The Broncos arrived for their Week 16 game against the Lions with a 5-9 record, no shot at the playoffs, a guarantee they’ll finish with yet another losing season and only seven days separating them and that game in Kansas City they would love to forget.



They are injured and they are sick, with 19 players dealing with wounds and/or a flu-like bug that had spread through the locker room. Those were just the ones listed by Friday.



By Sunday, Von Miller caught it, Shelby Harris felt it coming on, the Broncos’ public relations staff was congested and nearly everyone that had walked within 10 feet of the team had come down with the same illness.



Veteran starters across the board were also lost to ankle or knee or shoulder or back issues (standard at this point in the season) and by the second half Sunday, their roster depth would be pushed to its limits.



Yet the Broncos pushed through. Somehow, the team that had usually have been on the wrong...