I just wanna see tommy get over the hump
denver. It's like a house of horrors. Have to come out and silence that crowd. That 2013 matchup was just awful.
If this was 2013 I'd say the same thing as I did then: Everyone get out their rabbit's foot, chunk of the blarney stone, rub their Buddha statue, wear their old lucky Steve Grogan jersey, or whip up whatever wing of bat and eye of newt voodoo concoction they had. That's probably the only way the Patriots could win. In 2013, while some may not like hearing it, the best team won. Denver was the Elite team of the AFC while the Patriots were one of the best teams -- of course BB and TB capable of pulling out any game -- but an inferior team compared to Denver. They were almost staggering into Mile High with very notable deficiencies in too many areas.
This is not 2013 and it really isn't all that close. Manning is definitely not Manning of 2013, Denver is not Denver of 2013, and the Patriots are better almost across the board than 2013.
Consider, up until the last 6 minutes of the Den V Pitt game, the Denver scoring output against Pitt was less than the McCarron led Bengals (that is not a misprint).
While on the Patriot's end there was KC who had won 11 games in a row including putting the screws to Pitt and Denver in that span. Across that span only 2 teams scored more than 20 with the highest output being 23. Factually stated: KC had demonstrated a top tier solid defensive capability over a very very large sample. Yet with Jules and others healthy we all saw what the Patriots are capable of on offense against a solid D -- scoring more points on KC than any team had in 3 months. Plus remember there was some conspicuous rust showing for some on the Patriots (even Brady for a brief starting time of rust). I think it was to be expected for our 'first half of the season high functioning offense' that hadn't played/practiced together in a long time, for them to be more efficient and execute better with the KC game experience in hand.
Denver is not a push over. With all facets of their game combined they are capable of winning any game. But the Patriots facets put together are, unlike 2013, superior to Denver's. If the Patriots don't beat themselves -- they had a span in the second half of the KC game that was a bit shaky -- then they are primed to win. Our D has shown repeatedly they can dampen another team's scoring, and the offense now is back to being able to score on anyone with near 30 or above. Despite being a good team Denver simply cannot make that claim about its team. Of course all this doesn't mean the Patriots will certainly win but they are certainly primed given our opponent.
Bottom line: Everyone should feel pretty good about our chances considering the Patriots moving forward from the KC game will probably be playing their best football in more than 2 months. Yet if we lose?? Thanks largely to key injuries it just wasn't meant to be. On to 2016....
