Patriots vs. Broncos: Grading New England's Performance in Victory over Denver

Over the past few weeks, the New England Patriots have certainly been winning games, but they weren't winning them convincingly—but that all changed Sunday against Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos. 

Tom Brady led the Patriots to an impressive 41-23 victory over the AFC West-leading Broncos, as Brady improved his career record against Denver to 2-6. 

With the victory, the Patriots now improve to 11-3 and have clinched the AFC East division. 

As we take all of that into consideration, how well did the Patriots do on their weekly report card? 

Pass Offense: A-

Brady and the team's passing attack certainly started off slow, a trend that needs to be changed, but they were ultimately unstoppable from the second quarter on. Brady finished Sunday's game with a 117.3 quarterback rating while completing 67.6 percent of his passes for 320 yards and two touchdowns.

One thing that I happened to notice is that Denver did everything in its power to take Rob Gronkowski out of the game—and it certainly did as Gronk recorded only four receptions for 53 yards. As Gronk was being double-covered, it created opportunities for Aaron Hernandez to succeed, and he certainly did as he finished Sunday as the leading receiver with nine catches for 129 yards and a touchdown. 

Overall, Sunday's performance against the Broncos was impressive.

Rush Offense: B-

Surprisingly, the Patriots were able to accumulate 141 total rushing yards on the day, as they averaged 3.9 yards per carry. 

New England had six different rushers in the game but Stevan Ridley shined the most, as he ran for 65 yards on 11 carries. 

Pass Defense: B+

This was not a bad game for New England's depleted secondary, as they held Denver to only 194 total yards passing as Tim Tebow completed only 50 percent of his passes.

Granted, there were a few plays when Tebow took advantage of what the secondary gave him, but overall, it was a solid performance by the defensive backs.

Rush Defense: F

This was the worst that I have ever seen the New England Patriots play against the run since they played the New York Jets back on Jan. 16. 

Denver was able to accumulate an incredible 252 yards on the ground while averaging a whopping 8.1 yards per carry. 

New England's rush defense is extremely lucky that the Broncos had to start throwing the ball as they were playing from behind, because if time was not a factor then they could have just ran the ball right down their throats.

Special Teams: A

All in all, this was a very good day for New England's special teams group, as Stephen Gostkowski was perfect, Zoltan Mesko was solid and the team recovered one fumble on a punt which translated into points.

Coaching: A

Bill Belichick made a half-time adjustment that ultimately won them game defensively, as the Patriots switched from their base 4-3 front to a 3-4 front. In the second half, the Broncos were able to score one touchdown, and overall the defensive adjustment was a brilliant move on Belichick's part. 

Offensively, I have no complaints from the play-calling out of Bill O'Brien, as the team was able to score 41 points. 

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