Classless conference
AFC afterthoughts all around the Pats
DENVER — The air was thin last night, as it always is at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, but for once it didn’t matter to the Patriots because the Denver Broncos were on thin ice all night.
Denver’s still-fearsome defense didn’t stand a chance against because for most of the night, it not only had to cope with Tom Brady and his merry band of minions but also Denver’s own incompetent special teams and an offense that never saw a field goal it wouldn’t rather settle for.
The Patriots really didn’t win this game 41-16 with offense or defense. They won with a special teams unit that recovered a fumbled punt from Isaiah McKenzie on the fourth play of the game and, after the Denver offense marched to the first of three first-half field goals, took the kickoff back 103 yards for a touchdown. Despite great defense, Denver was down 14-3.
That’s how it’s been for the Broncos during their five-game losing streak. As someone once said “It is what it is.”
What it is in Denver is a mess. What it is in New England is a five-game winning streak and an AFCbest 7-2 record with no sign of any resistance. (Sure, they’re technically tied with the Steelers, but we all know the Steel Curtain becomes the Lace Lattice when those two play with anything on the line.)
Now, the Patriots will spend a week bonding and occasionally practicing football in Colorado Springs, then spend as little time as humanly possible in Mexico City for next Sunday’s game with the Oakland Raiders. That too was supposed to be a showdown between equals, but as the Patriots showed last night, they have none in the AFC for the moment.
If repeatedly having to settle for field goals despite repeatedly hitting long balls to Emmanuel Sanders wasn’t bad enough, Rex Burkhead’s blocked punt in the second quarter was the special teams’ third big play of the game’s first 20 minutes. The Denver defense held the Patriots to a field goal to make it 20-6, but the Broncos offense quickly got down to the red zone and then turned red faced again, settling for a third field goal.
Down 20-9 with 2:36 left in the first half, one could argue the Broncos had reason to hold out hope, but their defense knew better. This kind of self-immolation has been happening for more than a month.
Back down the field the Patriots marched, traveling 75 yards in barely two minutes to not only score, but score via missing man Dwayne Allen. The tight end hadn’t caught a pass all season and had an endzone drop earlier in the game, but he got his mitts on one for an 11-yard touchdown courtesy of a great throw by Brady and a great effort to beat his way through two men just to get off the line of scrimmage.
Denver gave the illusion the magic of fourth quarter thin air might still save them, as it has so many times against the Patriots, when it finally scored a touchdown to open the second half. The defense was kaput, though. It could hold out no longer because, well, it knows a bad team when it sees one.
Not only did they allow an answering touchdown that made it 3416, it only sent out 10 men on Dion Lewis’ 8-yard touchdown run to try and defend him. Not surrender, but it sure is confusion.
Soon, the Broncos’ special teams would complete their Grand Slam, called for having 12 men on the field on a Patriots punt to go with Lewis’ 103-yard kick return, the punt block and McKenzie’s fumble.
This was not only a blessing for the Patriots, it was also a reminder that they play in a conference that is, to be kind, odorous.
Mediocrity is not only a word in the dictionary. It’s a reality in the AFC, where live the Patriots, the Steelers and enough tomato cans to keep Andy Warhol busy for a long, long time.
The Chiefs battered the Patriots on opening night, but that wasn’t this Patriots team. It was one that had a confused secondary and a defense that had to be introduced to each other and Bill Belichick’s coaching philosophy. That took time and, frankly, last night still had to make your heart race at times. Sanders roasted and toasted Malcolm Butler three days after Butler announced in the Herald, “I’m back.”
Not so fast there, bunky, but things are improving overall defensively for the Patriots at a time when the Chiefs too have settled back to mediocrity.
The Patriots have no competition in the AFC East this year, a point reaffirmed yesterday by the way the New Orleans Saints — a dome team that doesn’t travel well after Halloween — dehorned the Bills in Buffalo.
The Texans have no quarterback any more. The Raiders have no defense. Who is there to concern yourself about?
Some might say, the Jaguars have a hellish defense. But like the Broncos, they also have an offense from hell and a quarterback who makes you wonder why Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. Go watch the final two minutes of their ridiculous overtime win over the even more hapless Los Angeles Chargers. Dear Lord.
So where does that leave the Patriots? Facing no formidable opponent until Dec. 17 when they go to Pittsburgh. The Steelers have a competent defense, a dangerous offense and a quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger who has two Super Bowl rings.
This might mean something if their history under Mike Tomlin wasn’t what it is against the Patriots. The truth is they’ve beaten their chest for years about what they were going to do to the Patriots and then the game starts and all they do is get beat.
Like everybody else in what has become a conference of one.