AFC Championship Results: Denver Broncos Defeat New England Patriots Score 26-16 To Reach Super Bowl Peyton Manning Wins Sunday. The AFC Championship game has the New England Patriots taking on the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High and the matchup has Tom Brady and Peyton Manning playing once again after matching up earlier in the season in the NFL playoffs and the winner of this game heads to the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium in February.
This matchup could be the final one ever between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning in the playoffs and after facing off earlier this season in New England, the Broncos host this game in Denver as the number one seed in the AFC and that could end up being the difference for them. The Broncos have shown that they can put up points with any team in the league and Manning broke Brady's record of 55 touchdowns in the regular season and he passed for nearly 5,500 yards to set that record as well and that makes it a very tough test for the Patriots to slow down Manning.
Wes Welker is facing off against his old team in the Patriots and one key matchup to lookout for will be the New England secondary against the Broncos receivers in Welker, Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker along with Julius Thomas and that is a tall task for the team. That matchup could decide whether the Patriots can hang with the Broncos and everyone will point to what happened when the two teams last played and the Broncos dominated the first half before Brady took over in the second half to lead his team into overtime where the Pats got the victory.
The Broncos defense allowed the Chargers to hang around last weekend and the Patriots looked very impressive, as they didn't even need Brady to throw a touchdown pass, instead getting four on the ground from LeGarrette Blount, who also had over 160 yards rushing for the team. If the Patriots can run the ball consistently with Bount and Stevan Ridley, Brady should be able to work comfortably in the passing game off play action and that could give the offense what it needs to keep up with Manning if it turns into a shootout.
The Broncos have the best passing offense in the league and the Patriots were ranked in the top 10 in total offense and this is as good of a matchup as it gets this season, with Denver coming in as the number one seed and New England at number two. The Colts played well in their comeback against the Chiefs, but they couldn't muster things up against the Pats, while the Broncos were able to get past the Chargers.
Prediction:
Patriots 38, Broncos 35
Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. It almost is impossible to pick and with how good these two players are, the game likely will come down to a big play by the defense in the fourth quarter. I'm going with a gut feeling and picking the Pats in this one. This game could go either way based on the quarterbacks, but everything on paper points to the Denver Broncos winning this game and maybe it's crazy, but the pick has the Patriots pulling the upset on the road in the championship game.
