The collective tenure of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady has completely overhauled much of New England Patriots history.

But there’s one long-standing aspect of the franchise’s past that Belichick and Brady have done little to change.

Like those that have come before them, they haven’t been able to consistently beat the Denver Broncos.

In his 12th year at the helm of the Patriots, Belichick is just 3-6 against Denver — his worst winning percentage against an AFC squad. Brady, meanwhile, is an unseemly 1-6 facing the Broncos, including the postseason. Brady against everyone else, by the way? 134-34.

In this regard, they’re far from unique in Patriots history. Bill Parcells? Two losses to Denver by an average of 30 points. Raymond Berry? Winless in five tries. Drew Bledsoe? Two wins in six games.

In fact, New England is 4-17 in its last 21 meetings with the Broncos, dating to Nov. 4, 1984.

On one level, it would seem to make sense. Despite some down years of late, the Broncos have been one of the best franchises in the conference since, well, John Elway arrived in 1982. Denver was really New England’s dynastic forerunner in the AFC, having back-to-back championships in the late 1990s behind Elway and Terrell Davis, ending the NFC’s decades-long dominance of the Lombardi Trophy.

But at the same time, this past decade hasn’t been Denver’s best, and it’s stunning that any team — let alone one that has dabbled in mediocrity of late — can boast this kind of sustained success against this Patriots administration. After all, it isn’t like the Broncos have been piling up 12-win seasons and Super Bowl appearances, like the Colts and Steelers, respectively, in the AFC. Yet New England handles those two teams much better than Denver.

Denver has made the playoffs four times while Belichick has been the head coach in New England, but the last trip was in 2005. One more victory this season would give the Broncos their first winning campaign since 2006, or back when Vince Young was the league’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.

So what gives?

“We just haven’t played very well. We’ve had some very close games against them; we just haven’t pulled it out,” said Brady last week. They’re a good team. They’ve had a good team for a long time — when [Mike] Shanahan was there, and I think we’ve played a bunch of very tight games with them. Hopefully we can start working our way to getting even.”

It’s tempting to pin much of the blame on the difficulty of playing in Denver, what with the trip out west and the thinner air. The Patriots did fly out on Friday, a day earlier than usual, to have an extra day to acclimate to the weather.

“Maybe it’s the mile-high air. Maybe there’s something to that,” said Brady.

But that excuse doesn’t hold much water, not when the Dolphins, Bills and Jets have all won a mile-high since 2009. And not when the Broncos haven’t had a winning season at home since 2007.

“Both teams will be breathing the same air,” Belichick said. “Best thing we can do is play well. We’ve gone out there and played well and won. We’ve gone out there and not played well and haven’t won.”

Denver is the site of Brady’s first playoff loss ever, and Belichick’s first with the Patriots — a game sealed by perhaps the most memorable interception of Brady’s career, when Champ Bailey picked him off in the end zone and returned it to the New England one.

Of course, that was six years ago, and the Patriots don’t suffer the past like a Faulkner character. Asked about his 1-5 regular-season record against the Broncos, Brady didn’t put too much stock in it.

“1-5? Man, that’s pretty bad. Hopefully we get to 2-5 this week,” the quarterback said. “Losing [stinks]; you hate losing, but there’s nothing I can do about those games in the past now. So I’ll just try to win this one. That will make me feel pretty good.”

One of the stranger aspects of Denver’s dominion over the Patriots is its consistency despite the turnover of personnel for the Broncos. Their success against Belichick and Brady has come with different coaches and different quarterbacks. Denver has beaten New England under Mike Shanahan and Josh McDaniels — both eventually fired — and with Brian Griese, Jake Plummer and Kyle Orton under center — all eventually traded or released.

This is a decidedly different Broncos regime, with John Fox in his first season as head coach and Tim Tebow making his first career start against New England. Both bring strong track records — Fox’s just in a larger sample than Tebow’s so far.

“I think it’s been obviously always a tough week to prepare for John’s teams,” said Belichick, who is 3-1 against Fox in his career, including a win in Super Bowl XXXVIII. “They do a good job with their different schemes, give you some different looks, really keep you honest, and we’ve certainly seen that in all three phases this week. There’s a lot to get ready for.”

But the Patriots hope that the changes in personnel for the Broncos lead to a change in their head-to-head history.

