Gary Guyton wants to turn the page on his former life.

No matter how enjoyable, or unpleasant his four-year run with the New England Patriots was, Guyton didn’t have much to say about his former team, which he started 32 games for, when asked.

The new Miami Dolphins linebacker, who contributed 47 tackles and an interception last season, wanted to put his former life behind him, starting fresh with Miami, the New England’s AFC East rival.

Guyton hasn’t learned his role with the Dolphins, which were paper thin at outside linebacker before his signing last week. But he’s excited about the opportunity to compete for playing time, and possibly a starting role.

“I’m just ready to focus on getting in, learning what I got to learn, get around the guys,” Guyton said. “Everything else will play out as it comes into the season and everything starts rolling.”

Here is what else the former Georgia Tech standout had to say on Tuesday.

(On what was the selling point to sign with the Dolphins) – “Really, I just wanted to come in and contribute. Come in and be a Dolphin. Come in here with the help of the coaches. That was a good selling point for me. Talking to the coaches and now I’m here.”

(On do you know why you’re role with the Patriots decreased towards the end of the season) – “No, not really too much. Whatever happened there, just happened. So I just moved on.”

(On did you feel like your time with the Patriots towards the end of the season was over) – “As the season came down things change every year so I had a possibility going into free agency and which I did now. Now, I’m a Dolphin.”

(On what did you learn from your tenure with New England) – “Really, just how to be professional and how to play the game so I learned a lot when I was there. I had a good time there. Bill (Belichick) is a great coach. He did a good job bringing me up. So just being able to learn the game and learn everything I can do from the game of football.”

(On New England not re-signing you, did it bother you) – “At the end of the day, it is going to be what it’s going to be, so things happen. I’m not a Patriot no more. Now, I’m a Dolphin.”

(On your first meeting with the Dolphins and what he liked about the defense that will be installed in Miami) – “Basically, just being here and telling the coaches what they see in me so I’m here. Talked to the coaches to see how things were and it was a good feeling to come out here and talk to Coach (Joe) Philbin, other coaches, Coach Kevin (Coyle) and Coach (George) Edwards. Come in here and talk to these guys it was a good feeling.”

(On what position do you feel the most comfortable playing) – “I’m just here to play the game of football so whatever team it is or what’s going on. Hopefully, I’ll be in it and I’ll be able to contribute.”

(On if you’re going playing the middle linebacker position this season) – “I have no idea. It’s still a long ways out from the season so I guess we’ll see how things pan out as the season goes along.”

(You were one of the fastest linebackers in the 2008 draft class. How big of an asset is you speed) – “The game of football is very fast. I’m not the slowest turtle in the bunch if you would so that’s always been a good thing for me was my speed. So I love my speed and my speed loves me (laughing).”

(On how many teams did you visit before signing with Miami) – “I can’t recall right now. I had some teams lined up. But we’re excited though.”

(On what made you choose Miami) – “Being here, it felt good. It felt good to be here because I talked to the coaches and they’re good coaches and I seen what they’ve done. And it’s where I want to be.”

(On what were your impressions playing the Dolphins) – “They’re always a good ball club, very competitive, and they play very hard ball. So it wasn’t an easy win by no shape, form, or fashion. Good ball club and just guys that want to come out and compete.”

G.G.G.

The incompletion that could have helped the New England Patriots put away Super Bowl XLVI — and kept Tom Brady’s wife, Gisele, from infamously bashing the quarterback’s wide receivers — “wasn’t a drop,” former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said.

O’Brien, now the Penn State head coach, told reporters at the Big New England Coaching Clinic that the notorious pass not handled by receiver Wes Welker was no gimme.

“That would have been a tremendous catch, and he should never think twice about that,” O’Brien said. “And it had nothing to do with us losing the game. There were many, many plays before that, where we could have made better coaching decisions, and better plays. That’s just one play of many.”

Evidence from the game supports O’Brien’s notion that the play wasn’t a simple drop, but the idea that “it had nothing to do with us losing the game” is less realistic.

While there were many plays that contributed to the New York Giants’ 21-17 win over the Patriots, the missed opportunity by New England with 4:06 certainly had much to do with the Giants getting a chance to put together their game-winning drive.

New England led 17-15 at the time and faced a second-and-11 from the Giants’ 44. Welker was open downfield and would have put the Patriots in the red zone if he came down with the catch, which would have allowed New England, at the very least, to eat up more of the clock.

Replays have shown, though, the pass was a touch high.

A distraught Welker did not look at the play that way after the game.

“That’s a play I make a thousand times,” Welker said then. “I just didn’t make it.”

The play likely helped spark an infamous post-game scene with Brady’s wife, Gisele, caught on camera responding to hecklers as she made her way through Lucas Oil Stadium.

“My husband cannot (expletive) throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time,” she said on a video captured by gossip site theinsider.com. “I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”

O’Brien focused on the overall accomplishments for Welker, who has made four straight Pro Bowls, and led the NFL with 122 receptions last season.

