Today at 3:00 p.m. ET in Denver, Peyton Manning and the Broncos will host the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship, as well as add another chapter in the Manning vs. Tom Brady saga. Watch the game on CBS or live stream it by clicking this link. New England fans hoping to listen to their Patriots make it to the Super Bowl may turn their dials to 98.5 The Sports Hub, while Broncos fans can listen to the game on 850 KOA.
While Brady is widely viewed as the ultimate winner, and his counterpart more of a regular season stat-stuffer who buckles under pressure, Brady believes his Pats are being doubted in this matchup.
"I'm sure no one's going to pick us to win this week," said Brady. "We've had our backs against the wall for a while. Really, the whole season we've lost players, and teams have really counted us out." He is referring to myriad injuries to Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola on offense, Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo on defense, the departure of slot receiver Wes Welker to Denver, and the surprise legal issues of ex-tight end Aaron Hernandez.
In addition, Manning set the single-season touchdowns record this year, and led the NFL's top offense. "It's going to a barnburner," said Hall of Fame former Broncos quarterback John Elway, who currently serves as the team's executive vice president of football operations.
Welker in particular has helped this offense hum; they saw a noticeable tick down in production when he missed time. That must be a bitter pill for Brady to swallow after taking a paycut to give the organization more money to sign talent.
"I think he's really led our receiving group with a tremendous amount of toughness, consistency," offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said of Brady's work without last year's main targets. McDaniels "He practices hard, prepares hard, he's on top of his game plan." McDaniels is the former head coach of the Broncos, and brought Tim Tebow into Patriots camp this summer.
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