We're already 13 pt. underdogs, Don't take us seriously: Ask a Broncos fan!

To go through your list, this is how I see it:

1) I’m not sure how the 3-4 defensive adjustment help, however what did help us against the Broncos option was the concept of simply hitting the pitch man. What makes the option successful is lack of decision on the defensive side, however when the defense knows who is going to get hit, even if the pitch man gets it off before getting hit, there’s a guy already on the move for the runner with the ball instead of not knowing whether the pitch man isgoing to keep it or not.

2) So far the only defense to beat the Patriots on their terms was the Steelers (whereas the other losses were due to our defenses inability to keep our offense with the last scoring possession). They did that with tight man-to-man coverage. Unfortunately for the Broncos, that won’t work. For one reason, the Pats should be prepared for that, and for another reason, there are too many mismatches between the Pats and Broncos, with the Broncos being on the short end of the stick. Hernandez was productive because Gronk was being double teamed.

3) I can’t say I know much, but I think Brandon Spikes should be returning, and he should help with the run stopping. Maybe some O-linemen of ours can get healthy as well.

4) Keys for the Pats are: 1) Start fast, start strong, start productive, and end the same offensively, 2) the defense needs to remain opportunistic as it has all year because not only are they 15th in the league (virtually 14th given the difference) in pts allowed, but I believe the are 3rd in takeaways, 3) respect Tebow and the Broncos

5) I would say that between Belichick, his team and the fans, the fans probably respect the Broncos the least, but that’s not to say there is no respect or even just a little. Of course Bill and his team give the Broncos 100% respect, especially considering what’s at stake, but as fans we probably have a good 70% respect (that’s just a shot in the dark, but I feel it’s accurate). Since we’re biased and the rest of the country see the Patriots body of work defining them as better team, we do think the Pats are inherently better and should win, but of course we know that’s exactly what the Broncos and their fans want and we know y’all are dangerous.

6) Don’t ask me! I’m a Texas boy and all I know is my mother’s family calls trash “rubbish” and dinner “supper” ;)

1. It’s “CHOW-dah.” Which is why you should be very careful about raving about the Lebanese restaurant that offers free hookahs with dinner when you’re in Boston.

1. The best way to get Brady rattled is to hit him hard a few times early on, and be able to generate pressure with four or fewer rushers. More than that, and he has time to hit an open Welker or GRONK and you’re hosed.

1. I think the better success with the 3-4 comes because most of the players are more suited to a 3-4 scheme than to a 4-3. The 4-3 met its demise when Carter went down; it seemed to be in place to get maximal benefit out of him.

1. The Pats’ key to the game is making sure Ninkovich gets his 30-yard sack of Tebow on the first Broncos play from scrimmage, and the second, and the third, and. . . .

But more seriously, if they can keep Tebow in the pocket, much of Tebow’s magic is gone.

…is as useful as his knowledge of all the potential playoff opponents. He’s spent plenty of time researching the strengths and weaknesses of both the players and the opponents. However, when it comes to putting it into action, he only figured out the “how not to do it” portion. Still has to figure out “how to do it” and that’s where he’s at square one.

Should be a good game!

1) Well, the Patriots were just completely outexecuted in the 1st. The Broncos weren’t doing anything fancy, but were completely manhandling the Patriots defenders and throwing them out of position. I don’t think the Patriots were ready for such a physical match-up and needed time to adjust. The loss of Andre Carter pushed the Patriots back to the 3-4 defense and it helped the team settle down as the linebackers were able to do a better job of containing the Broncos. Setting the outside edges with the 3-4 DEs means that the running lanes funnel to the middle, between the tackles, and the Patriots’ strength is their inside linebackers.

2) The Giants were the most difficult defense that the Patriots faced (outside the Steelers, but that came was just bad). The key to stopping Brady is getting consistent pressure with a 4 man rush and dropping the rest into varying man cover schemes. Don’t play zone because Brady can eat that coverage live.

3) The Patriots benefit greatly with the bye week. Here’s a list of those who have returned or healed since Week 15:

Key D:
S Pat Chung – Patriots best run stopping safety (and really only good safety)
LB Brandon Spikes – Spikes is the Patriots best run stopping linebacker.
LB Dane Fletcher – Yes, he played against the Broncos. He was also rusty. He’s since been a much better defender.

Key O:
WR Deion Branch – Brady’s safety blanket; didn’t play against the Broncos.
G Logan Mankins – Mankins has been resting up after injuring himself Week 16.

4) Discipline. Patriots can’t afford to bite on the play action pass. They also need to attack the seams with the tight ends and spread the ball.

5) I think everyone is tired of being one-and-done in the playoffs so everyone understands the gravity of the game. Any given Sunday and the Broncos victory over the Steelers definitely proved that true.

6) Chowdah.

Brady seems to get an inordinate amount of roughing penalties from pretty clean hits. On our side, though a bunk penalty was called on a Harrison hit on Tebow, he was mugged and facemasked several times with no calls.

As Patriot fans, do you think that the protection of Brady by the officials is justified or a case of lucky calls?

The most serious last week was to WR Eric Decker. Though it isn’t as bad as it looked, he is likely out for this game. We are also missing starting RG Chris Kuper who had one of the nastiest injuries I’ve ever seen. Last week his replacement (a guy you should know) Russ Hochstein filled in admirably and played very well.

I realize the Steelers defense honed in on our running game, but it still didn’t seem the same without Kuper.

