With one game left in the round, Week 12 of the NFL has been a disappointing weekend of football. Two of the three Thanksgiving games were blowouts while just four of the Sunday afternoon games were decided by seven points or less.
This disappointment was more than accounted for by Sunday Night Football.
The overtime thriller between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots was a gripping seesawing contest that saw the Patriots lose their first game of the season. It was most certainly a game between two of the best teams in the league and should finally act as proof that the Broncos are a legitimate contender.
After the off-season soap opera that was deflate-gate, it was always expected that the Patriots, led by Tom Brady, would come out firing to start the season. And really, given the talent on this team, more motivation is the last thing the other 31 teams needed. But that is what happened and it has spurred the Patriots on to a 10-1 start.
Despite this, we can’t attribute the entirety of the Patriots’ hot start to the season to deflate-gate related motivation. The Patriots are the defending Super Bowl champions, are an outstanding football team, and possess the best quarterback of this era as well as potentially the best tight end ever to play the game.
On top of this, despite losing all three of last year’s starting Super Bowl cornerbacks, the Patriots still possess a top-10 defence led by one of the best pass rushes in the game. The Patriots are ranked second in sacks in the league, behind only the Broncos. While the secondary may not be as renowned as the Legion of Boom or even the Denver secondary, it is one of the best in the league.
In the clash against Denver both cornerbacks shut down the Broncos receivers for almost the entire match. Logan Ryan completely shut down Demaryius Thomas for 58 minutes. Malcolm Butler was outstanding yet again, as he has been for almost the entire season. Brock Osweiler managed to throw for 270 yards but 86 of those came in the final two-and-a-half minutes of regulation and overtime.
As the secondary was locking down the receivers, the pass rush was getting to Osweiler. Osweiler was sacked three times and hit eight times and there were long periods of the game in which he did not look comfortable in the pocket. He is not the first quarterback to feel this way this season. Each and every week the likes of Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Dont’a Hightower have flustered opposition quarterbacks.
A big concern for the Patriots is that Hightower left the game midway through the second quarter and it was after this point that the Broncos’ running game really got going. It’s not yet clear how serious Hightower’s injury is but the Patriots can ill afford to lose another player to a serious injury.
Linebacker Jamie Collins missed the game with an illness and Jerod Mayo, the man thrust into Hightower’s role on Sunday, is still working his way back to his previously high level of play after tearing his patella tendon in October of last year.
The defence has not been the only side of the ball hit by injuries. In fact, the offence has suffered far more from injuries throughout the season.
Julian Edelman will likely be out until the start of the playoffs. Danny Amendola missed the Denver game with a knee injury. Dion Lewis and Tyler Gaffney have both been placed on injured reserve. Offensive linemen Ryan Wendell, Nate Solder, Bryan Stork, Marcus Cannon, Sebastian Vollmer and others have all missed matches due to injuries. It’s a miracle Tom Brady has only been sacked 25 times throughout the season.
Brady’s wide receivers in Monday’s game were Brandon Lafell and Keshawn Martin. All his other targets were tight ends or running backs. After giving up 32 yards to tight end Rob Gronkowski on the Patriots’ first drive of the match, the Broncos defence managed to shut Gronkowski down, restricting him to just four more catches for 56 yards. The Patriots offence was far less effective after this touchdown.
That is why it’s so important for the Patriots that Gronkowski does not miss an extended period of time with the knee injury he suffered late in the fourth quarter. They may have all but locked up the AFC East but playoff seedings are on the line and the Patriots will struggle to lock up the number one seed in the AFC if Brady has no receivers to throw to.
It’s only early but it appears as though the injury is not serious and Gronkowski won’t miss too much game time. The Patriots have a fine line to tread in the next few weeks. They want to have Gronk out on the field to secure that number one seed, especially given all their other injuries, but they need him healthy for the playoffs.
Given his past injury history, the Patriots should take the safe route and get him healthy, because a healthy Gronk in the playoffs is better than eight weeks of semi-healthy, hobbling Gronk.
Even with the mounting injury toll, the Patriots did enough to win this match. There were three fumbles during the game and the Broncos recovered all three of them. The 50-50 calls that normally go against the Broncos went against the Patriots and they cost them dearly, including a marginal holding call during the Broncos’ go-ahead touchdown drive in the dying minutes of regulation.
If some of these calls go the Patriots’ way, they win. Unfortunately for Patriots fans they went the Broncos way and the Patriots are now 10-1. If they can get healthy, the Patriots could be destined for the first Sunday in February.
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