Patriots, Broncos' Opening Drives Each Set Tone For AFC Championship
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The ball hadn't even been kicked off yet, and Bill Belichick had already made a curiously Belichickian decision.
The New England Patriots won the coin toss before the AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, in which case they would defer to the second half almost 100 percent of the time. But Belichick caught everyone's attention when he decided to start the game with the ball in Tom Brady's hands.
When asked about the decision to start the game with the ball in his end-of-season press conference Monday morning, he attributed it to "a combination of factors" and said the Patriots thought it was "the best way to go."
The logic seemed sound, as the Patriots could have made the game tougher for the Broncos if they found the end zone first and made Peyton Manning play from behind. The plan worked in the second half, as the Patriots defense forced the Broncos to punt from deep in their own territory to set up a short field and a FG for Stephen Gostkowski to make it 17-12.
Unfortunately, the tone for the game had already been set on each team's opening drive.
Brady scratched across a quick first down to Julian Edelman, but that turned out to be the only time No. 11 showed the kind of effectiveness he had against the Kansas City Chiefs. An early punt gave the ball back to Manning, who Belichick predictably forced to beat his defense by throwing the ball downfield.
Manning proved beyond ready for the challenge.
While No. 18 clearly has lost plenty of arm strength and was not consistent throwing the ball, as anyone could have seen coming, he didn't need to be vintage Peyton. With the defense playing lights-out football, Manning only needed to make just enough plays to keep the Broncos in position to win the game, and he did just that.
After a week brimming with confidence in the Patriots' ability to stop the Broncos passing game, Manning quickly dissolved those high hopes. Eleven yards to Emmanuel Sanders. Thirteen more to Jordan Norwood, another 15 to Andre Caldwell.
The throws themselves were the same kind of wobbly floaters Manning had thrown all season but were accurate enough for the receivers to make the plays and move the chains. However, one of the more overlooked plays of the game was the 3rd-and-6 pass that fluttered out of bounds but kept the Broncos alive because of a bad pass interference penalty by Logan Ryan (it may have actually been holding or illegal contact, but it was a bad penalty either way.)
Culminating with a 21-yard touchdown to Owen Daniels in which the Patriots defense made one of their few egregious mistakes on the day, Manning may have effectively won the game for the Broncos with that opening drive. The Broncos offense never looked as effective for the rest of the game, yet they never trailed.
The defense did the rest, putting together a shutdown effort against Tom Brady with a full complement of weapons. Their dominance started on the opening drive and never let up while Manning exemplified his do-just-enough approach on the first touchdown.
The AFC Championship Game never felt good for the Patriots, and they made plenty of mistakes along the way. But the tone was set in the first five minutes.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