I have theories on why McDaniels was hired when he was. My thought is that the offense he last ran with N.E. in ‘07 and the one being run now with a huge emphasis on the TE’s in the passing game is really not one of his strengths. Would it be fair to say that BB got him now in order to ‘catch him up’ on some of the different intricacies of the NE offense since his departure?

It looks more and more like the success of this team is strictly due to the play of Tom Brady and the leadership of Hoodie. Whenever coordinators come and go, is it fair to say that it is business as usual for the Patriots? In other words, the people that leave had less to do with the success of the team than the people I mentioned. What are Patriots fans thoughts’ about this?

He sure looked impressive against the Steelers in a high-pressure playoff game, but so soon we forget the nasty 3-week stretch against New England, Buffalo and Kansas City that had many people screaming for his head.

Dont be a Jets, Broncos Mike.

much the same way the first time around happened. What makes The Patriots so different from any other team Denver faces is that they are the perfect antidote for the Broncos formula for success. The Steelers re a great team, and I don’t think anyone would dispute that, but thy certainly are not a high scoring team. The Broncos motto (I’m making this up) is “keep the score close and by the end of the game we will win”. The thing is, unless the Broncos offense can keep up score with Brady, Welker, Gronk and Hernandez, there’s no way they will stay in it to win it, and I seriously doubt they can. Of course Brady and his offense stalls out every few drives, so what makes up for that is our opportunistic defense. There’s rarely a point in a game where you say “That should have been a pick” because 99% of the time it is a pick and New England gets the takeaway. For as much as Belichick’s defense bends, they straighten out and say, “Hey stop bending me.” N.E. will force or capitalize on giveaways and then proceed to score on them.

Let’s hear some about the Broncos.

denver can win is by turning into the JETS from 2010 or the g-man from 2007 keeping the ball for 35 min plus cutting the possington way down staying close and winning the game late look at it this way u score 28 or more u win u score under 20 u lose

by the way great tittle

Oh, and nice poll man (even if I didn’t have the heart to click on it)

Denver 31, NE 30 is the winner so far.

it’s been awhile

I’ve been asked a lot the last couple of weeks about Tebow and the future and here’s my thoughts on the situation.

From the beginning it’s been a very up and down year. He’s played well, he’s played terribly, we’ve won, we’ve lost.

What I do know is that he has shown improvement throughout the year, and he’s always been a leader. I don’t think you can dispute that our team started playing as a team as soon as the gig was given to him.

Both our franchises have fantastic records historically. Our Broncos have been to six super bowls, won two of them, and for many years especially in the 80’s and 90’s we were perennial winners. For your Patriots, they have been to six super bowls, won three of them, and for the last decade+ have been perennial winners.

Our franchise has struggled lately. We made the AFC Championship in 2005 and won a playoff game last week, besides that the few times we’ve made the playoffs this last 10 years, we’ve been one and done. Your franchise has struggled in the postseason the last three years, and in many ways there is much more pressure on the Patriots to deliver a victory Saturday. Anyway I’ll get to the point.

We haven’t had a leader at QB since Elway. Tebow is a leader, he works hard, he honors his teammates and gives them praise in victory. One of his most common phrases when asked about success or winning is that he says “I give credit to my coaches and my teammates for making me look better than I really am.” For all the attention he gets, he doesn’t ask for it, and it doesn’t change him—-he handles it well.

On the field, running, passing, it doesn’t matter to him so long as we get the victory, and that’s what I think. I don’t care if the guy throws an ugly ball or completes half his passes, because we have a leader again. He’s done exactly what the coaches have asked from him, and they’ve done a great job bringing him along. People forget that including last week, that was his 15th start in the NFL—-experience wise. And from what I’ve seen, he will get better, and both the coaches and fans know he’s going to work his butt off and do whatever he can to improve.

Now, when I hear things about other starting QB’s and how their teammates call them out, or even Joe Flacco who recently complained that he isn’t getting enough props for his teams’ success, it makes me very thankful that Tim is the kind of competitor and person he is.

I’ve been asked about my ‘worries’ for the game.

It all boils down to one thing: mistakes, and not executing.
We here this stuff all the time from Bill Belichick. But for our Broncos this rings true even more. Our offense is probably not at the point where it can trade scores with Tom Brady. Defensively, we ABSOLUTELY have to make tackles and keep your receivers from getting big gains and YAC. We need to be the epitome of bend but don’t break defensively—-Brady will get his yards, but keep him—-however possible, out of the endzone. Kick FG’s all day. Pressure wise, we need to get there with 4 rushers. Before this year, Fox was known for playing zone and using the zone blitz quite a bit. Well we have to find some ways to get to him while being able to keep 6-7 guys in coverage.

Offensively, we need to convert 3rd downs more consistently. This starts #1 by not giving up stupid offensive penalties (which we have avoided lately), and by getting positive yardage on 1st and 2nd down. We need to limit our three and outs to maybe one or two like we did against Pittsburgh. We also need to convert TD’s in the Redzone. Last week against Pittsburgh, we ended two drives inside the Pittsburgh 10 and settled for FG’s. Maximizing our scoring opportunities is paramount.

Do I think the Broncos can hang with the Patriots? Without a doubt! Do I think we can win the game? Of course we can! The only way we are going to do it is by playing smart disciplined football, and by executing the game plan. How’s that for a Belichickian answer? :)

I’d say good luck, but that would be dishonest lol! So instead I wanted to say thank you guys for having me this week! Win or lose we’ll see you folks again next season!

And thank you everyone for having me this week. Enjoy your victory, you guys deserve it and were the better team!