“It doesn’t really matter about what happened in other years,” said Belichick. “This is a new team and it’s a new coach out there. They do things differently than they’ve done them in the past, so it doesn’t really matter. They’re good right now. They’re playing well.

“Damn right, they’re a tough team to face. I don’t really think the ’87 team has anything to do with this game, in all honesty. I think it has no bearing on it whatsoever.” PATRIOTS AT BRONCOS TIME : 4:15 p.m. Sunday at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. ON TV : CBS (Channel 12 in Providence, Channel 4 in Boston). Jim Nantz play-by-play, Phil Simms color. ON RADIO : WBZ-FM (98.5), WPRO (630 AM), WEAN (99.7 FM), WSAR (1480 AM), WBSM (1420 AM). WEATHER : Sunny, 49 degrees. ALL-TIME SERIES : Denver leads, 27-16, including postseason. The Patriots are 8-18 in Denver. NOTEWORTHY : Tim Tebow is the 11th different quarterback to start for the Broncos since John Elway retired in 1999. Elway was 10-0 against New England in his career; the Broncos are 5-4 against the Pats since Elway retired.

tbritton@providencejournal.com

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MIAMI (Reuters) – The New England Patriots and the New York Jets clash on Sunday with top spot in the National Football League‘s (NFL) AFC East division at stake while the Big Apple’s other contenders, the Giants, face the San Francisco 49ers in a match-up of divisional leaders.

After contrasting starts to the season – the Patriots racing out of the traps and the Jets making a false start – the two teams both enter Sunday’s game with 5-3 records.

The Buffalo Bills, the early pacesetters, have fallen back to 5-3, meaning there is intense competition for the playoffs in what has been, in recent years, one of the toughest of divisions.

The form team are the Jets – they are 3-0 since losing to the Patriots in week five while the Patriots have lost their last two games, including a dramatic late loss to the New York Giants last week.

The rivalry pits some of the league’s big characters against each other – Tom Brady, the Patriots’ quarterback always relishes taking center stage in the Boston-New York City sporting rivalry, while Darelle Revis, the Jets cornerback, loves nothing more than picking off the Patriots.

On the sidelines are two of the league’s most fascinating coaches – the stern, austere-appearing Bill Belichick of the Patriots and the larger and louder than life Jets boss Rex Ryan.

“You want to win your division, that was our goal. The two years I’ve been here, obviously New England has won the division both times. They’ve beat us already. So we know what this game represents, we’re not afraid to talk about it,” said Ryan.

“We’re approaching it like we have to have this game. We want to win our division. We think it goes through New England. There’s that old saying: ‘To be the champ, you have to beat the champ’, and they’re sitting right in front of us,” he added.

Belichick, typically, was more circumspect.

“The Jets are certainly playing well – have a three-game win streak, scoring points, not giving up many. They’re doing a good job,” said Belichick.

“I don’t think there are a whole lot of new things, just they’re doing a good job. It’ll be a big challenge down there for us this week. I’m sure it will be a very lively crowd, emotional atmosphere.”

SMART FOOTBALL

The Giants are buzzing from their victory over the Patriots, which recalled the Super Bowl triumph at the end of the 2007 season, but now the NFC East leaders face the NFC West’s top dogs in San Francisco.

Eli Manning, who in the absence of his injured brother Peyton, is enjoying some positive time in the spotlight, knows a tough task awaits at Candlestick Park.

“You have to play smart football. They are really talented on defense. Their front seven is really good and you don’t see a whole lot of teams running against them. They get good pressure on the quarterback, just bringing four guys a lot of times. They don’t turn the ball over on offense and they get turnovers on defense,” said Manning.

“They have a great turnover margin so I think it is a matter of playing football. Don’t give them easy breaks and make it tough on their offense. They don’t give up many big plays so it is a matter of being consistent and getting in good third down situations and trying to convert there,” he added.

Monday night’s game sees the rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings return to normality without the additional presence of Brett Favre in the Vikings quarterback role.

The Packers (8-0) are the only unbeaten team in the league while Minnesota are struggling this year on 2-6.

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

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The New England Patriots released
defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, the Boston Herald reported.

Haynesworth, 30, was acquired from Washington in July. He
had clashed with Redskins coach Mike Shanahan last year, and was
suspended for the final month of the National Football League
season.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jay Beberman at
jbeberman@bloomberg.net

There is the quick update of the day.

Should it be a concern the New England Patriots have lost two games in a row?

