ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — In his 17 years leading the New England Patriots as their head coach, Bill Belichick has been nothing shy of dominant. With four Lombardi Trophies under his belt as the leader of the organization, no team has had more success at the highest level since the start of this century.
In fact, since 2000 when “The Hoodie” took over in Foxboro, no team has a winning record against New England… No team except the Denver Broncos.
In the 17 matchups between the Patriots and the Broncos, Denver has gone 9-8. Only two teams even have a .500 record against New England—the Green Bay Packers (2-2) and the New York Giants (3-3)—while the rest of the league has lost more than they have won.
“It’s all a rival mentality,” linebacker Corey Nelson said. “They beat us, we beat them it just goes back and forth… When these two teams clash it’s a particular mindset, a particular attitude that you have that kind of separates those wins and those losses.”
Not only has Denver had long-term success; they’ve had the Patriots number recently as well. In New England’s journey to the AFC Championship game last year they went 13-5, with two of those losses coming in Denver—a 30-24 overtime loss in Week 12 and a 20-18 loss in the AFC Championship game.
“We won two big games against them last year. We were a very focused team and motivated,” said defensive tackle Sylvester Williams. “We were good in all three phases. On defense, we were able to get pressure on Tom Brady and get off of the field on third down.”
While it is difficult to argue against Belichick’s career success, he has had a great asset under center for most of his tenure. A guy by the name of Tom Brady. However, just like Belichick, Brady’s Achilles’ heel has not only been playing against the Broncos, but playing in Denver. In his career, including the postseason, Brady has a 2-7 record playing in the Mile High City.
To put that in perspective, Brady’s .222 win percentage in Denver is staggering different from his career .792 win percentage in every other city. While Williams said altitude couldn’t be to blame for Brady’s poor record in Denver, he did say it’s a team effort to beat this franchise.
“I think it’s accredited to the players, the fans and the coaches that we have around here,” he said. “You can’t really credit altitude to somebody’s success. I think you got to credit the players, the coaches, and the fans coming in here showing love.”
Although Brady’s numbers haven’t been dismal in Denver, they have been significantly worse posting a 16:9 touchdown to interception ratio compared to his career 450:152 ratio.
“It’s hard to say whether us beating him that many times [in Denver] affects the way he plays or them coming here,” Nelson said.
Brady’s two victories in Denver came against quarterbacks with a combined 16 career starts: Danny Kanell (2003) and Tim Tebow (2011). Trevor Siemian, the Broncos starting quarterback for Sunday, already has 11 career starts in his first year in the league. For Siemian to get his first official win over Brady, Nelson says it will be about who wins the turnover battle and having the right attitude on defense.
“Having an attitude defensively to say that we are going to dominant and be physical,” he said. “It’s going to take everything that we got to go up against an 11-2 game.”
As it sits right now, the 11-2 New England Patriots are a three-point favorite in Denver on Sunday against the 8-5 Broncos. However, with Denver’s unprecedented success against Belichick and Brady, especially in Denver, it wouldn’t be smart to overlook Denver.
