The Denver Broncos play a game in only a couple of short days.

It’s a little hard to believe, but Thursday Night Football against the Las Vegas Raiders will be here before you know it.

Such is life in the NFL, the big victories can only be celebrated for so long before the next task awaits.

But on a sped up week thanks to the league always craving the spotlight, the Broncos can’t get trapped by looking ahead.

The Raiders are not a very good team, just like most years. They’re 2-6, miles away from anyone else in the AFC West, and Geno Smith is highly unlikely to be the long-term answer at QB.

Pete Carroll is back in coaching, but hasn’t brought his magic to the desert (yet). Tight end Brock Bowers is already a star and running back Ashton Jeanty may one day be a star, but they’re going to need a lot of help around them. Vegas is staring a 5-12 record in the face.

However, let’s not have the spooky season from Halloween creep into Empower Field at Mile High on Thursday evening. The fans know what comes 10 days after that, and you can bet the players and coaches do as well — it’s a date with the Chiefs.

Kansas City is battered and bruised, but don’t doubt the nine-time-in-a-row AFC West champs until they’re dead. Denver might have a chance to land a knockout blow on Sunday, Nov. 16, but can’t forget the objective at hand.

It might sound cliché, but it’s true. Many in Broncos Country have already circled a victory over the hapless Raiders, pushing Denver to 8-2 and riding a seven-game winning streak.

Take it easy.

First of all, weird things happen overseas and weird things happen on shorts weeks. Look at the Broncos and Jets earlier this season. It was a complete mismatch on paper, but Denver’s defense had to come up with one last huge stop to escape London with a 13-11 win.

No one is going to be feeling 100 percent when the two squads meet in a couple of days. The players will get all the treatment they can and say the right things, but a Thursday contest makes this more of a coin-flip than anyone would like to admit.

Smith, even though he’s getting older, threw four touchdowns on Sunday against the Jaguars. Bowers caught three of them and went off 127 yards. The Broncos haven’t been able to guard tight ends for years and he presents a monster challenge.

Plus, Carroll has been around the block way too many times to let his team quit on a season. The Raiders aren’t simply going to roll over and die.

And yes, it’s a rivalry game. It might not have the juice it did a couple of decades ago, but silver and black and orange and blue don’t mesh. There’s still some hatred in this matchup.

The Chiefs showdown will have the eyes of the football world in 12 days, but so will this one. Baseball is over, basketball and hockey are in their infant stages, and the NFL dominates America. In a stand-alone game, everyone will be tuned in to Broncos and Raiders.

A loss would undo a lot of the progress and momentum Denver has worked so hard to build. They’d fall to 7-3, while Kansas City sits waiting during its bye week. Don’t let them think with just one victory at Mile High they can be within 1/2 game in the division of the Broncos.

That would be the case if Denver slipped against the Raiders and then the Chiefs. They’d fall to 7-4 while K.C. would move to 6-4.

It’s not too early to look at the scoreboard and standings, but it is always too early to assume any game is an easy win.

Come on, Broncos, don’t get trapped on a short week against an inferior opponent. Handle business and then the prize fight will be here before you know it.