On Sunday, November 6 the New England Patriots fell to the New York Giants by the score of 24-20. New York improves to 6-2 on the season while New England falls to 5-3.

The game was as boring as could be going into halftime with a 0-0 tie. At the very least Steve Weatherford(notes) of the Giants and Zoltan Mesko(notes) of the Patriots kept themselves very busy at the end of each drive.

To be honest, before halftime I was strongly considering going to the deli to get myself a sandwich and do some research on who I think will be the next manager for the Boston Red Sox. I would revisit the game sometime in the middle of the fourth quarter. Chances were high that I wouldn’t miss much with the way the first half was played. I’m glad I didn’t

Finally, with 10:09 remaining in the third quarter, points went on the board. Unfortunately it was a Giants field goal by Lawrence Tynes(notes). New York was up 3-0.

Less than a minute later, the Giants went up 10-0 on a 10-yard touchdown run by Brandon Jacobs(notes) after Tom Brady(notes) fumbled and lost the football deep in Patriots territory.

By that point I was seriously regretting not getting that sandwich.

With 5:29 remaining in the third quarter, New England finally got on the board with a 32-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski(notes).

Just 0:32 into the fourth quarter, Brady found Aaron Hernandez(notes) leading to their first touchdown of the game. The score was tied 10-10. The game was starting to get interesting. With 7:08 remaining, New England added a field goal to go up on top 13-10.

It was promising for a game that had already seen too many turnovers. Defense was looking better than last week, but still not spectacular.

With 3:03 remaining in the game, Eli Manning(notes) completed a 10-yard pass to Mario Manningham(notes) for a touchdown. After the extra point by Tynes, the Giants regained the lead going up 17-13.

Less than a minute and a half later, Brady found Rob Gronkowski(notes) for a 14-yard touchdown pass. The extra point was made and the Patriots were up 20-17. All Patriots defense would need to do is hold them.

It didn’t happen.

With Just 0:15 remaining in the game, Manning completed a 1-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ballard(notes). After the extra point, New York went up 24-20 and that would be the ballgame.

Turnovers and poor third down efficiency cost New England the game. Despite Brady’s 340 passing yards, his two interceptions and his fumble hurt the team. The fumble alone cost the Patriots a touchdown.

New England will have to get its act together by Sunday, November 13 when they hit the road to take on the New York Jets in a division match up. The Patriots, the Jets, and the Buffalo Bills are all tied for first place in the division at 5-3. Halfway through the season they need to get back on track and take control, otherwise a playoff run will be more difficult than it should be.

More New England Patriots Commentary from this Contributor:

New England Patriots fall short in loss to Pittsburgh: A fan’s reaction

Sources:

All stats provided by NFL.com

Paul Rados is an avid New England Patriots fan and a Featured Contributor for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @PSRados or leave him a message on Facebook. For a complete look at his freelance work please visit his Blog.

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BOSTON, Massachusetts – New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman’s agent says his client will “vigorously” fight a charge that he groped a woman during a Halloween party at a Boston nightclub.

Edelman, 25, was Kent State’s starting quarterback from 2006-08.

At a brief court hearing Tuesday, a not guilty plea was entered for Edelman to a charge of indecent assault and battery.

The Patriots later released a statement from agent Don Yee, who said the charge “will be fought vigorously within the court system, instead of a rush to judgment elsewhere.”

Edelman and his lawyer left court without speaking to reporters.

According to an application for the criminal complaint, police were called about 1:30 a.m. to the club, where a woman said the 25-year-old Edelman had reached under her costume and grabbed her crotch. Edelman denied to police that he groped the woman, but was arrested.

A three-year starter at Kent State, Edelman broke the Golden Flashes’ single-season record for total offense as a senior in 2008. The record had been held by current Cleveland Brown Josh Cribbs. That season, Edelman completed 153 of 275 passes (56 percent) for 1,820 yards and 13 touchdowns. He rushed for 1,370 yards and 13 touchdowns in 215 carries, gaining 6.4 yards per try. 

Edelman has returned nine punts for 105 yards and nine kickoffs for 214 yards, and caught three passes for 25 yards this season.

During his three seasons with the Patriots, Edelman has caught 47 passes for 470 yards and one touchdown. He has returned 36 punts for a 13.6-yard average and one touchdown, and brought back 20 kickoffs for a 22.8-yard average.

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