The New England Patriots opened as 2.5-point road favorites over the Denver Broncos, but oddsmakers quickly fell in greater favor of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. The Patriots currently stand a 3.0-point favorites, with some places offering 3.5-points.
The Broncos have serious no one believes in us potential as the top seed in the conference with a victory over the Patriots already under their belt. Underdog home teams are 2-5 in the conference championships.
Denver really struggled to beat a broken Steelers team and will be catching the Patriots just in time for Brady to rebuild his rapport with a full offense of Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Danny Amendola. All three were unavailable for parts of the 2015 regular season game.
On the other side of the ball, the Broncos will be fielding a clearly limited Peyton Manning at quarterback, who seems to lack the necessary arm strength to make the same deep passes that Brock Osweiler had to complete to come back earlier this season.
The over/under is set at 45, which implies a 24-21 Patriots victory.