Patriots Live Blog: C.J. Anderson Breaks 48-Yard Touchdown Run To Give Broncos 30-24 Win Over Pats
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
Updates:
- Rob Gronkowski Injury Never Should Have Happened And Other Leftover Patriots Thoughts
- Four Ups, Four Downs From Patriots' Overtime Loss To Broncos
- Bertrand: NFL Doesn't Give A Damn About Horrendous Officiating
- Blame Patriots' Fourth-Quarter Miscues For Loss To Broncos – Not The Officials
- Chandler Jones Puts On Odd 'On To Philadelphia' Act After Loss To Denver
- Report: Gronk 'Unlikely' To Miss More Than One Game With Knee Injury
- Report: Dont'a Hightower Suffered MCL Sprain In Loss To Broncos
- Reports: Rob Gronkowski's Injury Not Believed To Be Serious
Final, 30-24 Broncos: The Broncos ran a toss play to the left side to C.J. Anderson, and the running back not only picked up the first down but just kept on chugging for a 48-yard score. Broncos win.
The loss is a huge story in New England, but not nearly as big as Gronkowski's injury. That's the story coming out of this game, and until official word comes out from the Patriots, New England will hold its collective breath.
Overtime, 12:42, 24-24: Play of the game. Third-and-1 from the New England 48-yard line. Upcoming after a Denver timeout.
Overtime, 13:51, 24-24: The Patriots went three-and-out, with Brady sacked on second down and ripped to the turf on third down.
Sanders returned the punt to the Denver 42-yard line. The Broncos don't need a ton of yards to get into field-goal range to win the game, but remember, McManus missed badly earlier tonight.
End of regulation, 24-24: It. Is. Good.
Stephen Gostkowski with some stones, drills a 47-yard field goal to tie this game and send it into overtime.
They got there with two passes to Chandler and another one to LaFell.
Patriots won the toss and will receive.
Fourth quarter, :04, 24-21 Broncos: Unbelievable. The Pats have a chance to tie it. The ball is at the 31, despite a clock error by the officials.
Fourth quarter, 1:09, 24-21 Broncos: Here's how that Denver drive played out.
Deep ball up right sideline to Thomas, gain of 36.
Two-minute warning.
Incompletion to Thomas.
Deep ball up the left sideline to Sanders, who had a step on Butler. Complete for 39 yards.
Patriots timeout.
First-and-goal from the 8-yard line. Shotgun snap, empty backfield, rollout left, designed keeper. No gain, out of bounds.
Second-and-goal, Alan Branch overpowers the center Matt Paradis, sacks Osweiler. But Patrick Chung was penalized for holding. That took away the sack and stopped the clock. It was a weak call, to be sure.
First-and-goal, Osweiler lofts pass into left corner of end zone to Andrew Caldwell. Logan Ryan never turned around and never found the ball. Touchdown.
The Patriots now get the ball needing a field goal to tie. They obviously won't have Gronkowski available, so the task is quite difficult.
Fourth quarter, 2:31, 21-17 Patriots: The game goes on, despite the Gronkowski injury. The Patriots ended up punting, and Denver takes over on their own 17-yard line.
Fourth quarter, 2:49, 21-17 Patriots: Brady threw incomplete to Gronkowski, but that's not the story. Gronkowski is down. He is screaming in pain after taking a low hit.
It's too early to say ... but it looked a whole lot like the T.J. Ward hit that ended Gronkowski's season a couple of years ago.
All of New England is holding its collective breath, hoping that No. 87 is OK. But that did not look good. Gronkowski remains down on the field several minutes after taking the hit.
The hit itself, on the positive side, came on a play where Gronkowski's leg was not planted. Instead, Darian Stewart just made a diving tackle attempt and struck Gronkowski's right knee mid-air.
The replay itself didn't look terrible, but Gronkowski's reaction looked awful.
Fourth quarter, 4:27, 21-17 Patriots: For some reason, Gary Kubiak decided to punt the ball away on fourth-and-10, even though the Broncos only have one timeout. Essentially the Patriots need one first down to be able to drain this clock.
Fourth quarter, 4:36, 21-17 Patriots: That was a less-than-ideal drive for New England. First, Brady threw behind Gronkowski across the middle when the tight end would have had a huge gain. Then on a third down, Brady completed a pass to Gronkowski, who picked up the first down, but got penalized for offensive pass interference for the fifth time this season.
