By appearances, at least, the knee injury was not serious.
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“It was a check that we had worked on all week in practice”, Osweiler said.
“We had plenty of opportunities”, Brady said. A slew of questionable penalties and no-calls were just the beginning and though one can use that as blame for the loss, I prefer not to because everyone has probably already discussed those.
“They just feel like there’s a push off. It’s obviously different than what I saw, because I’m looking at it too, but they’re the ones with the flags and they throw it. You hate to see it come down to stuff like that, but there were a lot of plays last night that just didn’t necessarily end up the way we would have hoped and there were a lot of things that we could have done better”.
As for the hit that knocked the tight end out of Sunday night’s game, while fans accept that targeting an offensive player low is a new reality in a league that guards against high hits, some still felt that Stewart’s hit crossed the line. But when you go low, that’s what happens.
“I think if you sit there and dwell on it, it might be overwhelming, but we can’t do that”, Chandler said. “I just think that is how football is played now”. In the receiving end, Jordan Matthews had 60 yards and one touchdown in three receptions while Trey Burton added 49 yards in two receptions. He walked to the team bus with a slight limp but no brace and coach Bill Belichick said he had no update.
New England won the coin toss and elected to receive, but thanks to a sack by Von Miller, Denver forced a three-and-out and, on third-and-1 from the New England 48, Anderson raced around the left sideline and into the north end zone. And after the game went into overtime, he recognized that the Patriots were in a defensive front that would stop the running play that had been called.
That scoring play gave the Broncos their first lead of the night at 24-21 with 1:09 left in the game.
Two years ago, Gronk tore his ACL and MCL on the same right knee from a similar hit by Cleveland Browns safety T.J. Ward, now a teammate of Stewart.
“It didn’t look good at times”, Denver head coach Gary Kubiak said, “but we figured out a way to get it done”.
The Patriots managed just 39 yards on 16 carries, however.
His stats aren’t eye popping – 23-of-42 passing for 270 yards, one touchdown and one interception – but the young quarterback was able to stretch the defense and made some pinpoint throws when he needed them late, including the go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes of regulation. But they could not overcome all three at the same time against the Broncos. But after the Patriots held on the ensuing Broncos series, Chris Harper muffed the punt and set Denver up with short yardage, leading to Anderson’s first score.
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Wilson’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin with 2:01 remaining gave Seattle a nine-point lead and essentially sealed the victory.
