Well the New England Patriots come off their playoff bye week that they earned as the AFC’s top seed and they get to see a familiar foe come to Foxboro. It’s a rematch of Week 15, as they will face the Denver Broncos, this time in the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium.
This means that Tebow-mania is coming to town after Denver’s second year quarterback Tim Tebow helped lead the Broncos to a 29-23 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.
Tebow didn’t throw a lot but when he did he was an effective 10 for 21 for 316 yards and 2 TD passes and it seemed like all ten of his completions were for big gains. Pittsburgh decided to play the run all day and let Tebow get his throws and it ended up sending the Steelers home for the season.
The last time these two teams met a month ago, Denver’s defense had no answer for New England’s tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski. While Gronk was slowed down, Hernandez stepped up and took up the slack.
This time around Denver comes to “The Razor” as a 13-point underdog just one day after their big win. I’m not a big fan of huge point spreads (10+ points) as in most cases they aren’t covered but some are saying there are huge signs that this could be a blow out of epic proportions.
I’m just not sure I’m willing to go there with Tebow on the other sideline. He’s been playing very smart and he did a lot of things against the Steelers that he hadn’t done this season and he looked good. It will not doubt strengthen his confidence moving forward.
The other reason is the Patriots pass defense. All season teams have shredded them between the numbers and that’s area were Tebow operated a lot on Sunday making the Steelers secondary, the top pass defense in the NFL, look foolish. So what will that mean for New England’s pass defense?
The other concern I have, albeit a smaller one, is in Denver the Broncos ran all over the Patriots in the first quarter racking up 166 yards on the ground in 15 minutes. Luckily defensive coach Matt Patricia threw out the game plan and reworked it on the sideline and the changes slowed down the Broncos rushing express and also created three turnovers.
The one thing I am not worried about is the offense, which I think will put up at least 30 points on Denver. The questions is what will the defense give up?
I guess we’ll need to watch Saturday night and find out.
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New England head coach Bill Belichick now has 190 career wins including playoffs, which are good for 9th all-time. Former Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins and Seattle Seahawks head coach Chuck Knox is 8th with 193 wins.
Here’s the transcript to Belichick’s weekly day after the game media conference call.
Defensive coach Matt Patricia and Director of Player Development Nick Caserio did conference calls as well.
Caserio turned down the chance to interview for the Colts general managers job.
Josh McDaniels officially started with the Patriots on Sunday and not much was let out about how he will be used during the game. He was the St. Louis offensive coordinator this season but the Rams let him out of his contract last week.
Kansas City hired former New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel as their head coach. Crennel had been the Chiefs defensive coordinator the last two years before being named interim coach after Todd Haley was fired in December.
The remaining AFC Playoff Seeds are as follows:
- New England
- Baltimore
- Houston
- Denver
In addition to Denver at New England, Houston will travel to Baltimore looking for a place in the AFC Championship game a week from Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
The remaining NFC Playoff Seeds are as follows:
- Green Bay
- San Francisco
- New Orleans
- New York Giants
New York is in Green Bay and San Francisco hosts New Orleans as the teams look for a spot in the NFC Championship game a week from Sunday at 7 p.m.
The Patriots were 1-2 against playoff teams in 2011 beating Denver and losing to the New York Giants and Pittsburgh.
Awful Announcing has your full NFL Playoffs Announcing Schedule.
The Patriots were 7-1 at The Razor, 6-2 on the road, 5-1 against the AFC East, 0-1 against the AFC North, 1-0 against the AFC South and 4-0 against the AFC West for a 10-2 record vs. the AFC. They finished 3-1 against the NFC East.
New England has won 8 consecutive games after a 2 game losing streak. It is their longest win streak of the season.
Since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002, New England is 74-15 at home including the playoffs it is the best record in the NFL in that time period.
The Patriots have lost their last three playoff games. Two at Gillette Stadium (Baltimore and New York Jets) and Super Bowl XLII (New York Giants). Their last post season win was the 2007 AFC Championship game played in Foxboro when they beat San Diego to go to 18-0.
WR Wes Welker now has catches in 98 consecutive games including playoffs, 81 as a Patriot. The last time Welker did not have a catch in a game was 12/24/05 as a Dolphin.
The Boston Globe’s Bob Hohler on his Gronkness.
The New England defense sacked the opponents quarterback 40 times in the 16 game season.
New England finished PLUS 17 in turnover differential. The offense gave up 12 INTs and 5 fumbles, while the defense had 23 INTs and 11 fumble recoveries.
In 15 of the 16 games this season the Patriots opened on defense. They won 7 of 16 coin flips and elected to defer each time. Opponents won the coin toss 9 of 16 times and 8 times elected to receive.
The lone game the Patriots opened on offense was Week 3 in Buffalo, a game they lost.
The Broncos are looking forward to the rematch saying they can’t let New England score 40 points again.
A recap of Tedy Bruschi’s Monday afternoon ESPN chat.
The Patriots will face the Denver Broncos on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Gillette Stadium. Look for the Sox & Dawgs “In The Red Zone Game Preview” available on the Friday before the game.
Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveMichaelsII
According to MLB.com and Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, Valentine has hired Randy Niemann to be the assistant pitching coach/coaching assistant. Niemann was the New York Mets pitching rehabilitation coordinator in 2011.
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