“I would tell (New England fans) they should be very grateful … to have a player like Wes Welker as a Patriot,” O’Brien said this weekend of Welker, who is expected to get the team’s franchise tag by Monday’s deadline. “He is what Boston is all about, in my opinion. He’s a hard-working guy, he’s a tough guy, he’s an honest guy; nothing was ever given to him.”

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.

“You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Tom Brady, who scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. “We showed some resiliency.”

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

“It’s good to clinch,” said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass from Brady, “but not by the way we played. It’s not the way you want to do it.”

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

“First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame,” Bowles said. “The second half they made us play theirs.”

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards, finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another — a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski’s 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin McCourty’s first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go, making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore’s 15-yard scoring pass to Davone Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

“We had (Brady’s) number in the first half, but in the second half he came out and made a lot of plays,” Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He is a coach on the field.”

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and didn’t play. Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee injury suffered on New England’s second series.

“There’s always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to all the time,” said Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for 20 in the first half. “The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score (can) get things going.”

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed a field goal on the other. The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the drive capped by Branch’s touchdown.

“They committed penalties in the first half,” Dolphins guard Richie Incognito said. “We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second half. That is never a good recipe.”

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he passed 1,000.

“It really doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. “This one’s pretty tough.”

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter’s 47-yard field goal 4:01 into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore’s 19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

“There wasn’t a bunch of yelling,” Wilfork said. “We just came in and said we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to make more plays.”

They did. The Dolphins didn’t.

“Our guys fought,” Bowles said, “but we didn’t finish.”

Notes: Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007. … Bush was checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game “Something in my leg just didn’t feel right,” he said. “I’m walking. If it was serious, I wouldn’t be walking.” … Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010. … The victory was the largest comeback by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002 when they beat the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

The New England Patriots emphasize playing well for 60 minutes every game. Yesterday, 30 was enough — barely.

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins.

“You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Tom Brady, who scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. “We showed some resiliency.”

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

“It’s good to clinch,” said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass from Brady, “but not by the way we played. It’s not the way you want to do it.”

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

“First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame,” Bowles said. “The second half they made us play theirs.”

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards, finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another — a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski’s 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin McCourty’s first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go, making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore’s 15-yard scoring pass to Davone Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

“We had (Brady’s) number in the first half, but in the second half he came out and made a lot of plays,” Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He is a coach on the field.”

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and didn’t play.

Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee injury suffered on New England’s second series.

“There’s always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to all the time,” said Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for 20 in the first half. “The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score (can) get things going.”

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed a field goal on the other.

The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the drive capped by Branch’s touchdown.

“They committed penalties in the first half,” Dolphins guard Richie Incognito said. “We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second half. That is never a good recipe.”

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he passed 1,000.

“It really doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. “This one’s pretty tough.”

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter’s 47-yard field goal 4:01 into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore’s 19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

“There wasn’t a bunch of yelling,” Wilfork said. “We just came in and said we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to make more plays.”

They did. The Dolphins didn’t.

“Our guys fought,” Bowles said, “but we didn’t finish.”

*   *   *

Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007. … Bush was checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game “Something in my leg just didn’t feel right,” he said. “I’m walking. If it was serious, I wouldn’t be walking.” … Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010. … The victory was the largest comeback by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002, when they beat the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP)—The New England Patriots emphasize playing well for
60 minutes every game. On Saturday, 30 was enough—barely.

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their
next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami
Dolphins on Saturday.

“You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Tom Brady, who
scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. “We showed some
resiliency.”

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans
lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a
tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

“It’s good to clinch,” said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass
from Brady, “but not by the way we played. It’s not the way you want to do
it.”

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and
is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

“First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame,” Bowles
said. “The second half they made us play theirs.”

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary
adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from
making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in
which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his
accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three
times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards,
finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another
— a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his
own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski’s 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin
McCourty’s first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go,
making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore’s 15-yard scoring pass to Davone
Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when
Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

“We had (Brady’s) number in the first half, but in the second half he came
out and made a lot of plays,” Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He is a
coach on the field.”

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the
game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and
didn’t play. Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee
injury suffered on New England’s second series.

“There’s always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and
things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to all the time,” said
Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for
20 in the first half. “The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and
never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score (can) get things
going.”

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed
a field goal on the other. The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore
fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the
drive capped by Branch’s touchdown.

“They committed penalties in the first half,” Dolphins guard Richie
Incognito said. “We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second
half. That is never a good recipe.”

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight
rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week
after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the
first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he
passed 1,000.

“It really doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. “This one’s pretty
tough.”

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter’s 47-yard field goal 4:01
into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore’s
19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on
a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped
by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

“There wasn’t a bunch of yelling,” Wilfork said. “We just came in and
said we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to make more plays.”

They did. The Dolphins didn’t.

“Our guys fought,” Bowles said, “but we didn’t finish.”

