Broncos 20, Patriots 18
It took nearly every second of the game to preserve a two-point victory that would deliver an NFL record-tying eighth trip to the Super Bowl, but the Denver Broncos defense again showed why it is one of the best in the NFL this season and perhaps the best in franchise history.
Asked to make five stops with only an eight-point lead on Tom Brady and the defending world champion New England Patriots, the defense allowed just six points in the game’s final 19-plus minutes. Their stop on a potentially game-tying two-point conversion with only 12 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter will no doubt go down as one of the greatest plays in franchise history.
This space, usually reserved for objectively highlighting both the highs and lows of a Denver Broncos performance, will today be dedicated only to the championship performance that delivered Denver’s second AFC title in three years and another chance for a world title.
Ronnie Hillman and Demaryius Thomas get a free pass this week. Here’s the AFC Championship edition of “Studs & More Studs.”
Stud No. 10 – Britton Colquitt
For much of the season we had to file the Denver punter in the “Duds” section of our weekly ups and downs analysis, but for the past two weeks Colquitt has returned to the form that made him one of the deadliest weapons in the field-position game just a few years ago.
On Sunday, with the help of Kayvon Webster, Colquitt was spectacular. He averaged 47.7 yards on his kicks, 41.1 net. A 28-yard return by Danny Amendola that was the result of several missed tackles skewed his average on what was a phenomenal day otherwise.
On four occasions he pinned New England inside their 20-yard line. Twice in the fourth quarter the punt unit had the Patriots starting drives from inside their own 10-yard line.
Postgame, Peyton Manning had this to say about the Broncos punter and his unit: “Colquitt was awesome, Kayvon [Webster] was awesome, downing those punts down on the 4-yard line. We had two possessions In a row where we didn’t have points, but we changed field position and it was that kind of game in the second half.”
Stud No. 9 – Owen Daniels
The veteran tight end was targeted only three times in a conservative game plan that ran the ball 30 times compared to 32 pass attempts. But when Owen Daniels’ number was called, he delivered in game-changing fashion.
Daniels had two receptions on the day, both touchdowns. On a day when the Denver offense needed to put up six points when they got into New England territory, it was Daniels that Peyton Manning trusted most to get the job done.
On Denver’s opening drive, Daniels split the safeties for a 21-yard touchdown reception that gave Denver a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Daniels had Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins tripping over his shoelaces on a 12-yard TD catch that extended Denver’s lead to 14-6 after a Brandon McManus PAT.
It wasn’t the biggest day in terms of stats – he finished with just those two catches for 33 yards – but Daniels made the two biggest catches of the day for an offense that needed just enough to outlast New England.
Stud No. 8 – Chris Harris
If the reports are true, Chris Harris couldn’t even brush his teeth without pain heading into Sunday’s AFC Championship. (Although further examination makes you scratch your head, as the right-handed Harris had an injured left shoulder.) Regardless of how much pain he was actually suffering, there’s no doubt Harris was not at 100 percent.
After struggling for the second time in a month against the Pittsburgh Steelers, there was some doubt as to how Harris would match up against the always-shifting receiver combination Bill Belichick throws at opposing defenses. With Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola back in the lineup, not to mention Rob Gronkowski and two running backs that are routinely split wide, Harris had to provide blanket coverage on two of the toughest covers in football.
Harris delivered – he, along with Bradley Roby and Aqib Talib, limited Edelman and Amendola to only 92 combined yards and no touchdowns. Brady’s top two receivers made just 12 catches on 29 targets.
Harris’ best moment came when he stuffed Edelman on a fourth-down screen pass at the 6:03 mark of the fourth quarter. He may have been hurting, but he squared up and stuck Edelman in a huge moment.
Stud No. 7 – T.J. Ward
Safety T.J. Ward had, without a doubt, the toughest assignment of the day, being asked to shoulder the primary load of covering and shadowing Rob Gronkowski.
Ward logged only one solo tackle on the day, but he was in on five others, contributing the finishing blow that had New England players often limping and grimacing as they rose from the turf. The hard-hitting Ward had the CBS replay team working hard as several of his hits got extra airtime in slow-mo replay.
His biggest contribution was shutting down Gronkowski, though. To paraphrase Chris Berman, Gronk is a player you can’t stop, you can only hope to contain. And for the most part T.J. Ward did. Of Gronkowski’s 144 yards, 77 of them came in the fourth quarter after Ward had been sidelined with an injury.
Stud No. 6 – Malik Jackson
It was a tough day at the office for Tom Brady. All told, the Patriots QB was hit an astounding 20 times by the Denver defense, including four sacks. Malik Jackson was one of the major contributors.
While he didn’t register a sack, Jackson put four hits on Brady and was routinely backing his opponent into the pocket and forcing Brady to move. He also had the winningest quarterback in NFL history thinking twice about short routes over the middle, as his seven passes defended during the regular season and aggressive approach in this game helped cut down on Brady’s attempts over the middle.
Jackson said that would be a major factor in the game when he joined Sports Stampede earlier in the week. His d-end counterpart, Derek Wolfe, got a hand on a Brady pass early, which no doubt had the Pats QB thinking twice about throwing into those passing lanes defended by Wolfe and Jackson.