Brady went deep on third down and absorbed a huge shot as the pass fell incomplete. Broncos take over at their own 37, looking to drive to win the game.
Fourth quarter, 6:08, 21-17 Patriots: It's a four-point game now, after McManus hit a chip shot. But the Broncos have to feel like they should have had more, after Demaryius Thomas either ran the laziest route of all time or ran the wrong route coming out of a timeout on third-and-goal from the 3-yard line. (Thomas has zero catches tonight and does not appear to be enjoying the snow all that much.)
The Broncos got there thanks to a 20-yard catch-and-run by Anderson, who now has 63 rushing yards and a touchdown to go with 40 receiving yards.
A long scoring drive for New England here will more than likely win the game (Denver's big-play ability is not exactly there right now), while a short drive and a punt would make this a nail-biting finish.
Fourth quarter, 10:58, 21-14 Patriots: Tom Brady and Keshawn Martin had themselves a 51-yard reception. That was, until Tony Corrente stepped to the middle of the field and called a holding penalty on Tre' Jackson. It was a tough call, but given the way that Jackson manipulated Miller's body, one can see why it was called.
On the ensuing third-and-20, Brady basically spiked the ball on a screen pass that wasn't developing and the Patriots had to punt.
On that punt, Omar Bolden let the ball bounce directly off his facemask. But he was able to recover his own fumble, and the Broncos take over at their own 45-yard line, looking to tie this game.
Fourth quarter, 12:34, 21-14 Patriots: That didn't take long, as the Broncos capitalized on the Harper turnover.
On third-and-6, Osweiler waited patiently against a heavy rush for Sanders to spring free over the middle. Osweiler hit Sanders in stride, and he turned it into a 17-yard gain.
On the next play, C.J. Anderson took a handoff, ran parallel to the line of scrimmage before bursting up the left sideline and diving into the end zone for six.
That turnover by Harper was, obviously, huge, and we once again have ourselves a ballgame.
Fourth quarter, 14:16, 21-7 Patriots: The Broncos' offense had nothing, forcing another Denver punt. But Chris Harper fumbled after catching the punt, and Denver recovered. Broncos take over at the New England 37-yard line.
Fourth quarter, 14:50, 21-7 Patriots: No Edelman, no Amendola, Chandler not doing a whole lot ... Brady had to try something new. That something new this time was a deep ball to Brandon Bolden. And it worked. Bolden hauled in the pass after gaining a step on Danny Trevathan and then let Omar Bolden bounce right off him. Brandon Bolden stayed inbounds and sprinted up the sideline for a 63-yard touchdown reception.
That play came out of absolute nowhere, with the Patriots spending the last two quarters doing a whole lot of nothing on offense. What a play.
End of third quarter, 14-7 Patriots: The defense nearly came up with another turnover deep in Denver territory, with Chandler Jones forcing a Ronnie Hillman fumble. Akiem Hicks fell on the ball, but it bounced off his shoulder pads and Denver's Max Garcia eventually recovered. Osweiler threw behind an open Bennie Fowler on third down, and the Broncos had to punt.
Brady threw incomplete deep up the right sideline to Chandler on first down (he's really trying to make that play work), and Bolden ran for two yards before the quarter ended. It'll be third-and-8 from the New England 37-yard line to start the fourth quarter.
Third quarter, 1:33, 14-7 Patriots: Defense, defense and more defense. The Patriots actually moved the chains on this drive, with Scott Chandler picking up eight yards on a second-and-7. But after a short Blount run, an incompletion on a Gronkowski crossing pattern, and a near-interception on a deep ball up the right sideline to Chandler, the Patriots once again had to punt.
On the punt, a Broncos player clearly ran into Ryan Allen's kicking leg after the ball was away, but the referee opted to not make a call for running into the kicker. The punt wasn't exceptional, as it went just 34 yards, and the Broncos take over at their own 18.
Third quarter, 3:40, 14-7 Patriots: Demaryius Thomas had a potential chain-mover in his hands, but Logan Ryan slapped the ball away. That third-down play forced Colquitt to punt from his own end zone, and the Denver punter got all of it. It came down past midfield and bounced to the New England 35-yard line -- a 59-yard punt.
The Patriots put up those early scores, and Denver had that long scoring drive, but both defenses are showing up tonight.
