{"id":406680,"date":"2026-01-13T16:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406680\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:09:08","slug":"bills-bears-and-49ers-among-risers-heading-into-division-round-of-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406680\/","title":{"rendered":"Bills, Bears and 49ers among risers heading into Division Round of playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Broncos watched over their bye and saw the AFC&#8217;s No. 3 seed removed from the tournament with Jacksonville&#8217;s loss. Meanwhile, the conference&#8217;s No. 2 seed, New England, struggled to score 16 points in its playoff opener. So, for all the handwringing there has been about whether the Broncos truly are top-seed worthy &#8212; and yes, I&#8217;ve been among the mild doubters &#8212; the big picture looks pretty good. However, what matters is the here and now, and that means the Broncos facing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/players\/josh-allen\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Allen<\/a>, who just completed a hop-on-my-shoulders performance in Jacksonville and who could give a very good Denver defense problems. The Broncos&#8217; pass rush could be a problem for the Bills, but Allen&#8217;s out-of-structure playmaking should give Denver some issues, too. Buffalo also defends the pass well, so the Broncos must find ways to penetrate what has been a leaky run defense. If they can do that and keep Allen under wraps, they can host the AFC Championship Game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Broncos watched over their bye and saw the AFC&#8217;s No. 3 seed removed from the tournament with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2209,1745,1766,1742,1748,1744,1735,1740,1724,1721,1743,3163,1730,43,1737,1732,1725,1727,1736,2210,1749,1720,1726,1718,1734,1728,1723,44,2208,1747,949,24854,948,1739,1733,1741,41,39,42,40,1758],"class_list":["post-406680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-analysis","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-chicago-bears","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-denver-broncos","tag-detroit-lions","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-headlines","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-jets","tag-news","tag-no-minute","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-power-rankings","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-washington-commanders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}