New England Patriots still the team to beat

That was a shocker.

“During Sunday night’s game, Rob Gronkowski sustained a bone bruise/sprain of his right knee”, the Patriots and the Gronkowski family said in a joint statement.

“It was a very hard loss. It always hurts to lose”.

Osweiler completed 23 of 42 passes for 270 yards with one TD and one interception on a tipped pass. Brady also was 23 of 42 for 280 yards with three TDs and no interceptions. As always, he made due with what he had.

New England appeared to gain control of the game when Brady lofted a pass downfield to Bolden, who slipped past a tackler at about the 30 to turn it into a 63-yard catch and run for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. He took the offense to the line, read what New England’s defense gave him and called an audible to a different play – a run that would result in a C.J.

Then, suddenly, the defence collapsed. He finished with 113 yards and 2 touchdowns. And nobody will say he picked on one single soft spot in the defence. The Broncos received a new set of downs and he threw a touchdown pass to Andre Caldwell from 4 yards out.

Tom Brady also must be feeling pretty good about the positive report concerning his favorite target.

But after a quick three-and-out to start the extra session, the defence wilted quickly. On third-and-1 from the New England 48, Anderson raced around the left sideline and into the north end zone. A couple of those are protection issues, but they came after us, especially in the second half they came after us, blitzed us a little bit more and he’ll learn from that.

The Carolina Panthers (11-0) remain the NFL’s only unbeaten team.

Either way, there will be no coasting.

Justin Edmonds/Getty Images After knocking off the Patriots, the AFC West-leading Broncos are 9-2. They have a one-game lead over Denver and Cincinnati but Denver owns the tiebreaker against the Pats. There is, however, plenty to correct. I’m not saying we weren’t trying to do that in the beginning of the season, but we’re executing up front better. Gronkowski rolled around the ground in what looked like extreme pain before he was carted off the field. Still, prior to the Broncos big contest against the Patriots, Anderson received some extra motivation.

Still, the flight back home won’t be near as enjoyable as it could have been.

“It’s unfortunate to see anybody go down”, Brady said. “We didn’t get many [calls] last night”.

So, Manning had the same vantage point as millions of viewers across the country, watching Brady capitalize on the kinds of early mistakes that have doomed Denver before. The Steelers (6-5) had a two-game win streak end. The final five opponents have a combined record of 22-33.