Third quarter, 5:10, 14-7 Patriots: The Patriots' drive went nowhere, even after a 9-yard run by Bolden on first down. The Patriots went back to the ground on the following two plays, with Bolden losing a yard on second down and gaining it back on third down.
Ryan Allen's punt checked up inside the 5-yard line, and it was downed by Brandon King, who very nearly slipped into the end zone but was able to stay out by about an inch. Denver takes over at the 3-yard line.
Third quarter, 6:57, 14-7 Patriots: The Broncos once again generated a nice drive, but they once again came away with nothing. This one ended with Brandon McManus badly missing a 48-yard field goal very wide to the right. It's snowing, but that was a bad kick.
So the Patriots take over at their own 38, looking to put some points on the board for the first time since early in the second quarter.
Third quarter, 12:01, 14-7 Patriots: It was going to be third-and-16, after Tom Brady fell to the turf amid heavy pressure, but Von Miller's stupid decision to dive-bomb the quarterback on the turf gave the Patriots 15 free yards and a first down. That's the type of penalty you can't take if you want to beat the Patriots, because they have a way of making you pay for it. This time, though, the Broncos got away with it.
After the gifted penalty, Brady hit Gronkowski streaking across the middle for a 22-yard catch-and-run. Brady threw deep to LaFell on second down, but the receiver let the underthrown pass bounce off his chest for an incompletion (not the greatest play by LaFell, but he did prevent an interception by coming back to the ball on the snowy turf.) James White got nothing on second down, and Brady overthrew LaFell on a deep ball on third down, leading to a Ryan Allen punt.
That punt came down on the 11-yard line, where Osweiler (really, Anderson and Hillman) will try to mount another long scoring drive.
Third quarter, 15:00, 14-7 Patriots: The second half is underway, and Dont'a Hightower is back on the sideline, but for now, halftime stats!
Passing
Tom Brady: 13-for-18, 106 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs
Brock Osweiler: 10-for-14, 87 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT
Rushing
LeGarrette Blount: 5 carries, 20 yards
Ronnie Hillman: 8 carries, 30 yards, TD
C.J. Anderson: 9 carries, 41 yards
Receiving
Gronkowski: 4 rec., 52 yards, TD
Sanders: 3 rec. 41 yards
Team
Patriots: 123 total yards (102 passing, 21 rushing
Broncos: 148 total yards (74 passing, 74 rushing)
Halftime, 14-7 Patriots: Dont'a Hightower is officially questionable to return with a knee injury. And the game is officially scheduled to return after halftime, as neither team wanted to play the end of the half aggressively.
The Patriots ran the ball to control the clock, and after picking up a first down, the Patriots didn't kick it into no-huddle mode, and Denver didn't take any timeouts. It was a very conservative approach from both teams, neither of which felt too strongly about its offense's chance to mount a scoring drive before the break.
Second quarter, 2:07, 14-7 Patriots: The Broncos dedicated themselves to the ground game on that drive, and it paid off with a 19-yard run for Hillman. The running back found some much wider running lanes on that drive, as he put up 32 yards on four carries on the drive. Osweiler also completed passes to Sanders (13 yards) and Daniels (8 yards) on the drive.
Dont'a Hightower needed attention from the training pass after the play preceding the touchdown, and he's now heading to the locker room. It might be precautionary, with the game so close to halftime. If you're not quite that much of an optimist, you could take it as a bad sign. We shall see.
Second quarter, 7:48, 14-0 Patriots: A rare third-down completion to Gronkowski that came up short of the first-down marker, thanks to a diving tackle by Darian Stewart. The defensive back took out Gronk down low after the tight end caught a pass over the middle, setting up a fourth-and-2. New England punted, and the Broncos take over at their own 23-yard line.
Second quarter, 9:21, 14-0 Patriots: Another Denver three-and-out, with Malcolm Butler making a spectacular play to break up a deep pass to Emmanuel Sanders on second down, and with Rob Ninkovich coming to the aid of Patrick Chung to tackle C.J. Anderson well short of a first down on the following play.
The Patriots' defense is bringing it tonight. The defense is responsible for taking three points off the board (Freeny sack) and putting points on the board (red-zone interception) already, and even though it's Brock Osweiler at QB, it's an impressive effort thus far from the D.
Second quarter, 10:40, 14-0 Patriots: Three plays, touchdown.
