[Sylvanfan]

Regarding the Raider game.

Denver was pretty motivated after getting beat pretty good by KC and New England the previous two weeks. With Kubiak retiring, I think those guys didn't want to send him out with a loss. You don't win a Superbowl with weak character. Plus I don't think Denver wanted to finish the season with a 1-5 Division record. So I'm not surprised the Denver came out and played hard.

Really the games that were the biggest duds or had a team within nothing to play for not show up ended up being games which were meaningless to both teams like Cinci/Baltimore, Minnesota/Chicago, New York/Buffalo, and Arizona/LA.

Another similarity to the 2008 playoffs...The Giants also had to go thru the number 1 seed Cowboys to get to the Superbowl. Should they succeed in beating the Packers which will be tough, but not impossible...high percentage chance they are in Dallas in the second week.