Broncos vs. Patriots: Predicting the Game's Top Statistical Performances

Playoff games in the NFL are only about the final score. They aren’t about the statistics.

That being said, the judgments on how well New England and Denver will do ultimately can be made in part on the kinds of stats they put together.

Will Tom Brady feel it necessary to put the ball in the air 40 or more times? Will Tim Tebow be able to call as many running plays as passing plays?

Who will turn in the breakaway play?

Here are our projections...

8. Anderson Will Spend Lots of Time in the Denver Backfield

Andre Carter was the go-to defensive end for much of the year, but a mid-December injury ended his season.

Mark Anderson was already getting more playing time, now he’s firmly established up front for the Patriots, and a strong finish left him with as many sacks as Carter (a team-leading 10 for both).

Look for Anderson to get at least a couple of sacks in pursuit of Tim Tebow.

7. The Linebackers Come Up Huge for the Broncos

Linebackers Wesley Woodyard and D.J. Williams both had 90 or more tackles for Denver this season.

When they are in on the play, the Denver defense is clicking at its best.

Look for both men to figure in a half-dozen tackles each.

6. Gronkowski Scores Some Revenge Against Broncos

When these two teams met in December, Denver made a mission out of shutting down Gronkowski and was successful.

Even so, Aaron Hernandez took over and had a big day in the Mile High city.

With this game in New England, look for Gronkowski to reassert himself.

We’re looking for him to get five or six catches and a touchdown from Drew Brees, for whom Gronkowski is a favorite target. Gronkowski has 17 TD catches this season.

5. Cosby Breaks Free for a Huge Kickoff Return

The Broncos have a secret—well, not-so-secret—weapon in kickoff returner Quan Cosby, who averaged almost 27 yards per return with a long of 63 yards this season.

The Patriots were able to shut him down back on Dec. 18, when he returned four for just 17.8 yards per return.

We see Cosby breaking free for at least one big return, something in the 50-60 yard range.

4. Cornerbacks Have a Busy Day for the Patriots

The two leading tacklers on the New England defense are cornerbacks Kyle Arrington (88) and Devin McCourty (87).

On many teams you don’t want to see that. But it’s going to happen when a team is used to having big leads and the opposition has been forced to throw the ball repeatedly in an effort to catch up.

The Broncos figure to be in that position; Tim Tebow is going to have to throw. And Arrington and McCourty will likely have upwards of a dozen tackles between them.

3. Will McGahee Get a Chance to Do Plenty of Damage?

When the Broncos are firing well, running back Willis McGahee is can seem to be almost unstoppable. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry and proved to be a perfect balance to quarterback Tim Tebow’s pass/run game.

In the early going, Tebow is going to be getting the ball to McGahee plenty.

The trouble is going to come later in the game if the Patriots have success against the Denver defense and steadily put up points.

McGahee could have 50 or 60 yards in the first half but still not get to 100 by game’s end.

2. The Brady Bunch Will Have a Big Afternoon

Tom Brady threw 23 of 34 passes for 320 yards and a pair of touchdowns the last time these two teams met based on Dec. 18.

And that game was in Denver.

At home, where the crowd is going to be with him, not against him, Brady figure to have a bigger day still.

He might not make it to 400 yards through the air, but three touchdowns or more should be in his future.

1. Tebow Will Have Trouble Getting Completions and Scores

Denver jumped out to a 16-7 lead at home back in December.

But by the time the game was over, Tim Tebow had completed only half of his passes (11 of 22) and hadn’t thrown an interception.

He did run for one score early and one score late and was the team’s leading rusher with 93 yards as the Patriots took away most of the gaps to his receivers.

For the Broncos to win, Tebow is going to have pass consistently well against a New England defense that has already shown it knows how to shut him down.

It seems likely that another sub-200-yard, zero TDs passing game is in Tebow’s immediate future.