Going against the Broncos’ D will be New England’s biggest challenge of the season.
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The Broncos, who are 8-2 SU and 5-4-1 ATS, have turned to young QB Brock Osweiler in the wake of Peyton Manning’s injuries and ineffectiveness. Second-year RB James White scored as a rusher and receiver last week, his first two scores of his career. Coupled with the Broncos’ strong defensive effort in the past few games, the Patriots will be in for a rough Sunday night.
That’s exactly what the Broncos can and need to do against Brady. The Broncos won the only encounter that took place in the playoffs, beating the Patriots in the AFC championship game before going on to lose against the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.
On Monday, Kubiak blasted as “totally false” a report after the Broncos beat the Bears that Manning plans to play in 2016 even if it’s not for the Broncos. Osweiler is still unproven, however, and will face the toughest test of his life against Bill Belichick’s top-ranked defense.
This game will come down the ability of the Denver pass rush to disrupt and manhandle Brady, thus giving Osweiler, Hillman and Davis a shot to pull an upset.
“He was in meetings today”, Osweiler said. Without Edelman, teams have been able to key-in on Rob Gronkowski, who was held to just two catches last week against Buffalo.
This Sunday will be one of the Patriots’ biggest tests. We have three active guys each and every week. Denver is far less risky with injured DeMarcus Ware (61⁄2 sacks) out with a bad back, but Von Miller (6 sacks) can also ruin a quarterback’s day.
Just check out this beauty that he posted ahead of the New England Patriots Week 7 home game against the New York Jets. Miller has been seeing a lot of double teams this season, but that just opens up holes for other guys to get after the quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers wasn’t the only quarterback casualty of that Sunday night smack-down. He might be on the sidelines or up in a coaches box, but it won’t be the same.
Can the Patriots O-Line keep Brady on his feet?
Tom Brady has had some trouble against the Broncos over the course of his career.
Since 2010, when he entered the league, Gronkowski has recorded 523 receiving yards and 46 touchdowns in the red zone in the regular season, both league-highs in the NFL. Emmanuel Sanders comes into the game probable after dealing with an ankle injury and he is expected to start. The Patriots tight end has 51 catches for 843 yards and 8 touchdown catches on the season. “You can really see that on tape”.
Want some more wackiness?
Two more teams to watch in Week 12 meet in Seattle, where the Pittsburgh Steelers visit. Miller has five sacks in the past seven games, giving him six on the season.
Get ready for something wild to happen Sunday night.
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Lions (pick ’em) over Eagles, Cowboys (-1) over Panthers, Bears (+9) over Packers (picked Thursday): Decent winning start, though it was clear a minute into the Panthers game that the Cowboys were not the right side there. Brady commands the spotlight as the frontrunner in the MVP race, but Brock Osweiler’s performance will show whether the Broncos can be taken seriously without the league’s all-time passing leader.
