Please help me confirm that I am a sane football fan

[Midnightangel]

The game in NE was close and came down to a fluke.

The game in Denver was a more lopsided than the score indicated.

 

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Patriots.com:

Very early in the 2nd quarter CB Aqib Talib left the game due to injury, and the rest of the Patriots secondary clearly suffered without him on the field.

it was clear that New England's secondary was at a disadvantage and was going to be in for a long afternoon. The coverage wasn't physical at the line of scrimmage and the Broncos receivers were getting easy separation from the DBs.

It was tough sledding all for Alfonzo Dennard. Before Talib got injured, Dennard was injured on a 3rd-down pickup, and had to get brief treatment on the sideline. QB Peyton Manning and Decker took advantage on the very next play, victimizing Dennard's replacement, rookie Logan Ryan, on a crossing route that netted 21.

When Talib left the game, Dennard was assigned to Thomas and just couldn't stay with him. Thomas seemed to get open on nearly every play.

Missed tackles didn’t help New England’s cause on defense, either.

A consolation was that the defense tightened a bit once Denver got to the red zone, holding the league’s highest scoring offense to four field goals and only two touchdowns for a total of 26 points – a rarity this season for Denver.

Denver's first touchdown was a classic play-action misdirection. Manning initially went left with the handoff fake, then bootlegged to the right. All his blockers went left, too, but three receivers then broke off and went with Manning to the right. All three were open and he could've gone to any of them. He just chose the middle one, TE Jacob Tamme. Beautiful play concept and execution.

Denver’s next and final touchdown was far too easy. The Broncos had a 1st-and-goal from the NE 3. Thomas was lined up wide right opposite Dennard, who was in man coverage with no safety help. At the snap, Thomas made a nice fake like he was going to run a fade pattern. Dennard bought it and turned to the outside. Thomas stuttered, then darted inside on a slant to a huge empty space in the end zone. Manning saw it all the way and fired to a wide open Thomas.

 

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Patriots DE and co-captain Rob Ninkovich:

“They were able to move the ball down the field. We had them in some 3rd-and-long situations and they had really good plays called against the coverages we ran.”

“It’s tough...Losing’s never easy. But when you have someone as talented as him,” Ninkovich said of Manning, “who puts in as much and effort and has done it for so long, it’s easier to swallow.”

 

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Boston Globe today after studying the film:

Peyton Manning was masterful in the win, there’s no doubt about that.

Manning was masterful. He consistently checked the Broncos into the right play — their use of the inside handoff out of the shotgun was devastating in the second and third quarters

Fox example, Manning noticed that the Patriots’ two deep safeties were taking several steps back after the snap, and when the Patriots left the middle of the field open, he checked into a perfect draw play, which Knowshon Moreno broke for a 28-yard run.

The Broncos used criss-crossing receivers throughout the game, and created easy separation when the Patriots were in man coverage. When the Patriots played zone, Manning attacked the flats, the deep middle, and deep corner. His reads were flawless.

The Patriots blitzed Manning (on only 18.6% of passing plays) -- only 8 times on 43 passing plays: 5 five-man rushes and 3 six-man rushes. They also rushed just three defenders 6 times. They didn’t get in Manning’s face

Patriots defensive linemen Chris Jones, Sealver Siliga, and Joe Vellano were completely dominated by the Broncos’ interior offensive line

Vellano, Jones, and Siliga were manhandled by Zane Beadles, Manny Ramirez, and Louis Vasquez. They didn’t get any penetration and were pushed around all day. And yes, that was Broncos tight end Virgil Green rumbling for 6 yards on a handoff.

The Patriots’ tackling was pretty atrocious. Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins both whiffed badly in the backfield. Steve Gregory and Duron Harmon both whiffed on Moreno’s 28-yard gain, which should have been 8 or 10 yards. And Logan Ryan gave Julius Thomas the matador treatment in the fourth quarter.

Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower often looked as if they were out of gas.

Once Aqib Talib went down, undersized New England cornerbacks Alfonzo Dennard, Logan Ryan, and Kyle Arrington were absolutely helpless to cover the Broncos’ receivers

The best way to slow down Manning is to jam his receivers and disrupt their timing, but the cornerbacks barely could lay a finger on the Broncos receivers. They opened the game in two-deep man coverage but played a lot of Cover 3 and Cover 4 after Talib went down, and Manning patiently tore them apart underneath.

The Patriots maybe would have had a chance to slow down Denver if Talib had stayed in the game to line up on Thomas one-on-one, allowing Dennard to take Decker, Arrington to cover Welker, and Jamie Collins and Devin McCourty to double-team Julius Thomas. But Talib’s injury was too much to overcome.

Dennard’s coverage on Demaryius Thomas wasn’t all that bad, but Thomas, at 6 feet 3 inches and 229 pounds, made some impossible catches on fade routes because of his physical dominance.

rookie Jamie Collins couldn’t hang with Julius Thomas, the former basketball player who had eight catches for 85 yards.

 

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Tom Brady on the Broncos' performance:

"They were pretty flawless. ... We couldn't force them into making any bad plays on either side of the ball."

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Let me preface this with the following. I am a Cowboys fan. I had no emotional or financial investment in the Pats-Broncos game the other night.

That being said, here's what I posited to two of my friends.

What do you guys think?

tl;dr: What was more responsible for the outcome of NE v. DEN? Was it NE's inability to perform, or did Denver's D just play that well?

As always...probably a combination of both...TB missed some open WRs, but he was also moved off his spot a lot during the game, especially late when it was a 2 possess game and running was not viable option...more than that I thought the DEN OL more or less owned the game...long drives in the 2nd half held TB's opportunities down...what did they get...1 possess in the 3Q?

 

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USA TODAY:

Manning was brilliant Sunday

Manning was clearly the better quarterback on the field

Manning completed passes to eight different teammates, including eight to tight end Julius Thomas, who didn't play in Denver's overtime loss to New England in November, and seven to receiver Demaryius Thomas, who caught Manning's second touchdown pass.

(Directly after the game, Manning said)
"You do have to take a moment and enjoy the locker room with your teammates and enjoy dinner with your family and friends. I will do that. Then starting tomorrow, we'll start preparing for whoever it is we're playing." (the Seahawks)

Manning will bring with him to New York a suddenly-stout defense. "We knew it would take a dominant performance on defense. ... We just wanted to do our part," Knighton said. "We didn't want to be the missing link."

 

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Tom Brady Monday morning during his weekly radio appearance on Boston sports station WEEI:

"We have a really good skills set of receivers in Julian [Edelman], and the way Austin [Collie] played yesterday, and Danny [Amendola], you know, played his heart out," Brady said. "So we had plenty there yesterday."

Regarding his overthrow to a wide open Julian Edelman that cost New England a touchdown, Brady said:
"That's one I think about that impacted the outcome of the game," Brady said. "I need to hit that throw. That's a throw I make nine out of 10 times, but I didn't make it yesterday.
"When you get in games like this and the margin of error's slim, you've got to make those plays and I didn't make it. Sometimes it's not turnovers that affect games, sometimes it's missed opportunities,and I missed that opportunity."

About the upcoming Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2, Brady said:
"Truthfully, I could care less about watching the game, and that's pretty much how I feel," he said.