I tweeted last week (after Butchie correctly predicted the Broncos would beat the Steelers) that hey maybe I should just republish my blog from the last time the Pats took on the Tebo’s at mile high. But this isn’t then this is the Playoffs and as Butchie reminded me we owe you a fresh take,a Deeper analysis, a closer look, a more careful assessment of the problems in front of the Pats this week at Foxboro, after all we don’t want a repeat of the last three post season games now do we?  So here are my keys to Patriot victory Saturday Night.

Keep Tommy Up right and moving forward: its no secret that when playoff time  rolls around that team defenses get tougher rougher and have three things on their minds when they face New England. Put Tommy terrific on his ass, flush him out of the pocket and keep him on the sidelines looking like a sad lost puppy. It happens people go on check out Brady’s face on the sidelines when things aren’t going well. I don’t want to see that face this Saturday. This line healthy or not needs to show up and allow tom the time to step up into the pocket and hit the soft underside of the Broncos D. I want Brady feeling like he can climb the Prudential building Saturday night. This brings me to our second Key.

Get off early: The Pats have struggled in the first quarter and even the first half over the past six weeks, Brady has looked tight and has been throwing balls at peoples feet and behind them far too often. One of the reasons for this is The Running Game, yes people we need to run the ball until Brady can get his timing right with Welker Gronk and whoever plan C will be.

Part of this has been BGE’s being hurt, we have not seen a healthy Benny since week 5 but he looked good against the Bills he was his old self being patent and then  hitting the holes hard and fast  as did Ridley who led the way with 80 yards. These two guys along with a sprinkling of  Woodhead  are key to making the Denver D think twice about throwing the kitchen sink at Tommy and opening up space for the receivers.

The D . The last time we saw Willis McGahee he was sitting on the sideline with a tweeky hammy. The problem is he had racked up 70 yards on just seven carriers before that hammy went balky on him. The Broncos rushed for 167 yards in the FIRST Quarter of the last matchup before Belichick said enough is enough and dumped his four three front for a three four. You can bet Denver is working the film room hard to find the holes to exploit so they can run the ball the way they did in the forst quarter of our last matchup and keep the Patriots offence cold and waiting for their chance to strut their stuff.

How are we going to combat the best rushing team in the NFL ? Mix it up keep Tebo and the Broncos offensive line off balance. Force Timmy to make decisions at the line of scrimmage and into mistakes. Second and long third and long calls.... every time Timmy has to audible at the line is a chance at a turn over.,. Like any team When Tebo turns the ball over he loses.

The YAK Factor: no I don’t mean throwing up on our own feet.  I’m talking yards after the K/catch. Last week the Broncos smartly saw the Steelers cheating their safeties up and burned them over and over again Pittsburg never seemed to learn from early beatings giving up catches for 40, 50 and 60 yards and was caught again in OT up an 80 yard TD to lose the game. Morons ! How do we stop this from happening? Tackle!! Limit the yards after the catch...Yea it’s that simple wrap them up drag them down drive them into the ground and let the commish fine us later.

Finally and this is out of our hands.

The Refs: we have to hope the referees call the games they way they have done all year long. If they put their hankies away and don’t make the pass interference calls and defensive holding calls they have made all season not only this game but the playoffs are going to be a hard road for our Patriots. I’m not asking for special treatment just be consistent with what went on all year long.

That’s it Sports fans , Butchie told me to get deep so I did, his Prediction for Saturday night . Patriots 34 Broncos 17

GO PATS