Patriots win coin flip, receive, game underway

While Brady made some clutch plays late in the fourth quarter, New England ultimately fell 20-18 to the Broncos in the AFC championship game, ending its season.

Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos will face Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers in the 50th Super Bowl – which many expect to be the final game of Manning’s career.

Manning outdueled Tom Brady in their fabled rivalry with a huge assist from the defense, led by linebacker Von Miller’s 2.5 sacks and interception.

The Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers rank first and second in ESPN’s defensive efficiency metric, an all-encompassing statistic that measures a unit’s per-play contribution to its scoring margin. A victory in Super Bowl 50 would give the Broncos their third overall title and first since back-to-back Super Bowl wins in 1998 and 1999. The Patriots struggle in Denver, but Brady wills a victory in Denver and the Patriots move forward to defend their Super Bowl title on February 7 in Santa Clara, Calif. Both Kubiak and Rivera replaced current Chicago Bears head coach John Fox.

“(I) had been in contact with Coach Kubiak kind of the whole time during free agency”, Daniels said in November 2014, “and I think they were deciding what they wanted to do with their personnel and he was pushing for me, pulling for me, however you want to say it”. And he did so ably, avoiding turnovers and tossing two touchdown passes.

That 11-play, 83-yard march catalyzed by Manning came in the midst of Denver’s elite defense stymieing Brady and Co. during the opening quarter.

Denver, which led the league in defense for the first time in franchise history, held on fourth down inside the 20 on consecutive drives before allowing Rob Gronkowski to haul in a 4-yard TD pass with 12 seconds left.

The Patriots still had work to do, however, and after failing three times to put the ball into the end zone, Brady again turned to one of his favorite targets.

Peyton Manning took advantage of a blown assignment by the Patriots to find Daniels, who waltzed into the end zone. The Patriots had to go for 2 because Stephen Gostkowski missed an first extra point in the first quarter, his first miss in 524 tries. But Brady’s next pass – for a 2-point conversion and a tie score – didn’t pan out. Meanwhile, the Broncos harassed Brady into a 27-for-56 day for 310 yards and two picks.

“It’s not just one individual’s fault”, Gronkowski said. “Our fans are great to play for”. Denver recovered New England’s onside kick to seal the win.

The New England Patriots and Denver Broncos are meeting in the American Football Conference final, while the Arizona Cardinals fly into the snowy eastern seaboard for the National Football Conference final Sunday evening. Just like Green Bay was able to use their loss to Arizona to keep the game close, Arizona seeks to avenge their loss. There’s more! His twin sister, Mosley, kept an even lower profile while sporting an orange ribbon in her hair.

Manning finished the game 34-of-49 for 280 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.