NFL Week 9 – Manning/Brady Bowl

Denver Broncos (-3, 55 o/u) at New England Patriots

No, it’s not the latest disgusting offering from Chunky Soup, it’s the matchup between the two best QBs of the last decade, as Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos (6-1, 1-1 away) travel to Foxborough to face Tom Brady and the New England Patriots (6-2, 4-0 home).

The Broncos took care of AFC West business last week beating the San Diego Chargers (35-21). They are on the road for just the third time this season in week 9 and will be aiming for their fifth straight win. In order to get it, they will have to end the Patriots’ own four-game winning streak and, in the process, hand Brady and co. their first home loss of the season.

While the media (and my editor) will play up the Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady aspect, odds are the running games will decide the winner.

Said Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton, “I think people on offense know every defense wants to stop the run, make you do one thing because then you go after the quarterback. If people run the ball on you, then the quarterback stays clean and he gets do what he wants when he wants. And with Tom Brady that’s never a good thing.”

Pats coach Bill Belichick knows that it will take a perfect defensive scheme to stop – or even contain – Manning and the potent Broncos offense. Of course, he also knows that this is easier said than done.

Belichick said. “I mean, [Manning is] great, he’s obviously a great quarterback. The best quarterback I’ve coached against.”

He added, “Not to take anything away from the Montanas, Marinos and Elways or whoever is up there with those guys, but [Manning] is tough. He’s good at everything. I see no weaknesses in his game.”

During Belichick’s tenure as Patriots coach, his team has a 12-10 record against Manning. However, this time out, the future hall of fame quarterback has  Emmanuel Sanders, Wes Welker, and the Brothers Thomas (Demaryius and Julius; not actually brothers) to throw to.

“Each game is its own game,” Belichick said. “The offense, I think they have done a good job of utilizing their personnel and what those particular players do well in different systems, [against] different teams. Peyton does a great job of getting the ball to the weakest point of the defense, whatever the defense happens to be.”

Belichick’s kowtowing aside, the play in this game is the home dog moneyline, where the Pats are currently at +146.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison (originally posted to Flickr as Tom Brady) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped from its original.)