Broncomania is in full bloom. Peyton Manning jerseys are flying off store shelves. Local TV and radio stations are hyping Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens as a steppingstone on the road to the Super Bowl. And perhaps you’ve noticed that sunsets this week have had a distinctive orange-and-blue glow.

With a 13-3 record, 11 consecutive victories and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs, the Broncos’ situation looks rosy indeed. But for longtime Broncos fans with sticky memories, one monumental upset lingers. And 16 years later it still casts a gnawing shadow.

It was Jan. 4, 1997, when the Jacksonville Jaguars, in only their second year of existence, walked into Mile High Stadium as 14½-point underdogs. They left with a stunning 30-27 victory in the AFC divisional playoffs. Jacksonville rushed for 203 yards that Saturday, led by Natrone Means’ 140 yards. Elusive southpaw quarterback Mark Brunell threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns. The Broncos’ Super Bowl dreams were crushed.

“I’m just going to go home, sit on my couch and probably cry,” Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe said afterward.

Now, with three Super Bowl title rings (two with the Broncos, one with the Ravens) and a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Sharpe can look back at that titanic loss from a different perspective.

“I don’t think we were flat that day,” Sharpe said this week. “We were just a little off that day and the deeper the Jaguars got into the game, the more confident they became. It wasn’t that we weren’t focused. But there is a very fine line between playing winning and losing football when you get into the playoffs.”

Sharpe, now an NFL analyst for CBS, is not predicting a Ravens upset in Denver on Sat- urday, but he’s not ruling out anything.

“Of course, this is a totally different situation,” he said. “You look at Jacksonville 16 years ago and they were one year removed from being an expansion team. The Ravens have been to the playoffs five straight years.

“So of course the Ravens can win. This is the NFL and this is the playoffs. So like they say, ‘Anything can happen on any given Sunday.’ “

Or, in this case, on any given Saturday.

Dating to Denver’s upset loss in the playoffs of the 1996 season, the top-seeded AFC team has made it to the Super Bowl only six of 16 times. So having time to rest, recover and prepare doesn’t always pay off.

But Broncos coach John Fox, whose Carolina Panthers team lost to the Arizona Cardinals after a bye week in 2008, said history won’t matter come Saturday.

“Forget about rest, forget about seeds, forget about who you play, when, where,” he said. “It’s going to be who plays the best Saturday afternoon.”

Manning also is familiar with the shock of a sudden, stunning defeat. In 2005, his Indianapolis Colts opened the season 13-0, finished 14-2 and held the AFC’s top seed entering the playoffs. But the Steelers beat the Colts 21-18 in the divisional round, sacking Manning five times.

The veteran quarterback is confident he knows how the playoffs must be approached.

“I had an old coach that used to say, ‘If you have to do something different in the postseason to get ready to play, that means you probably haven’t been doing the right things during the regular season to get ready to play,’ ” Manning said. “I always try to prepare every single week as if it was a playoff game or the Super Bowl. Whatever it is, that’s your job as an NFL player. So when you get to the playoffs, that’s really the mind-set again.”

Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428, psaunders@denverpost.com or twitter.com/psaundersdp