Mother Nature could be handing Broncos Wild Card assist with Chiefs travel woes

The Chiefs' flight to Denver was "stranded" due to ice.
Denver Broncos v Kansas City Chiefs
Denver Broncos v Kansas City Chiefs / David Eulitt/GettyImages
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The Denver Broncos have one more chance to clinch a Wild Card spot. The team had opportunities in Weeks 16 and 17 to do so, but ended up on the losing end. They blew a first half lead to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 16, and in Week 17 loss, they lost an overtime thriller to the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Broncos have one more chance to clinch their spot. On Sunday, they host the Kansas City Chiefs, who will primarily be playing their backups with the No. 1 seed long secured. A win can hand the Broncos the No. 7 seed.

Ahead of the game, the Chiefs have been having some trouble making it to Denver.

Chiefs deal with travel woes due to ice in Kansas City ahead of Week 18

The Kansas City International Airport was shut down "due to rapid ice accumulation," leaving the Chiefs' plane stranded, per NBC Sports' Tracy Wolfson. Per Wolfson, the Chiefs were supposed to arrive in Denver by 3:00 p.m.

To make matters even worse for the Chiefs, the de-icing machine at Kansas City International Airport was broken, according to FOX 4 Kansas City's Harold R. Kuntz. That left some flights to be deverted to Omaha.

The good news is, as of this writing, the Chiefs' plane was able to take off and is en route to Denver. Still, it was quite the ordeal for the Chiefs to deal with this ahead of their regular-season finale.

According to Accuweather, Kansas City is dealing with heavy precipitation that could lead to between 6-to-14 inches of snow accumulation and up to one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulation. This will continue into early Monday morning.

An unideal situation for the Chiefs, who will be primariily playing their backups this week. They already have the No. 1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. On paper, that should give the Broncos the advantage to win the game and clinch the last playoff spot. But, as we all know, anything can happen in the NFL.

If the Broncos were to lose to the Chiefs, they would need both the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals to lose or tie.

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