The Tennessee Titans will go into Denver to meet the Denver Broncos today in an important game for the Broncos' playoff goals. The game will be live streamed at 4:05 PM ET from Denver.
Four weeks after open-heart surgery, coach John Fox will be back on the sideline for the Broncos with a chance to clinch a playoff spot.
"Obviously, the doctors feel good about me getting back to work," Fox said. "I actually would have preferred to be back sooner, but there was a pretty hard deadline of four weeks post-surgery and I honored that and here I am."
Interim coach Jack Del Rio, who led the team to a 3-1 record in Fox's absence, will return to his duties as defensive coordinator.
The Broncos (10-2) welcome their coach back after a critical victory last week, 35-28 over Kansas City that gave them a one-game lead over the second-place Chiefs in the AFC West. Peyton Manning threw for 405 yards and five touchdowns -- four to Eric Decker -- as Denver grabbed the tiebreaker over Kansas City and took control of the race for the top seed in the conference.
Manning's 41 touchdowns are 12 more than anyone else's total. He's thrown at least seven to five teammates.
Tennessee could provide a test as it has the seventh-best pass defense in the NFL at 212.6 yards allowed per game. The Titans have recorded 31 sacks, and they'll face a Denver team that's allowed 15 to tie Detroit for the fewest in the league.
The bigger issue for Manning, however, may not be the Titans defense. Much has been made of his struggles in cold weather, and Sunday's forecast calls for high temperatures in the teens and a chance of snow.
Manning has a 7-6 regular-season record when the gametime temperature is below 40 degrees, the most recent such contest being a 34-31 loss to New England on Nov. 24 in which he threw for a season-low 150 yards and went 19 of 36.
The Titans (5-7) need a victory to stay in the thick of the wild-card hunt. A 22-14 loss to Indianapolis last week likely ended their chances of winning the AFC South, as they're three games behind the Colts with four to play. Tennessee, though, is one game out of the sixth and final seed in the AFC.
