I don’t care if you’re playing Foxborough High, when you hold a team scoreless on normal possessions - the Broncos scored all 10 of their points off the Patriots’ two turnovers - that is a performance that should be heralded and celebrated.
The Patriots flew all over the field and, statistically, hit all their marks.
The Broncos only converted 39 percent of their third downs.
The Patriots held Denver to a season-low 252 total yards, and after it gained 252 on the ground during the first meeting, New England almost cut that in half to 144.
The Patriots tied a season high with five sacks, had 14 plays for losses of 54 yards, and three quarterback hits.
The Patriots were robust, and what was even better is that they took the field with a mentality that it was going to happen. That’s something we haven’t seen in some time. The Patriots knew they would shut down the Broncos, and they did it.
“It wasn’t even a confidence, just a mentality,’’ said safety James Ihedigbo. “We had a mentality that we were going to dominate the game and that’s what we did. Denver’s a great football team with great players on their team but we just knew that our mentality was just destroy, you know? Play more physical than them, play faster, ball, swarm tackle, and create turnovers. We executed that and did that tonight.’’
When was the last time you heard any member of a Patriots defense talk like that?
Maybe that’s the type of play that comes from the defense being whole - or at least as close as you can be after 18 grueling NFL weeks - for the first time in weeks.
Patrick Chung was flying around at safety making plays. Brandon Spikes was finally back in his rightful inside linebacker spot being physical and bringing an imposing presence this unit lacks outside the defensive line.
It’s just two spots, but what a difference it makes. You could tell the boys felt good getting the group back together.
“We just played sound football,’’ said end Shaun Ellis. “All of us played together, no matter who was in there everybody’s head was in the game and we stayed focused on our task and our assignment and we got it done. They made some plays, but we just wanted to put together a whole 60 minutes of football.’’
