Despite injuries, issues, Broncos, Patriots stay in the hunt

Sunday’s New England Patriots vs Denver Broncos AFC Championship game on CBS Sports TV and live streaming will determine who the conference representative in Super Bowl 50 will be.

Peyton Manning and the Broncos should enjoy home field advantage in today’s game.

Sunday’s game will be the 17 time that New England’s Tom Brady and Denver’s Peyton Manning have gone head-to-head as starting quarterbacks, and that’s overshadowed the run-up to the game. Our staff here at isportsweb.com make their predictions below. Brady owns an 11-5 record all-time against Peyton Manning, but a 2-2 record in the postseason against Manning will be a big motivating factor in this game considering it may be the last matchup between these two.

The Patriots have a chance to go to back-to-back Super Bowls for the second time in the last twelve years. That game turned when Hightower went down and the Broncos could run. This game will be a battle considering both teams top-tier defenses, and the fact that Patriots don’t have the best record in Denver (Brady is 2-6 in his career and 0-2 in the Playoffs). As if that extra-frame affair wasn’t close enough, keep in mind Brady didn’t have Edelman on the field and the Broncos pulled out the win without Manning. After all, the Patriots are the favorites in the game.

These teams have met in Charlotte in the Playoffs in the last decade. Anderson ran all over the Pats defense. The Patriots will win this one in similar fashion to the tempo seen in the win over the Chiefs, it won’t be a blowout but the Patriots will have control throughout the full 60 minutes. After multiple neck injuries, it appears father time has caught up with the future Hall of Famer, but with only two games left in the season, Manning doesn’t need to perform at his prime level to beat the Patriots.

It is time for a rematch.

Why some think the Patriots are not: While New England’s naysayers are less numerous than Denver’s detractors, they are present.

“Tom Brady and Bill Belichick”. First, they are at home. Although he’s now migrating out of the mid-30s sweet spot between advanced football knowledge and lingering football skills, Manning still excels at scanning the defense, running the information through the red-foreheaded computer that resides in his helmet, and positioning his guys to ensure that he’ll get the ball as quickly as his duck-cannon arm can to the open man. Instead, the Broncos gained 34 yards and while that drive eventually stalled, Denver was able to flip the field as a result of the explosive play. Our game info post has all that and more. This will be a hard game for the Cardinals as not only will they be traveling to the east coast, they will also most likely be playing in poor conditions with snow storm “Jonas” terrorizing the eastern United States. Brady was asked this week about teammate Julian Edelman’s needling nickname for him, “Clydesdale”, a reference to the quarterback’s running style, which is more clomping than cruising. “I think that’s something that every franchise hopes to establish, is some consistency and stability, and we’ve been really fortunate to have that here”. Both are former No. 1 overall draft picks as well as former Heisman Trophy winners – the first time that’s happened in an National Football League playoff game. I do believe, however, that the Patriots can pull it off.