| Tom Brady |
Something has to give as both teams enter the game on winning streaks. The Broncos have won six games on the trot since being dominated by the Detroit Lions, while the Patriots haven't lost since going down to the New York Giants five games ago.
The most intriguing aspect of this game will be the match up between Tim Tebow's option offense and Bill Belichick's defensive mind.
Tebow has for the most part benefited from poor secondary play and confused defensive displays to forge his fourth quarter performances. The Patriots' defense will need to show great discipline for four quarters if they are to win this game.
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While this is the first time the Denver defense has gone against an offense of the quality of the Patriots, Tom Brady is coming off one of his worst displays in a long time against the Washington Redskins.
While Belichick must shut down Willis McGahee and Tim Tebow in the running game, the partnership of Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas present difficult matchups with the Patriots' undersized cornerbacks.
Decker and Thomas specialize in the deep ball off of play action. However they could make more of an impact today because of their upper body strength against Kyle Arrington and Devin McCourty. Neither McCourty or Arrington have the size or strength to stick with either receiver.
Safety Pat Chung was seen at the Boston Celtics scrimmage in TD Garden on Friday night which suggests that he didn't travel with the team. His loss won't be huge as big as the loss of Brandon Spikes who is once again going to miss out.
Spikes would have been perfect for this game because of his hard hitting play against the running game. Along with Chung and Spikes, wide receiver Deion Branch, Sebastien Vollmer and Shane Vereen will all be sidelined.
Injuries could be of greater importance for the Denver Broncos on defense as they could be without half of their starting secondary including veteran safety Brian Dawkins. Dawkins and veteran cornerback Andre Goodman are listed as questionable for the game.
Those losses could prove to be the difference in the game as the Patriots' offense has a lot more firepower than the Broncos'. If Tom Brady starts hot, then this game could be truly out of Tebow's reach by half time.
The Broncos' defense is good, but it hasn't been tested like this during their six game winning streak.
Tweeting @Cianaf
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Read more:
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Special Irish sayings and blessings this Christmas season
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