New England at Denver AFCCG pre game thread.

PatriotReign said:

The team is going to get jobbed hard by the league office and the refs . And the Bronco defense will have license to head hunt and take cheap shots at our players on offense and defense. If we lost to Pitt at home I'd be disappointed, but losing to Goober and the Donkeys again would be absolutely insufferable.

Click to expand...

Refs will definitely be on their side but I still have faith we can win. Our boys will leave everything on the field. This isn't a soft team.

Pats defensive line will play the run heavily, the secondary will cover the short and intermediate stuff and make Manning beat them deep. He won't be able to, especially after wearing out his puny arm this week.

Offensively, Edelman will kill whoever attempts to cover him and their linebackers have zero chance against Gronk. White is also likely to have a good game - their linebackers just aren't great.

Even if the Broncos went to the SB they won't win, if they play Carolina they will get smoked. I like the pats chances in Denver, although weird **** does happen here.

The Patriots looked like the better team during this weekend but of course anything can happen in one game. Still, I would probably bet on the Pats. As good as this Broncos defense is, they swallowed some big plays today. On top of that, the offense looked impotent at times, especially on 3rd downs. This was not the juggernaut Steelers defense of the past and the Denver O still couldn't do too much until that key turnover. My guess is Patriots 23-16.

British pundit knows what's what.

Weird game time next week, 3:05pm EST.

Also, why does CBS get the game? They get the AFCCG and SuperBowl?

Should be Fox = NFCCG, NBC = AFCCG.

I want clarification from the league on Peyton's Immaculate Flop. Is it the case that Peyton decides if he's given himself up or not? How long can he lay on the ground before changing his mind? Is he a runner while he's on the ground contemplating whether to get back up or not?

The NFL has named the officiating crew.

I wanted no part of Pitt next week so am more than OK with this pairing. Only wish it was in Foxboro.

GrogansArmy said:

I only fear the thin air of Denver. Most teams look ok in the 1st half there, but they get gassed in the second due to not being used to the lack of oxygen and consequently make mistakes.

Click to expand...

Patriots must be prepared to play 4 full quarters. Let's say for example they get a big lead like the Panthers did toady, (unlikely to be that big) the offense and the defense cannot shift and play conservative.

Anyone who is saying the Pats will win easily is insane. I mean, weird things happen to us in Denver. I don't like this at all.

My head thinks the Patriots can win. My heart feels like something stupid is going to happen (AGAIN) and we are going to lose.

mosi said:

The key is to force Manning to throw out routes. They also have to shut down the run and get pressure on Manning. The big question is how healthy are the Pats on the defensive side? Collins? Hightower? Mayo? Nink?

Click to expand...

If you ask BB, deaths door.

Bobs My Uncle said:

I wanted no part of Pitt next week so am more than OK with this pairing. Only wish it was in Foxboro.

Click to expand...

I guess I do not understand the man crush for Pittsburgh around here...

Looking at the records of each vs NE in the Brady/Belichick era:

Kubiak is 1-4 as a head coach
Phillips' defenses are 1-5

Brady's numbers vs Phillips' defenses:

152/245 for a 62% completion rate
1903 yards
317 yards per game
17 TD 5 INT

Manning and Brady have played each other sixteen times, and Brady leads the head-to-head series 11-5

festy1986 said:

The last time as in the last time we played Denver in the championship game.

Click to expand...

The last time when Brady's weapons consisted of Mulligan, Hooman, Dobson, Slater, and we had Gregory, Dennard, and Arrington ( playing on the outside) in our secondary?

What an absurd thing to bring up.

Can we pipe down about this "spooky ****" talk? It wasn't "spooky ****" that killed Pittsburgh today; if Toussiant doesn't hold the football like a loaf of bread they probably drive down and finish it. I realize that there was some bad calls against NE in the November game, but there was also the Harper fumble, a slew of injuries on both sides, virtually no run defense, the demoralizing Gronk injury, etc. They really played dumb football at times on offense (the careless bombs to Chandler or LaFell).. and they still ALMOST WON. Stop with the tinfoil EVERYONE HATES US BOOHOO talk. If the Patriots play just like they did yesterday- which wasn't perfect by any stretch- they would beat the Denver team we saw today.

It's bad enough we're going to see Manning fellatio and "The Patriots blew it in MIA guise" all week, do we need to compound how insufferable things are with paranoia?

deters said:

I'd be really surprised if we don't handle business. Last time we had no Collins, dola, je11, hightower left early and bunch of bs calls against us. We are certainly better now than then. Can't say same for broncos.

Click to expand...

Plus without all those guys, we were still up by two TD's until the rookie decided to rook.

TBR said:

Weird game time next week, 3:05pm EST.

Also, why does CBS get the game? They get the AFCCG and SuperBowl?

Should be Fox = NFCCG, NBC = AFCCG.

Click to expand...

CBS gets the AFC games
FOX gets the NFC games
NBC gets the primetime games
They rotate every year the Superbowl

Manning and the Broncos did not impress me, they could rarely move the ball, it's more like the Steelers gave the game away, they had some nice drives but could not finish them with TDs.