Beautifully Ugly
It wasn’t pretty…but it was beautiful.
The Broncos will likely still have their doubters. There will be those who will see the total yards gained and assume the Broncos were outplayed. Others will question a possible touchback on a Champ Bailey fumble or a phantom pass interference call in the end zone.
It would have been impressive if the Broncos had run for 150 yards or more against the Pats D. They didn’t, but I think they did someting even more impressive. They forced mistakes from a seasoned playoff team that had one ten in a row. The Broncos made key plays that prevented the Pats from getting any kind of rhythm. They hustled after loose balls and made timely interceptions.
On offense, Jake Plummer won’t get enough credit for this one. His numbers weren’t great, but he did what he needed to do. The Pats took away the run and play action and challenged Jake to be a pocket passer. Besides an ugly few minutes early in the third quarter, that’s what he became. He took what they gave him and turned in a performance that the box score won’t reveal.
Move on Broncos and don’t look back. The doubters won’t have a game to play next week and you will!
On January 17th, 2006 at 9:47 am
One other thing that every one is forgeting is that in the wildcard game against Jacksonvile the patriots fumbled the ball 4 times. Just so happens that on that day they recovered the fumbles rather then losing them.