His biggest play of the game was the pressure and hit he laid on Tom Brady in the second quarter that led to a Darian Stewart interception, Brady’s second of the half.
Phil Simms even went out of his way on the CBS telecast to praise Jackson; any Broncos player who earns praise from Simms has to make our list.
Stud No. 5 – Peyton Manning
Don’t think for a second that Peyton Manning doesn’t deserve a ton of praise for his performance on Sunday. Yes, he had a stat line that pundits will call “pedestrian,” as he passed for only 176 yards, connecting on 17 of 32 attempts.
Both his touchdowns came in the first quarter and he narrowly missed the outstretched arms of a wide open Jordan Norwood in the fourth quarter that could have put the game fully out of reach based on how dominating the defense had been. But that doesn’t tell the tale of the quarterback who did everything he could to will his team to victory.
In nearly John Elway-esque fashion, Manning showed his teammates that this game would not end the way that last year’s Divisional Playoff loss to Indianapolis ended. Facing a third-and-10 and a possible second consecutive three-and-out in the third quarter, Manning, having been sacked and hit several times already, did what he wouldn’t (couldn’t?) do against the Colts.
Manning tucked the ball and scrambled for a 12-yard gain that moved the sticks and sent a shockwave through Sports Authority Field. The Broncos eventually punted on the drive, but that play alone sent enough energy through the team and the stadium to power Denver to victory.
Stud No. 4 – Aqib Talib
With the game on the line and only one play needing to be made, Aqib Talib lunged in front of a pass from Tom Brady, deflected the football and sent it fluttering into the air where Bradley Roby picked it off and took it out of the end zone to seal the win and a trip to Super Bowl 50.
Together with Chris Harris, Talib helped shut down Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, limiting them to 12 catches on 29 targets and playing a huge role in what was Tom Brady’s second-worst passer rating in a playoff game.
What’s more, the blanketing Talib and the secondary did of not only Edelman and Amendola, but also tight end Rob Gronkowski and running backs James White and Brandon Bolden, who were routinely in pass formations, gave the Denver defensive line time to get to Brady. None of that pressure that resulted in 20 QB hits on Brady happens without suffocating coverage from the secondary.
Talib made the play of the day, but he was really making plays all day.
Stud No. 3 – Derek Wolfe
Just as he did in their Week 12 victory over New England, Derek Wolfe got the sack party of Tom Brady started in the AFC Championship game. Wolfe was the first of four Broncos to get to Brady on the day, logging his second of the postseason.
Wolfe tied for the team lead in tackles Sunday with six, but what was most impressive was that each of them was a solo tackle. Chris Harris and T.J. Ward also logged six, but were assisted on seven of their combined 12. The newly-extended defensive end was doing it on his own when his number was called.
Wolfe’s sack set the tone for a long day for Tom Brady, as the Patriots QB was hit 20 times through the course of four quarters, but he also batted down a pass and registered a tackle for a loss. He also showed his versatility, at times dropping into coverage against running backs and Rob Gronkowski.
As Andrew Mason, who covers the team for DenverBroncos.com, put it Sunday during the first half, “Wolfe is playing like a holy terror.” The real terror had to be in Tom Brady’s eyes as he saw Wolfe and the d-line coming after him time and again.
Stud No. 2 – Von Miller
Von Miller was without a doubt the best player on the field yesterday. As former All-Pro linebacker (and CU Buff) Chad Brown said postgame on 9News, Miller was the best player on the field with Gronkowski coming in a close second.
Miller earned the edge thanks to the relentless pressure he and the rest of the defensive line put on Tom Brady. In the pregame interview he did with CBS, he said Denver would win if he could get to (sack) Brady two times. He got to him 2.5 times. He registered 4 of Denver’s 20 hits on Brady and was virtually unstoppable on the edge rush through the second and third quarters.
The play that really put Miller over the top, however, was in the second quarter when he dropped back into coverage on Gronkowski and stepped in front of a pass for his second career interception. Postgame he chuckled when asked about it, saying, “I’ll tell you, I can do it all.”
Miller just about did it all as the most disruptive and influential player on the field Sunday.
Stud No. 1 – DeMarcus Ware
Von Miller may have been the best player on the field on Sunday, but DeMarcus Ware was without a doubt the most important player, on and off the field.
Ware was the player asked to give the all-important pep talk on Saturday night in the final team meeting before the game. He was the defensive captain rallying his teammates all day long on the sidelines. This entire season Ware has been the vocal leader of the defense and it is on his shoulders that a corps of talented players, young and old, is one win away from calling themselves world champions.
Peyton Manning may be getting the headlines for what could be his final farewell tour, but Ware deserves his due as well. With a Super Bowl win, this very well could be the swan song for one of the greatest edge rushers the league has ever seen.
And let’s not forget to mention that Ware had an absolutely phenomenal game on the field Sunday as well. He didn’t rank highly in the tackles department – he had just two. But Ware logged half a sack and astounding seven hits on Tom Brady. That’s three more than New England levied on Manning as a team.
Ware may not get the cover of Sports Illustrated like Manning, but he’s just as important to this team, if not more.