When the New England Patriots were preparing to face a Broncos team riding a six-game win streak in Week 15, Head Coach Bill Belichick said he wasn’t surprised by the success Denver was having.
Many were surprised to see Denver upend the favored Steelers in the Wild Card round Sunday, but Belichick insisted he isn’t at all shocked to get a visit from the Broncos in the divisional round.
“When we played them out there, I said to a couple people after the game — a couple players of the Broncos and people on our staff coming back from the game — I wouldn’t be surprised to see them again,” Belichick said in a conference call today. “And I’m not.”
The Patriots won that Week 15 matchup 41-23, but Belichick left Sports Authority Field at Mile High knowing the Broncos had the ability to present a formidable challenge for his defense.
The Denver running game — which finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the NFL — racked up 252 yards and 8.1 yards per attempt in that earlier meeting and Tim Tebow and the Broncos passing game is coming off its most dynamic performance of the season, totaling 316 yards on 10 completions and notching two scores through the air.
“They have good scheme and they attack you on all fronts, inside, outside, the option game and of course the play-action game that goes with it that keeps the secondary back,” Belichick said. “Very good attack and they definitely know what they’re doing. They’re well-coached and they put a lot of pressure on the defense, so we’ll have a big challenge this week to try to handle all that.”
Belichick reiterated the respect he has for Tebow and discussed the second-year quarterback’s productive playoff debut.
“(Tebow) took advantage of opportunities and put the ball on the money,” Belichick said. “The receivers did a good job, they gained some yards after the catch and he put the ball on them. I thought the Broncos played very well in all three phases of the game and deserved to win.”
New England quarterback Tom Brady was paying particular attention to the Broncos’ defense he will line up against Saturday and he credited its ability to disrupt an explosive Pittsburgh offense for much of the game.
“They executed very well, there is no doubt about that,” Brady said in a conference call. “They’re a very good defense, they’ve got guys that can rush the passer, they’ve got guys that can cover, they play the run well, they’re physical but they’re fast, especially at the linebacker position. They can do a lot of things defensively — they’re very versatile.”
“There’s a little bit of familiarity with playing them four weeks ago,” Brady added, “but I’m sure they’re going to have some new things in that we haven’t prepared for and see if they can make some plays that way.”
Belichick said playing the Broncos just a few weeks back makes this game feel a bit like a battle within the division.
But in bracing for what Belichick called a “one-game season” the New England head coach won’t read too much into what took place when the Broncos and Patriots met in Week 15.
“Normally, when you just play a team once, you go off the different films that you see of how they look against somebody else, but this is one where you can actually see the matchups in a game that’s already been played this season,” Belichick said. “That makes it a little bit different because you normally don’t get that from non-division teams that you play.”
“In the end, every game is its own game,” he added. “I’m sure there will be a lot of things that happen Saturday night that will be different than what happened last month. We’ll just wait and see what those are.”
Tags: Bill Belichick, Divisional Round, New England Patriots, Tom Brady
The patriots are pretty good at never providing the opposition with any extra motivation.
Hoping for a game without turnovers, would have been a much closer game the first time.
man i just saw a mark davis raiders owner on tv that dude is one ugly ass mofo. lmao
Like father like son I guess
lol right
Nice Bangs Marc Davis LOL.
no crap the bangs right lol
I used to admire Bill Bellichick for years. I respected the pats for allways making the correct decision offensively and defensively at crucial times in big games. Then Mangini broke the SPYGATE wide open and everything started to make sense. I respect Tom Brady but I don’t respect Bellichick. I feel that Bellichick does not have a sense of honor or respect for the game of football and I feel that he is a snake in the grass and he definitely does not deserve a SB ring.
well they sure have not won anymore rings since getting caught cheating. wierd
mcdaniels would get more credit for tim continuing to win then he would pats beating us. maybe he will try to fudge up the pats game plan lol jk probably not.
I think that is BS McD should not be allowed to coach. The NFL should say no way.
i dont think mcdaniels will matter at all we will execute are gameplan and will dominate the pats.
Go Denver,hope they go all the way,will be the biggest shocker in NFL history.
I heard the steeler bronco wild card game was the most view playoff game in NFL history…Im sure the corporations are rootin for denver so they can rake in on advertising lol
A lot of NFL fans and ‘experts’ aren’t even giving us a chance in this game.
Said one fan “Pathetic!!! We whooped your A @ Den and we’re gonna do it even worse @ NE. Patriots 51-13.”
Would be so sweet to serve them a hearty ration of crow.
Could someone explain to me why Eddie Royal is not returning kickoffs? Matt WIllis never gains yardage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkFQSk-Bsqg —Tebow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGWbVHU_Rmg D.Thomas
With people talking like this season is a movie script. Here are some trailers for you to watch. lol I know ya’ll gonna go crazy. 2 of my friends from the old MySpace days did it. I didn’t wish I did though.
Royal should be returning everything, but with Decker out, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw less of Royal on returns…
yeah, screw mcdaniels. our offensive and defensive scheme is totally differnet than when he blundered around as a sorry excuse for a head coach last year. he wont make a bit of differnece. GB2
btw, did you guys see Elway’s expression after the game winning TD last week? Priceless! That same big, horse-toothed grin that he had when he out-duled the ol’ gun slinger for their first SB victory! gotta love it!
Those sh** talkers better be careful saying they are going to whoop our a** again. Steeler fans pulled that stupid move and look what happened. I don’t care what the so called experts predict, if we play they way we did last weekend, we can easily take down the Pats. I agree that McD will not be a factor in the game. He was a piss poor coach in Denver and I don’t think it’ll be any better in NE.
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When the Broncos beat New England Elway has to Tebow in front of everybody!!!
Hey eguey—you have a pretty mouth but ugly words come out of it! We should have to post a picture so we would know what you look like!!!