A Thanksgiving recipe for the ultimate showdown between Patriots and Broncos
AP
COMMENTARY
Redskins, and Giants, and Bills, and….zzzzz.
Oh, I understand the hypocrisy of double talk when it comes to pleading with Christmas-obsessed corporate America to end the War on Thanksgiving while the football brain in me would be more than apt to fly right past Veterans Day — along with Macys’ bloated tribute to everything dedicated to Comcast Inc. — and directly into the holiday weekend’s primetime tilt between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. But that’d be cool, right?
After a weekend filled with the turkeys that make up the 2015 National Football League, it’d be only natural to anticipate another matchup of undefeated teams at the end of this month, with the hopes that the drama to unfold would be a little less anticlimactic than the smothering the Broncos laid on the Green Bay Packers Sunday night, when the two teams met at Mile High with identical 6-0 records to start the season.
If the Pats and Broncos can stay the course until New England treks to Colorado on Nov. 29 both teams would be 10-0, and essentially playing for the right for home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs come January.
Something tells me NBC won’t be flexing out of that game.
For all the rightful suspicions that the defending Super Bowl champions might be able to run the table this season, eight years after they were denied the accomplishment of 19-0, the Broncos have lurked in the distance as a threat for the past two months, one that hasn’t quite materialized in the minds of Patriots fans as a true point of concern. True, Denver’s defense has been the talk of the town (allowing a league-best 16 points per game), but quarterback Peyton Manning also has the worst passing rating (75.1) of all active quarterbacks (thanks, Ryan Mallett) this side of…well, his replacement in Indianapolis, Andrew Luck (71.6). Yet Manning, who’s had some growing pains in Gary Kubiak’s new offensive system, was good enough on Sunday night (21-of-29, 340 yards, zero touchdown passes) to put a moratorium on any further career obituaries in the immediate future.
The Denver defense on the other hand? The real deal.
The Broncos have allowed opponents only 171.9 passing yards per game through their first seven contests, including MVP candidate Aaron Rodgers throwing for a mere 77 yards in Sunday’s loss. It’s the same sort of thing folks around here said about the New York Jets in heaping praise on Todd Bowles’ defensive-minded team before the Patriots went and dropped 30 on it and the Oakland Raiders followed up with a 34-point performance.
But in the Green Bay Packers, DeMarcus Ware, and the Denver defense passed its first true test of the season in limiting high-powered Green Bay to only 10 points. Right?
Meh. Not really, seeing as Rodgers has seemingly kept the Packers’ offense afloat after losing stud wide receiver Jordy Nelson for the season, dealing with an oft-injured Davante Adams, and having to utilize James Jones from off the scrap heap as his No. 1 target. The Packers are scoring 24.9 points per game, still 10th-best in the league, albeit more than 10 points fewer on average than the NFL’s top-scoring offense in New England (35.6).
While the Patriots faced and conquered a similarly-threatening defense in the Jets, the Packers were the closest thing to an offensive push Denver has seen so far this year. The potential for both to be 10-0 leading into the game only adds to the intrigue.
OK, fine, so the Patriots still need to deal with the Washington Redskins, have to attempt to avoid the land mine in waiting with the New York Giants, and will endure another week of Rex Ryan’s bluster before hosting the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 23 for Monday Night Football. Those three teams are a combined 10-12.
The Broncos still have to plow through the Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, and Chicago Bears before we can realistically preview a showdown of unbeaten double-digits. Those teams? A combined 8-15.
Yes, the potential looks good.
Heck, Los Angeles Times columnist Sam Farmer has already gone and dubbed it the “Battle of 1812’’ — in reference to Manning’s No. 18 and Brady’s No. 12, which admittedly has a better ring to it than, the “How Will Brady Top Manning for the 12th time in 17 Meetings?’’ game.
Farmer writes that, “according to betting expert R.J. Bell, there’s a 33 percent chance Denver and New England will be undefeated by the end of the month, or 2 to 1 in Las Vegas terms.
“Denver is favored significantly in its next three games, and New England is an even bigger favorite in its next three,’’ said Bell, founder of Pregame.com. “But when you add it all up, it only takes one misstep, and that’s why the teams are 2-to-1 underdogs to be undefeated when they meet.’’
Bell added that the Patriots would be a four-point favorite in Denver were the game to be played today.
Alas it won’t be. Nor will it be played Sunday, when the Redskins show up in Foxborough.
But when a potentially-historic matchup between two 10-0 teams is on the horizon, it’s difficult to not look ahead. After all, until now, the only time two teams with even seven or more wins faced off was back in 2007.
That, of course, was a game between the 16-0 Patriots and Manning’s Colts.
Wake me at the end of the month.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur
Photos from the Patriots’ win over the Dolphins
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