On Sunday, the Patriots and Broncos will cross paths for the 42nd time in the regular season, with the Broncos owning a 25-16 advantage in the series. Denver is 16-8 against New England at home, including a 20-17 overtime victory the last time the teams met (10/11/09).
The Broncos have won six of the eight meetings between the two clubs in the past decade. At one point, Denver reeled off 11 consecutive victories over the Patriots (11/4/84-9/7/98).
The two clubs have met twice in the postseason with Denver winning both contests. The Broncos topped the Patriots 22-17 in an AFC Divisional Playoff game on Jan. 4, 1987, and defeated them 27-13 on Jan. 14, 2006 in another AFC Divisional Playoff matchup.
Notable performances against the Patriots:
S Brian Dawkins: Posted one sack (19 yards) to go with both a forced and recovered fumble and three pass breakups against New England on Dec. 19, 1998, while a member of the Eagles.
CB Champ Bailey: Has intercepted two passes, broken up a total of four passes to go with 16 tackles and one forced fumble in his career against the Patriots. His 100-yard interception return against the Patriots in an AFC Divisional Playoff game against New England on Jan. 14, 2006 is the longest non-scoring interception return in NFL postseason history. Bailey is 5-1 all-time against New England, which represents the highest winning percentage against the Patriots among all active players with at least five games played against New England
DE Elvis Dumervil: Made eight tackles (5 solo) to go with 2 sacks (15 yds.) against New England on Oct. 20, 2008.
RB Willis McGahee: Carried 31 times for 136 yards (4.4 avg.) on Oct. 30, 2005 with the Bills. He recorded 120 total yards (59 rushing , 61 receiving) with one receiving touchdown on Oct. 22, 2006, also playing for Buffalo. McGahee ran the ball 30 times for 138 yards (4.6 avg.) with one touchdown on Dec. 3, 2007, while playing with Baltimore.
K Matt Prater: Converted 2-of-3 field goal attempts, including a game-winning 41-yard field goal in overtime, while also making both extra point attempts against the Patriots the last time the teams met on Oct. 11, 2009.
Denver-New England Roster Connections
Some interesting roster connections between the Broncos and Patriots courtesy of research done by Public Relations Intern Cydney Ricker:
Broncos fullback Spencer Larsen spent his final season at the University of Arizona with New England tight end Rob Gronkowski (2007).
Denver quarterback Tim Tebow (2006-09), defensive tackle Marcus Thomas (2003-06) and defensive end Derrick Harvey (2004-07) spent time at the University of Florida with New England linebacker Jermaine Cunningham (2006-09), tight end Aaron Hernandez (2007-09) and linebacker Brandon Spikes (2006-09). All of these Gators were a part of Florida’s National Championship teams in 2006 and/or 2008
New England nose tackle Vince Wilfork played at the University of Miami with Denver linebacker D.J. Williams (2003) and running back Willis McGahee (2001-02)
Denver punter Britton Colquitt and defensive end Robert Ayers spent time at Tennessee with New England linebacker Jerod Mayo (2005-07)
New England tackle Nate Solder grew up in Buena Vista, Colo. He went on to play at the University of Colorado for four seasons (2007-10) earning All-American status his final year.
New England defensive tackle Gerard Warren played in Denver for two seasons (2005-06).
New England linebacker Niko Koutouvides played in Denver in 2008
New England defensive back Nate Jones played for the Broncos in 2010 as well as spent the 2011 training camp in Denver
New England Head Coach Bill Belichick served as Denver’s assistant special teams coach as well as being an assistant to the defensive coordinator during the 1978 season.
New England Special Teams Coordinator Scott O’Brien served in the same capacity in
Denver during the 2007-08 seasons.
Denver cornerback Jonathan Wilhite spent three seasons with the Patriots (2008-10) before arriving in Denver this season.
Denver guard Russ Hochstein spent his first seven NFL seasons in New England (2002-08).
Denver long snapper Lonie Paxton also made his first NFL stop in New England spending nine seasons with the Patriots (2000-08).
-Stuart Zaas
Tags: New England Patriots, Series History, Week 15
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E.E.T.
Obviously since McD was our HC the Broncos Patriots connections are ad nauseum, yuck.
Take that baloney sandwich and shove it! LOL.
Heres hoping Doom gets 2 sacks this game just like ’08!!!
along with Miller’s 2 sacks…..yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!
and DJ with a sack too.haha!
Sorry, just trying to beat Bay for 1st post. Really stocked to be a BRONCO fan right now. Had a ton of blogs to catch up on but I enjoy reading them. As to what E.E.T. stands for. It is my new motto, EMBRACE EVERYTHING TEBOW! I hope we have a great all around team effort because we will need it to beat the pats.
I know Belichick is a good coach and he will scheme a good game plan against us, but we must perservere and adjust and ram the rock down their throats with Mcgahee and company.
I think it will be a scoring fest and if we get behind early,were screwed,because it’s hard to run the ball and chew the clock when you are behind,so we have to score early and often,no turnovers and play fundamentally sound disciplined Defense!
This one is all on our Defense,we give up 38-40 points we lose,we hold them under 30,we have a good chance,I hope they let Tebow pass early!
One more connection, but with not much relevance.
Patriots DE Andre Carter is the son of former Bronco NT Rubin Carter.
Wow – didn’t know Solder is from Buena Vista!
We need our Safeties and LBs to step up and cover in this game,if we have a chance to win.
As good as our Defense is we lack speed at LB,the only one with speed is Miller,and he is rushing the passer most of the time,D.J. can cover,but Woodyard must step up in this game,and so does Carter and Dawk!
Wilhite will probably play a huge roll in this game too,along with Moore.man I wished Moore would hurry up and catch up to the speed of the NFL,I thought he would be kicking arse by now,I thought with Moore,Carter,Dawk,and Bruton we would be stacked at Safety,but I still believe Moore and Carter were good draft picks,they will be good players!
rbf1,what’s up bro?
didn’t know that he was Rubin’s son,guess the apple dosen’t fall far from the tree,Carter is a great player,it will be a good test for Clady!!
Oh yeah………….T.G.I.F.
Rubin Carter, NT of our first SB team in 1977, anchor to our then famous 3-4 Orange Crush D.
I`m hoping that Miller gets two sacks against Brady.