Brady Divine. Tebow Mortal

Brady Divine. Tebow Mortal

Before the game, all of the hype and attention was directed toward Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. Even after it was over, a throng of cameras and media members followed the Denver quarterback around like he was the second coming.

But Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, the entire football viewing public witnessed the real “football God.” He was wearing #12 in a Patriots uniform.

Tom Brady sliced, diced and dismantled the Broncos’ defense leading the Patriots to a convincing 45-10 win over Denver in their AFC Divisional playoff game. The victory punched the Pats’ ticket to the AFC Championship which will be held next Sunday in Foxboro against the winner of today’s Baltimore-Houston game.

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It took Brady and the Patriots a grand total of 1 minute and 51 seconds to march down the field on their opening drive for a touchdown. Brady connected with Wes Welker on a 7-yard strike to put New England up 7-0.

Tebow and the Denver offense moved the ball into New England territory on their opening drive but the Broncos’ QB fumbled the ball at the New England 41 which was recovered by the Patriots.

Just over 3 minutes later, Brady hit his All-World tight end Rob Gronkowski for the first of his 3 touchdown catches. It was a great diving catch by Gronkowski which was upheld following a review by the replay officials making it 14-0 New England. And just like that, the Broncos were in a position they did not want to be in – where they were forced to play catch-up against the explosive Pats.

The Patriots would widen their margin to 35-7 by halftime with Brady setting a new NFL playoff record with 5 touchdown passes in one half. He would tie an NFL record in the third quarter with his 6th TD pass in a single playoff game when he hit TE Aaron Hernandez for a 17-yard strike to make it 42-7.

It was a rout from the very beginning and there was nothing that Tim Tebow or the Broncos could do about it.

Whether it is Baltimore or Houston that comes to Gillette Stadium next Sunday, one thing’s for sure – they will both present more of a challenge for the high-powered Pats. The Ravens and the Texans have two of the top defenses in the league.

Gametime next Sunday is set for 3pm.

NOTES:

-Despite his team’s performance against the Patriots last night, it is hard to say that Broncos’ QB Tim Tebow has not been a success this season. However, there are still many questions as to how far a team can go with a quarterback like Tebow who is not the greatest passer of the football. Broncos’ president John Elway made it no secret that he had doubts about whether Tebow was the right man for the job in Denver. What the Broncos do this offseason about the quarterback position will be very interesting and quite telling as to what their plans are for that position moving forward.

-Coming off of a record-breaking regular season, second year TE Rob Gronkowski tied an NFL postseason record with 3 touchdown receptions in one game. Gronk had 10 catches for 145 yards and 3 scores Saturday night.

-Fellow second year TE Aaron Hernandez also had a productive day in both the running and the passing game. Hernandez lined up as a running back on numerous offensive plays and was the Patriots’ leading rusher with 61 yards on 5 carries. His 43-yard run on the opening drive set up the team’s first score. Hernandez also had 4 catches for 55 yards and 1 TD.

-As much as the Patriots’ offense was on fire Saturday night, so too was the defense. The Pats D registered 14 negative plays on the Denver offense which is the most in the NFL all season. Tebow was sacked 5 times on the night.

-Tom Brady’s final stats were amazing: 26-34 for 363 yards, 6 TD and 1 INT. Believe it or not, it was Brady’s first 300+ yard passing game in the postseason at Gillette Stadium.

-Brady also gave punter Zoltan Mesko a run for his money with a quick kick on 3rd down in the 4th quarter. Brady’s pooch punt went for 48 yards and pinned the Broncos inside their own 10-yard line.

-A common denominator in New England’s recent playoff losses has been the ability of opposing defenses to pressure and sack Tom Brady. Last night, the Pats O-line did an outstanding job keeping their quarterback upright as Denver did not register a single sack all night long.

-The Pats 2 first quarter TD’s and 5 in the first half are both playoff records for the Patriots under Brady and Belichick.

-Maybe the one down note from last night’s win was that Hernandez suffered what the team called “a head injury” late in the game on a goal-line carry coming out of the back field. Hernandez told the media he was fine after the game.

-Brady now has thrown 36 career postseason touchdown passes ranking him third on the all-time list behind only Joe Montana (45) and Brett Favre (44).

-Of the 8 teams playing in the Divisional round of the playoffs, 4 of them had among the worst defenses statistically in the NFL. Green Bay (32nd), New England (31st), NY Giants (27th) and New Orleans (24th) all rank in the bottom quarter of the league in total defense. Denver ranked 20th in total defense during the regular season. Conversely, Houston, Baltimore and San Francosco rankes 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the league in total D.