Before Sunday’s game at New England, Denver cornerback Champ Bailey said the Broncos knew they could beat the Patriots. After the game, Bailey wasn’t feeling so boastful.
The Patriots’ offense came out with a fast-paced, no-huddle attack that resulted in 444 yards of total offense and 35 first downs. Bailey said what was so frustrating about the Broncos’ defensive effort is that the Patriots did all the things the Broncos prepared for them to do all week -- it’s just that the Patriots executed better than the Broncos did.
“To make it short, we worked on it all week,” Bailey said, via Tom Curran of CSNNE.com. “That lets you know right there. You gotta translate things from the meeting room and practice field to the game. Coaches can’t go out there and play for us. We gotta make sure we put ourselves in position to make plays and get off the field on third down. We worked on everything they did to us. There wasn’t no surprises. They just hit us in the mouth and we didn’t hit back hard enough.”
The Broncos need their defense to start hitting back harder. The AFC West is there for the taking for Denver, but they can’t afford to lose games when Peyton Manning throws for 345 yards and three touchdowns, because their defense can’t get off the field.
