Since the guy who drafted him, signed half our team and cowrote Tebows playbook with our OC last year will be on the Patriots sideline, it IS unlikely.

The bottom line is we must keep the ball out of Bradys hands; we have two (bad) rookies starting at safety, a deeply unimpressive #2 CB and Champ. That means, just like last time, Champ handles Welker, our good weakside backers (DJ Williams and Wesley Woodyard) slow down ONE TE, and our good rookie nickel slows down Branch, Johnson OR Hernandez/Gronkowski. The other two receivers will essentially run wild uncovered, again, like Hernandez did last time: I could hit most of those throws; Brady can hit them in his sleep. Last time NE played Denver in the PLAYOFFS they had 1st and G at our 1 when he made the mistake of throwing at Champ, who picked him off and made it inside THEIR 1 before the ball was stripped out of bounds. Brady will not repeat his error; he will throw at the many open targets. The Pats have one of the best pass blocking lines in the game, so Miller and Doom will not any more sacks than last time (probably less since NE has a healthy Vollmer back at tackle; last time it was a backup rookie.)

A lot of Denver fans want a Tebow/Brady shoot out, but our second year QB, second year line and second year receivers get stomped in that match up, even with the Patriots being next to last in the League against the pass. Tebow is coming along (you cannot make multiple over the shoulder 50 yard throws without SOME talent) but has a ways to go before he can do it all game every week.

Even when he does, he is not the whole team. I thought he had a great day passing against Chicago and we should have beaten them soundly, but according to the League our receivers had SIX drops, including another over the shoulder deep post to Thomas in stride at the Bears 5--that went right through both hands. LeBeau parked his DEs and LBs in Tebows running lanes to CONTAIN rather than RUSH him, because conventional wisdom says keep him in the pocket until he implodes passing, but Belicheat did not do that last time and has even less reason to do it now. A month ago... one time NE sent a five man rush and four of them met at the QB. Another time Tebow saw a blitzer coming from his left, tucked it away and ran right out of the back of the pocket--straight into ANOTHER Patriot defender, who immediately sacked him. His lone fumble was an option play where he saw an unblocked defender coming for him and could not get rid of it in time to avoid the hit and strip. Ninkovich... Ninkovich was EVERYWHERE in our backfield last time, run or pass.

But even supposing Tebow has decent protection, open receivers make catches AND he is on target with most throws, every 3:00 3 play TD drive puts the ball back in New Englands hands without resting our D or tiring theirs; each time they will quickly answer. Our team simply cannot yet keep pace with that for three and a half hours. Maybe in a year or two, but not in a DAY or two.

However, when we played last month we ran for 252 yards against New England, took and held the first lead and made the first defensive stop. We lost because we fumbled the ball three times on our end of the field in the second quarter, and the Pats went from 14-16 to 27-16 with a FG on the last play before half time (that Cosby fielded that punt with 0:05 showing is almost as hard to comprehend as dropping it; team full of rookies.) They stopped us just short of FG range on our only 3rd quarter drive, scored a TD on the first play of the 4th and, down 18 points, our running attack was out of the game. They never did actually STOP it though, and if the #17 rushing D proves no more effective against the #1 rushing offense, we have a good shot. If NE only has the ball 5 or 6 times we only have to stop Brady once or twice to keep the score under 30 points, perhaps even 20, a game we can win.

But a shootout? New Englands pass D is not THAT bad, nor ours that good. I have criticized our run, run, pass, punt offense all year, was elated at deep strikes on 1st and 2nd down against 8 and 9 man boxes Sunday, but THIS time we must run early and run often until/unless they can stop us, which they never did in four quarters last time. Be opportunistic and take 1st down kill shot when they load the box; even if incomplete the Pats are usually good for 5+ on a 2nd down run, and an intercepted deep ball is just a punt. If it turns into TD vs. TD though, the best way to ensure having the ball last is to run a lot and kickoff to them with 0:30 left in the half.