Denver Broncos fail fourth quarter comeback attempt as New England Patriots win 31-21
Peyton Manning arrived with a new team to the imposing Gillette Stadium as he faced his old rival Tom Brady and his New England Patriots in a match that had the attention gripped of a whole nation.
Even when Manning was with the Indianapolis Colts he could not get the better of Brady and the same story was repeated on Sunday as Manning’s new Denver Broncos lost out 31-21 in a gripping encounter.
Brady was at his best in the game as he led the Patriots to a win after passing for 223 yards and a touchdown while he also scored one on the rush.
The quarterback’s efforts saw New England take a huge lead by the third quarter with the Patriots leading 31-7 at one point.
It seemed game over but Manning had not given up hope and led a signature comeback attempt which just fell a bit short.
Manning passed for 345 yards and three touchdowns in a massive performance but the Patriots defence contained him successfully as the Broncos lost the game.
The quarterback led the Broncos to a second half comeback attempt passing to Eric Decker at the end of the third quarter for a two-yard touchdown which reduced the deficit to 31-14 and followed it up with another touchdown pass this time from five yards
to Brandon Stokley to make 31-21.
With six minutes left on the clock the Broncos had little time.
They were given a break when the Stevan Ridley’s fumble led to the Patriots losing possession and Manning came on to lob a 28-yard pass to Demaryius Thomas.
It seemed a successful comeback was on the cards but the Broncos luck ran out when Willis McGahee fumbled the ball leaving the Patriots Jermaine Cunningham to recover and end Denver’s comeback bid.
After the game Denver coach John Fox praised Manning and said:
"It's not new. They've been doing this for a long, long time. They just have a good group of guys together doing it. ... Our guy (Manning) did an outstanding job today as well."
Brady was happy with the win and said that the whole team worked together for the result:
"It's Patriots-Broncos. It was a great team win. We got some turnovers from our defense and I thought offensively capitalized at times. There were a few lulls in there, which I wish we had executed a little bit better, but for the most part it's a good day."
The Broncos can take big positives from their performance in this game as Manning seems to have fully assimilated himself back into the NFL while Brady was as brilliant as ever.
Denver now boasts a 2-3 record after the loss while the Patriots move up to 3-2.
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