On third-and-4 from the 9-yard line, Scott Chandler simply ran a quick fade while split out wide right. He ran past Von Miller, and safety David Bruton Jr. was caught standing in no-man's land as Brady lofted a perfect pass to Chandler.
The tight end hauled it in, and the Pats are up two scores.
Second quarter, 12:12, 7-0 Patriots: Huge play by the Patriots' defense on third down. Jabaal Sheard overpowered his man to get a hand on Osweiler's pass, and the ball went straight up in to the air. Chandler Jones sized it up, timed his leap, and grabbed the ball out of mid-air for a pick.
It's first-and-10 Patriots at the Denver 15-yard line.
Second quarter, 13:25, 7-0 Patriots: The drive stalled out for New England, with Brady having nowhere to go on second down and with Keshawn Martin coming up just a yard short on a third-and-9 reception. The Patriots decided to punt, and Aqib Talib decided to tackle Matthew Slater out of bounds while the latter was covering the punt.
That's against the rules, you know, so the Broncos will start at their own 10-yard line after the touchback.
Injury update: Ward and Williams were both carted to the locker room.
End of first quarter, 7-0 Patriots: If John Harbaugh is watching this game somewhere, he may have just punched a whole or two in his walls.
On the second play of the drive, Cameron Fleming entered the game and declared himself as an eligible receiver. Referee Tony Corrente did not see the motion from Fleming, so he threw a flag for illegal substitution. However, another official ran over to Corrente during the penalty announcement to say that he had seen Fleming's signal, so Corrente decided to take away the penalty, thereby giving the Patriots a 17-yard completion to Rob Gronkowski.
Not only do the Patriots have their own illegal substitution history with the Ravens, but the Ravens were also hosed on a play earlier this year when the officiating crew did not see John Urschel declare himself eligible. Bottom line: Harbaugh can't be happy watching this.
In other news, Brady hit Bolden on a slant route on the final play of the quarter to set up a first-and-10 at midfield.
Also, both Sylvester Williams and T.J. Ward suffered injuries. They both looked to be in serious pain.
First quarter, 1:51, 7-0 Patriots: It was a much better drive for the Broncos that time around. But in the end, it didn't matter.
Osweiler went deep up the left side to Sanders for a gain of 22. After moving the sticks on the ground, Osweiler threw short to Bennie Fowler, who was taken down about a yard shy of the first-down marker. The Broncos got a generous spot, giving them a fourth-and-inches, and they opted for a QB sneak. It was successful, setting up a first-and-10 at the New England 29.
On third-and-2 from the 22, Osweiler had nowhere to go and nearly escaped the grasp of Jonathan Freeny but couldn't get away. Freeny sacked Osweiler for a loss of 13 yards, taking Denver out of field goal range and forcing the Broncos to punt.
That punt bounced on the 1-yard line and into the end zone for a touchback.
Aside from building some confidence, the Broncos got nada out of that drive.
First quarter, 8:14, 7-0 Patriots: It took a series, but the Broncos' defense showed up.
Brady threw two incompletions to Scott Chandler before throwing a quick pass to the left side to Brandon Bolden, who had nowhere to go and was taken down after a short gain.
Ryan Allen's punt went out of bounds at the 11-yard line, and we'll see if the Broncos can gain a few yards here. It's been tough sledding in that regard in the first two series.
First quarter, 9:04, 7-0 Patriots: Another series, another three-and-out for Brock Osweiler.
The 6-foot-8 QB threw behind the line to Hillman for no gain on first down, Hillman lost a yard on a second-down run, and Ninkovich chased down Osweiler for a 1-yard sack on third down.
Chris Harper had a nice 10-yard return to set up the Patriots at midfield. The Patriots are dominating early.
First quarter, 11:24, 7-0 Patriots: The game is 3:36 old. The Patriots already lead 7-0. So much for that defensive showdown?
Tom Brady was a perfect 4-for-4 for 47 yards on the drive, but it was Rob Gronkowski who basically did it all on the touchdown reception. Gronkowski caught a pass up the left sideline and shook off a tackle attempt from Darian Stewart. Gronkowski then put the okey-doke on T.J. Ward, letting the safety fly by, before burning up the sideline and into the end zone.
So ... that happened. And quickly. All right, then.
