Championship Sunday is approaching, which means that the two best teams in each conference are playing for a chance to head to the Superbowl. On the AFC side, the New England Patriots will be traveling to play the Denver Broncos. This game is very intriguing because nobody knows exactly how the outcome will be.
Starting with the home team, they will be having Peyton Manning as their starting quarterback. Many people have questioned how good Peyton Manning can be with both his foot injury, and his old age. When I watched him play against the Steelers last week, he looked pretty solid, especially considering the circumstances. His arm didn't look bad and he didn't turn the ball over. However, they were playing against a Steelers secondary that was ranked really poorly this year. I do believe that Peyton Manning shouldn't be the biggest concern for the Broncos in this game. The biggest concern for the Broncos should be the receivers dropping passes. The Broncos could have made the game against the Steelers easy if they didn't have so many drops. All the receivers for the Broncos will need to step up in order to keep pace with the Patriots. The running game has slowly become one of the most important parts of the Broncos offense. Peyton Manning being able to spot out weaknesses of the defense should make Hillman and Anderson do better at running the football.
The biggest strength of the Denver Broncos is easily their defense. In my opinion, the Broncos defense is the best in the league. The last time these teams played, the Patriots were still able to make some noise on the offensive side of the ball. This is because the strength of the Broncos defense is being able to rush the passer. No matter how good of a pass rushing team they are, they will still have a hard time getting to Tom Brady due to how quick he gets rid of the ball. Luckily for them, they have probably the best secondary in the NFL. T.J Ward, Aquib Talib, and Chris Harris Jr. should be able to be fine if Von Miller and Demarcus Ware are unable to get to Tom Brady.
I thought the Patriots were done after how I saw them play to end the regular season. However, Rob Gronkowski and Julien Edlemen managed to get healthy in time for the playoffs. That allowed the Patriots to beat the Chiefs without to many issues. With these two playing well, the Patriots offense will be able to put up a good amount of points no matter how good the Broncos defense is. This is also helped with the fact that quarterback Tom Brady gets rid of the ball so quickly. The offensive line of the Patriots is still banged up. However, they seem to play well no matter how bad the injuries plague that line. The biggest concern for the Patriots is the fact that they can not run the football at all. The Patriots are at the point where they are one dimensional, which is not good going up against the best defense in pro football.
The Patriots defense seems to play good enough to win no matter who leaves them. I thought this unit would be horrible with the departure of Revis and Wilfork. They still manage to play good though. They are also going up against a offense that is not that great. With players like Jamie Collins, the Patriots should be fine on defense.
Looking at these two teams, it only feels right to go with the Patriots because they are so much more reliable compared to the Broncos. I feel like it will be close but in the end I think the Patriots will win. I do want the Broncos to win because I do not like the Patriots.
27-24 Patriots
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