Brady has Respect for Broncos' Tebow, Defense

Every NFL quarterback has a team that haunts him his entire career. For New England Patriots three-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback Tom Brady, the Denver Broncos may be that team.

In six career games against the Broncos, Brady has a win-loss record of 1-5 (1-6 if you include the playoffs) and a stat sheet of 134-of-236 (56.8%) for 1,517 yards and ten touchdowns against five interceptions. Against the Broncos, Brady's 96.2 career passer rating drops to 81.5.

Needless to say, Brady has had little success against the Broncos in the past, and respects the team. On Sunday in Denver, Brady will face off against the Broncos again, and second-year quarterback Tim Tebow.

“They play for 60 minutes. They’ve obviously closed a lot of games and finished very well. We have a huge test. We’ll all be excited, and hopefully have a good week of preparation and be ready to go,” Brady said earlier in the week.

Brady only had praise for Tebow, “Everyone says he struggles throwing the ball. What I saw [Sunday] night, he had no problems throwing the ball,” Brady said. “He threw the ball extremely well when I was watching.”

History may be on their side (Denver owns a 25-16 all-time record against New England), but the Broncos are taking this week's game extremely seriously, with as much respect for Brady — if not more — than Brady has for the Broncos.

"(The Patriots) are a very potent offense," Fox said. "They're a very good football team, that's why they're 10-3. They've got world championships. They're well-coached. They have outstanding personnel. There's no doubt it will be a big test."

To try and slow down Brady and the Patriots potent offense, Denver will frequently blitz star linebacker Von Miller, who leads all rookies with 11.5 sacks this season.

“He’s really an impressive player. I haven’t seen anybody any better than him on film,” said Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. “He does everything well. He plays the run well; he’s strong; he’s very explosive; he’s fast. He's as good as anybody we’ve faced all year.”

The Patriots offense is averaging 30.5 points a game this season and the Broncos offense knows that they'll have to bring their A-game.

"We want to go down and score a touchdown or get a field goal and take pressure off our defense because they have been amazing," receiver Eric Decker said. "Field position is a big part of football."

On the defensive side of the ball, New England has not been as impressive. The Patriots have allowed the most yards through the air this season (308.7 a game) and will be featuring former Bronco defenders Gerard Warren, Niko Koutouvides and Nate Jones on Sunday.

Nonetheless, the Broncos know New England's defense will show up. "We don't spend a lot of time in stats," Fox said. "You look at results, and they're 10-3 as a football team. They've done a great job with takeaways (plus-9 in giveaways-takeaways). They're a very formidable opponent."

Denver is on a six-game win streak; New England is on a five-game win streak. One of those streaks will end on Sunday. If it's the Patriots' streak that ends, the Broncos will emerge as one of the top teams in the AFC playoff race.