None of us should be legitimately shocked that the Denver Broncos were able to knock off the previously undefeated New England Patriots Sunday night. It was an insane day all around and, frankly, the Pats losing 30-24 in overtime at Mile High is far less surprising than the Giants losing to the Redskins or the Packers losing to the Bears.
Nothing made sense.
Of all the people that feel cheated today, it’s ironic that the Patriots and their fans probably have a legitimate gripe. New England was the victim multiple times of some shady officiating and ticky-tack calls, especially on that offensive pass interference against Rob Gronkowski late. That was completely ridiculous.
Not only that, it was conspicuous in the calls they didn’t get that they usually do. For instance, I saw Tom Brady take a few shots high multiple times. Now, these are calls I don’t agree with. I hate to see them in any game and in a perfect world, these non-calls were good. But that’s not the NFL we’ve been watching over the last two seasons. Brady took a beating and while it was nice and cathartic to see, it was an aberration under the present NFL rules.
And, hey, I hate the Patriots. Watching the Patriots lose is one of the great pleasures of my life. One I don’t get to experience often enough, so if I noticed some officiating shenanigans, they must have been blatant.
It kind of made me think that Roger Goodell had his cell phone patched into the ref’s ear pieces during the game, helping them out a little on some of these. Of course there’s no way we’ll ever know that as Goodell immediately destroyed that phone.
Beyond that, though, now the Broncos, of all teams have a problem. What are they going to do when Peyton Manning is healthy enough to come back? This week was an easy call. Next week too as Manning was on the sidelines of Sunday night’s game in a boot. It’ll be a while, but Manning will probably be ready for the playoffs. What then?
Ross Tucker summed the night’s subplot up in a tweet.
First time Brady's team played Manning's & they both lost
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) November 30, 2015
Osweiler finished the game 23-of-42 for 270 yards, a touchdown and an interception. If Demaryius Thomas hadn’t literally dropped the first 11 passes thrown to him, Osweiler would have gone well over 300 and the game wouldn’t have been close. It was that kind of performance and one that can’t be ignored. If the Broncos go undefeated under Osweiler there’s no question Manning won’t be back with the team next year, whether he wants to keep playing or not. The question then becomes what do they do? Go back to Manning or ride with Osweiler, who would have earned the job and is unquestionably the future of the franchise.
https://twitter.com/billbarnwell/status/671191893947064320
The subplot that interested me is how Tom Brady would perform in the cold weather with a properly-inflated football. Brady did just fine on the state sheet, going 23-of-42 for 280 yards and three touchdowns, but was only 2-of-13 on third down conversions, 0-for-1 on fourth down conversions and obviously struggled in those situations. Now, the Broncos’ defense had something to do with that, but it will be interesting to see how that plays out now that the winter weather is coming because…
It's also the first game in snow where Bill Belichick has lost. Came in 12-0 when the flakes were a falling.
— trey wingo (@wingoz) November 30, 2015
The Patriots did get some good news Monday morning when they found out All-Universe tight end Rob Gronkowski just had a bruised knee and didn’t tear anything. He’ll still miss multiple weeks and if I was the Pats, I’d just sit him until the playoffs.
Rob Gronkowski not expected to play Sun vs. Eagles, per sources. Likely to miss multiple weeks; return date will be a pain tolerance issue.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 30, 2015
Without Gronk, the complexion of their entire offense and postseason prospects change, so why take the chance with an early return? They’ve gone into the playoffs with a banged up Gronk before and made a hasty exit almost every time. The time they didn’t immediately get booted they lost their second Super Bowl to the New York Giants.
In fact, last season was the first playoff run the Pats have experienced with a healthy Gronk. We all saw what happened, no matter how much we hated it.
