Meeting No. 17 between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady still holds intrigue

The defending Super Bowl champions New England Patriots face off the Denver Broncos in the 2015 AFC Championship Game title of the National Football League (NFL) on Sunday at the Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Sunday afternoon.

Now Brady plays in his fifth straight AFC Championship football game against Peyton Manning, his rival. “I can do it all, baby”, Miller cracked.

For the record, Ninkovich has been there since 2009, which makes him a long-timer by Patriots standards.

“Go back to the regular season performance past year and see how physical they were with Gronkowski. That’s why we’re going to the ‘ship”.

The New England Patriots will have to stop the Denver Broncos rushing attack if they want to win on Sunday. Belichick was essentially saying he trusted his defense more than his offense – and when has that ever been said of a Brady team?

“I’m a big Tom Brady fan”, he confessed. This is the amount of time a baby born to the first franchise quarterback of the New Orleans Saints lived on earth before the wife of an insurance consultant in the southern suburbs of San Francisco delivered a boy who would win championships. And even though the Bills got to Brady, they only scored 13 points, surely not enough to win.

DeMarcus Ware and Derek Wolfe applied plenty of pressure, complementing a “No Fly Zone” secondary that was missing safeties T.J. Ward (ankle) and Darian Stewart (knee) by the end of the game.

Not in the eyes of teammate Julian Edelman, however. Talib batted the pass into the air and Bradley Roby intercepted it. The New England Patriots have been looking forward to this game ever since the Broncos handed them their first loss of the season back on November 30th.

“It was like a freeing feeling”, Wolfe said. “But I didn’t have any doubt in my heart”. In this game, however, the stakes are much higher than they were last time, as the victor of this game will get a chance to compete in Super Bowl 50. After giving it up twice on downs inside the Denver 20 late in the fourth quarter, Brady lobbed a 40-yard pass to a double-covered Gronkowski to keep a desperation drive going on fourth-and-10. But still, this is the No. 1 seed in the AFC and they boast one of the better defenses in all of the NFL.

“Pads are always good for the run game”, Belichick noted. The Pats are trying to reach the Super Bowl for the seventh time in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era. If it gets any worse, it’ll get worse as the day goes along. New England’s defense forced four interceptions and sacked Manning four times on the way to a 24-14 victory in New England.

Another trip to the Super Bowl will only enhance the Hall of Fame careers. Tired, he tried to come off the field after Gronkowski’s TD.

In addition to protecting Manning, one of the Broncos’ biggest concerns remains their ground attack.

Brady has thrown more touchdown passes in Denver this season than Manning. He finished 27 for 56 for 310 yards and two picks.

This subtle jab comes thanks to Broncos defensive lineman Antonio Smith.

Asked this week what he took away from the loss, Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler said, “everything we didn’t do well”. You’ve got a bunch of dudes over there that play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.

“God couldn’t have written the story any better for Peyton”, Harris said. We don’t realize how having Edelman on the field really helps Tom Brady. And he loses his spot. It was the first such miss for Gostkowski since 2006 – snapping a string of 523 successful point-after kicks (although the vast majority of those came before those kicks were moved back this season).