First quarter, 13:27, 0-0: Many of us expected a defensive showdown. The Patriots delivered on the opening series.
On the first play, Rob Ninkovich burst through the line and walloped Ronnie Hillman for a loss of two yards. Devin McCourty took down Emmanuel Sanders at the point of reception for a short gain on second down, and Patrick Chung ran step for step with Andre Caldwell up the left sideline on a third-down incompletion.
The Colquitt punt was a bad one, and the Patriots will start from the Denver 46-yard line.
First quarter, 14:54: Stephen Gostkowski's opening kick was a high pop-up that went 1 yard into the end zone. The return by Bolden came out to the 18-yard line, and this one's underway under snowy skies.
8:25 p.m.: Things are going the Patriots' way early, as they won the opening coin toss and elected to defer. The Broncos will get the ball to start the game.
7:56 p.m.: The Seahawks just finished defeating the Steelers in one of the more entertaining, back-and-forth games of the year, officially bringing to an end the Sunday afternoon slate of football.
As far as the Patriots are concerned, here's the way the AFC playoff picture looks heading into tonight's game.
Divisional Leaders
1. New England 10-0 (bye)
2. Cincinnati 9-2 (bye)
3. Denver Broncos 8-2
4. Indianapolis 6-5
Wild Cards
5. Kansas City (6-5)
6. Houston (6-5)
In the mix are the Jets (6-5), Steelers (6-5), Raiders (5-6) and Bills (5-6).
Obviously, some things could change near the top of that list tonight, but that's the picture after most of the Week 12 schedule has been played.
7:02 p.m.: Less than 90 minutes before kickoff, the inactive lists are out.
Patriots
WR Danny Amendola
WR Julian Edelman
DL Trey Flowers
LB Jamie Collins
DB Justin Coleman
TE Michael Williams
S Jordan Richards
Broncos
QB Christian Ponder
QB Peyton Manning
WR Jordan Norwood
DB Lorenzo Doss
OL Sam Brenner
TE Richard Gordon
LB DeMarcus Ware
Of note for the Patriots: Patrick Chung is active. He was a late addition to the injury report on Sunday with a foot ailment, but he's good to go for this one. Expect him to play up at the line in a third cornerback type of role like he did last week, likely with Tavon Wilson playing back in the safety position with Devin McCourty.
Also of note is that Tre' Jackson is active. He's been out since suffering a knee injury against Miami, and he at least adds some depth on the interior of the offensive line. Bill Belichick and Dave DeGuglielmo enjoyed using a rotation throughout the first half of the season, and they may be able to get back to that a bit tonight.
As expected, wide receiver Keshawn Martin is active. He's badly needed, with so few available options at receiver.
6:10 p.m.: This game would probably be plenty of fun on its own, but the weather forecast promises even more. Temperatures will be in the low 20s, and there's a better than 50 percent chance of snow throughout the game. As everybody knows, nothing is better than a snow game.
4 p.m.: In many ways, the 2015 Patriots season begins tonight.
Yes, the events of the past 11 weeks do count, and yes, the members of this team gained invaluable information in the past 10 games, some of which can and likely will help them as they march through December and January. But the first two months of the year are always regarded in retrospect as an extended preseason.
But that preseason ends tonight, when the Patriots travel to a difficult place, facing a very worthy foe, and on a short week no less. It ought to be very interesting. The rest of the schedule may not offer too much resistance, as zero of the five remaining Patriots opponents entered Sunday with a winning record, and they have a combined record of 20-31, so this may really be the final time we get to see the Patriots tested in a high-stakes situation until January.
Anyone analyzing this game would expect to see a low-scoring game, as arguably the two best defenses in the league will be going up against shorthanded offenses. Tom Brady will be taking snaps for New England, but his receiving corps has been decimated by injuries. The offensive line is not exactly healthy, either. For the Broncos, it will be the green Brock Osweiler making his second career start, on national TV, against a team coached by Bill Belichick.
Danny Amendola is out. So is Jamie Collins. And Patrick Chung was a late addition to the injury report with a foot injury, so he's questionable, too.
If you're expecting offensive fireworks, you may be disappointed. But then again, this is football, and we keep watching every week because we never truly know what will come next. We may get a 40-14 final score one way or the other tonight.
Either way, be sure to check back early and often right here in the live blog for updates and analysis from pregame all the way through the final whistle.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
