Broncos at Patriots

Tebow and Company beat the Steelers. Do they have a chance against the Patriots? Can Tebow do it again?

I was really worried about a Pats v Steelers game next week, so was watching the scores with amazement yesterday (I lost ESPN in a storm so was trying to follow the games on my phone).

On paper there should only be one winner, and the result a few weeks ago would support that.

I know the Pats are a professional team, but I have a slight doubt that they'll think they've got off easy by facing the Broncos rather than the Steelers and may take their foot off the gas. I really hope they don't, but stranger things have happened!

Your words "on paper" are key in this case. "On paper" the Bronco's should not be in the playoffs. On paper they should have lost to the Steelers. I understand your doubts ... something bigger than football seems to be going on here.

You can never go by the outcomes of earlier games --- the year the Cards beat the Eagles in the NFC title game, they'd just been crushed by the Eagles a few weeks previous.

It's difficult to say for sure that they won't win but it will be much more run heavy than the win over the Steelers, the reason Tebow's passing was so successful was that they weren't expecting it at one point early on both safeties tackled McGahee at the line of scrimmage and they continued to have at least one of the safeties around the line for quite a lot of the plays which left receivers open or with less coverage than they should have been facing, but now the Patriots have seen what he can do throwing and should at least try to keep his receivers covered.

Another thing to consider is the difference in offenses, Big Ben was injured and they were missing Mendenhall had those two been fully fit I believe it would have been a different result. Brady and his offense should be able to pile up the points and put Tebow under a lot of pressure to keep up, then they can try to force him to throw to his covered receivers because they need to quickly march up field to get a FG before half time.

Derby, disagree about Mendenhall, and to a degree about Big Ben.

The Steelers couldn't open up much in terms of running lanes against the Bronco's front 7 and many runs on key downs were stuffed at the LOS. No RB is going to make yardage if he has no hole to run into. When they did get the holes, they got decent rushing yardage as a result, and Redman finished with a 7.1 average.

The Bronco's pass rush also forced Ben to throw early negating much of their long passing game, and his INT was a direct result of being hurried, not his ankle. Had he been fully fit he may have eluded some of the rush, but the Bronco's would still have put him under pressure.

The Patriots will see the same pressure, but their pass protection is better which should give Brady some opportunities. Its the Pats D that will decide this one.

The Patriots scored 41 points and the Broncos 23 in these teams' first meeting December 18. Denver's defense will have to find a way to stop Tom Brady and company for the Broncos to have a chance. A different game plan might do the trick ... and keeping NE's offense off the field.

I really believe the Broncos will win this. Pats have been horrible in the post season as of late. I see last year vs the Jets to be a nice parallel to this situation, Pats blow out the Jets late in the regular season then Jets come with a different game plan to slow the Pats down in the playoffs and get the win. Except I believe Tebow to be a more potent weapon on offense (not a better thrower of the ball than Sanchez, though tbh he's not far off the way Sanchez has played this year).

I think we forget that unlike the Steelers the Pats defense makes turnovers. They give up a lot more yardage but they just make interceptions like the Packers as well.
This game will come down to how many times the Broncos turn the ball over. If it is anything from 3 or above the Pats will win.

This could be a tough one for the Broncos. The Patriots can score - a lot. Tebow wasn't bad the last game they played against Belichick's crew, but the defense just couldn't stop Brady and his minions. It the Patriots get ahead by a significant amount and they force Denver to throw a lot to try and narrow the gap, the Broncos could be in for a long day. If they can get to Brady and get some turnovers and Tebow doesn't turn it over, they have a chance.

skins4ever wrote:Derby, disagree about Mendenhall, and to a degree about Big Ben.

The Steelers couldn't open up much in terms of running lanes against the Bronco's front 7 and many runs on key downs were stuffed at the LOS. No RB is going to make yardage if he has no hole to run into. When they did get the holes, they got decent rushing yardage as a result, and Redman finished with a 7.1 average.

The Bronco's pass rush also forced Ben to throw early negating much of their long passing game, and his INT was a direct result of being hurried, not his ankle. Had he been fully fit he may have eluded some of the rush, but the Bronco's would still have put him under pressure.

Redman came out with an impressive average given the lack of holes that opened up for him, but personally I feel he appears to be a little slow and I think Mendenhall has more speed to him and can make the cut quicker which would allow him to attack any holes which could have opened up or cut and go to the outside. I'm not going to say Big Ben is like Tebow or Vick, but like any good quarterback if hurried he can usually extend the play with his legs and then if nothing opens up throw it out or gain a couple of extra yards, he seemed to be unable to run on many occasions in the game (the commentators said that he had previously said it just depends how it feels at the start of the play) and had he been fully fit I believe he would have been able to extend a couple of plays further and potentially helped them win the game.

That Tebow gets in on everything nowadays...

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d825f49c1/article/matchmaking-parents-of-katy-perry-hunting-down-tebow?module=HP11_content_stream