Brock Osweiler gets another whirl at quarterback for Denver after winning his first career start Week 11 at Chicago while Peyton Manning is on the mend for at least another week.
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But more important, the Patriots and Broncos are separated by just two games in the race for top spot in the AFC, a finish that comes with home field advantage throughout the playoffs and, of course, a first-round bye. That’s the guy I’m far more concerned with off the injury report (even with Emmanuel Sanders missing time). Malcolm Butler, the Super Bowl hero with his late interception, has turned into one of the league’s best cover corners.
Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak said Mathis, who is officially listed as questionable, would test his ankle pregame before a decision is made as to whether he will play. “He did a heck of a job”. But Brady’s been there before with receivers like Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Sam Aiken and David Givens – all of whom have caught multiple touchdown passes from Brady during his Hall of Fame career. It should be noted that the Patriots are right behind them with 32 sacks, led by Chandler Jones’ 10 1/2. “He’s a great player and you have to be aware of him”. He’s talking me through all of his past experiences going against the Patriots and whatnot.
Our play at nose tackle has had some poor moments here and there, but it isn’t a very exploitable weakness from what I’ve seen.
Osweiler was aided by a running game that churned out 170 yards, 102 from Ronnie Hillman. “It’s unfortunate.” New England remained unbeaten despite being held to a season-low point total in Monday night’s 20-13 win over division rival Buffalo.
“We have a tough task this weekend”, Denver Broncos defense end Malik Jackson told Mark Knudson of Sports Stampede on Mile High Sports AM 1340 in anticipation of this week’s matchup with the New England Patriots.
FAST FACTS: Quarterbacks making one of their first 16 regular-season National Football League starts are 14-39 against Belichick. Osweiler has been sacked eight times in only 51 pass attempts. But he’ll likely miss not having some key parts on offence even more, particularly injured Julian Edelman, who is out, and Danny Amendola, who is unlikely to play. Passing-down back Dion Lewis suffered a season-ending torn ACL in Week 9. “So, that’s got us back to some of our base offensive type stuff”. [QB] Peyton [Manning] hasn’t been going on Wednesdays, so I’ve had an opportunity to go with Brock and it’s definitely paid off. Today we connected on a couple of deep balls that we were working on. But Denver isn’t giving opposing offenses much to work with, letting up just 284.3 yards per game – tops in the league. They have been good, and for a long time. We’ve got to get open.
The Broncos say they’re expecting the unexpected with the Patriots and Gronk. “We’ve got to do everything better. So, we’ll just keep fighting”.
Brady will still have tight end Rob Gronkowski (51 catches, 843 yards, 8 TDs) at his disposal, while running back James White provided a lift with a touchdown catch along with a rushing score against Buffalo. Both teams aren’t at full strength, but the competition will still be fierce.
In the all-time series, Denver has won 28 of the 49 games between the two teams, with New England taking 41 wins.
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The award represents the first conference recognition of his career and the first AFC Offensive Player of the Week honor for the Broncos this season.
