Determined to retain its AFC East title, the New England Patriots defeated the Denver Broncos comprehensively 31-21 at the Gillette Stadium Sunday.
Tom Brady is now 9-4 against Peyton Manning in their 13 encounters. Their 13th game was the first one since Manning quit the Indianapolis Colts.
The Associated Press quoted Bill Belichick, the New England head coach as saying: "Nobody I'd rather have than Tom Brady but Manning's a great player."
Quarterback Manning has been an outstanding performer and his record of 36 comeback wins confirms it. In Sunday's game as well, Manning's scoring passes to Eric Decker and Brandon Stokley of 2 yards and 5 yards respectively, nearly allowed his team to make another comeback, but in the end fell short.
Brady downplayed his encounter with Manning. "It's Patriots-Broncos," he said. "It was a great team win. We got some turnovers from our defense and I thought offensively capitalized at times.
"There were a few lulls in there, which I wish we had executed a little bit better, but for the most part it's a good day."
Denver coach John Fox said: "It's not new. They've been doing this for a long, long time. They just have a good group of guys together doing it. ... Our guy (Manning) did an outstanding job today as well."
When Manning lost a fumble on a third-quarter sack, it resulted in Ridley's 8 yard run putting New England ahead 31-7. He led the Patriots with a career high 151 yards rushing.
Ridley said: "It's awesome. It takes a lot of pressure off Brady. And that's our leader."
The Broncos lost their previous two games by narrow margins. They lost to the Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans by just 6 points.
Manning said: "I know they're been great teams we've lost to, which still doesn't make it any easier. We are working on things and building things. It doesn't happen right away."
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