the Chiefs, 52-56 if you include the playoffs. So that means we're just two sweeps away from tying them. Of course that includes the Chiefs 3 seasons as the Houston Texans, since they moved to Kansas City we're actually 51-50 against them in the regular season.

Some other cool stats: we lead the Chargers head to head. We're 58-49-1 against them. Our best winning percentage is against the Cardinals, we're 7-1-1 against them. Our worst is the Dolphins, we're 4-11-1. Our most wins against a team that has never been in our division is the Patriots (25-19). Our fewest wins is a tie between the Panthers (3-1) and Texans (3-2).

In case you're interested, you can find all of that info here.

 

[iknowftbll]

Both the Raiders and Chiefs, and maybe even the Chargers got a solid head start on the Broncos in head to head games. I'm glad to see the Broncos steadily close the gap between themselves and their rivals. As noted, it'll take several more seasons to overtake the Raiders in head to head, and that's assuming the Broncos can sweep them every year for the next 7 years. That's certainly not realistic. But it is certainly nice to know that for the time being, the Broncos are trending up and the Raiders are trending down.

A few have voiced high hopes for the Raiders this year, and I think they are at a point where they have set themselvs up for long term success by clearing a lot of dead money left over from the Al Davis years. But I don't think they have the juice to be any better than 6-10 this year, and that's with a few balls bouncing their way. They are on the brink of turning the corner but just not as good as a lot of teams on their schedule.

To me this translates as one more year where the Broncos have a chance to close that head to head gap and more playoff wins to their total. Maybe even a Super Bowl win.