Notes: Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards
receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007. … Bush was
checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game “Something in my
leg just didn’t feel right,” he said. “I’m walking. If it was serious, I
wouldn’t be walking.” … Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his
highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina
Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010. … The victory was the largest comeback
by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002 when they beat
the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP)

WEEK 16 SCOREBOARD

• Colts 19, Texans 16
• Steelers 27, Rams 0
• Bengals 23, Cardinals 16
• Giants 29, Jets 14
• Titans 23, Jaguars 17
• Patriots 27, Dolphins 24
• Bills 40, Broncos 14
• Panthers 48, Buccaneers 16
• Vikings 33, Redskins 26
• Raiders 16, Chiefs 13 (OT)
• Ravens 20, Browns 14
• Lions 38, Chargers 10
• Eagles 20, Cowboys 7
• 49ers 19, Seahawks 17
• Bears-Packers
• Falcons-Saints

The New England Patriots emphasize playing well for 60 minutes every game. On Saturday, 30 was enough – barely.

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.

”You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Tom Brady, who scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. ”We showed some resiliency.”

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

”It’s good to clinch,” said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass from Brady, ”but not by the way we played. It’s not the way you want to do it.”

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

”First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame,” Bowles said. ”The second half they made us play theirs.”

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards, finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another – a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski’s 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin McCourty’s first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go, making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore’s 15-yard scoring pass to Davone Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

”We had (Brady’s) number in the first half, but in the second half he came out and made a lot of plays,” Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. ”He is a coach on the field.”

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and didn’t play. Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee injury suffered on New England’s second series.

”There’s always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to all the time,” said Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for 20 in the first half. ”The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score (can) get things going.”

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed a field goal on the other. The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the drive capped by Branch’s touchdown.

”They committed penalties in the first half,” Dolphins guard Richie Incognito said. ”We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second half. That is never a good recipe.”

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he passed 1,000.

”It really doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. ”This one’s pretty tough.”

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter’s 47-yard field goal 4:01 into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore’s 19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

”There wasn’t a bunch of yelling,” Wilfork said. ”We just came in and said we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to make more plays.”

They did. The Dolphins didn’t.

”Our guys fought,” Bowles said, ”but we didn’t finish.”

Notes: Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007. … Bush was checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game ”Something in my leg just didn’t feel right,” he said. ”I’m walking. If it was serious, I wouldn’t be walking.” … Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010. … The victory was the largest comeback by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002 when they beat the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

CBSSports.com wire reports
Dec. 24, 2011

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots emphasize playing well for 60 minutes every game. On Saturday, 30 was enough — barely.

Rallying from their worst half of the season, the Patriots scored on their next five possessions and clinched a playoff bye with a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Saturday.

“You don’t want to, certainly, make a habit of this,” said Tom Brady, who scored on two 1-yard sneaks and threw for a 1-yard touchdown. “We showed some resiliency.”

New England (12-3) won its seventh straight game. After the Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night, the Patriots needed a win or a tie to lock up one of the top two spots in the AFC.

“It’s good to clinch,” said Deion Branch, who caught the touchdown pass from Brady, “but not by the way we played. It’s not the way you want to do it.”

Miami (5-10) lost for the third time in eight games after opening at 0-7 and is 1-1 under Todd Bowles, who took over when Tony Sparano was fired.

“First half we came out and played our tempo and our ballgame,” Bowles said. “The second half they made us play theirs.”

The AFC East champions trailed 17-0 at halftime but made the necessary adjustments and went to their no-huddle offense more, keeping the Dolphins from making defensive substitutions. And Brady was on target after a first half in which heavy defensive pressure against a makeshift offensive line affected his accuracy. He completed just 7 of 19 passes for 87 yards and was sacked three times in the half.

But in the second half, he completed 20 of 27 passes for 217 yards, finishing at 27 for 46 for 304 yards and leading one scoring drive after another — a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, the scoring pass to Branch, his own sneak that tied the game, Gostkowski’s 42-yard go-ahead kick after Devin McCourty’s first interception of the year, and the other sneak with 2:56 to go, making it 27-17.

The Dolphins made it closer on Matt Moore’s 15-yard scoring pass to Davone Bess with 1:48 to play. They had three timeouts left, but their hopes faded when Brady hit Wes Welker for a 6-yard gain and a first down.

“We had [Brady's] number in the first half, but in the second half he came out and made a lot of plays,” Miami linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He is a coach on the field.”

The Dolphins seemed headed for a victory and got a break even before the game started when Patriots left tackle Matt Light hurt his ankle in warmups and didn’t play. Left guard Logan Mankins took his spot, but he left with a knee injury suffered on New England’s second series.

“There’s always things that are going to go wrong in a football game and things aren’t going to work out the way you want them to all the time,” said Welker, who finished with 12 catches for 138 yards after managing just two for 20 in the first half. “The main thing is just playing a full 60 minutes and never giving in and understanding that one drive and one score [can] get things going.”

The Patriots punted on their first six series of the first half then missed a field goal on the other. The Dolphins struggled in the second half when Moore fumbled the snap at his 38-yard line and Vince Wilfork recovered, starting the drive capped by Branch’s touchdown.

“They committed penalties in the first half,” Dolphins guard Richie Incognito said. “We turned the ball over and committed penalties in the second half. That is never a good recipe.”

Reggie Bush had another outstanding game for Miami with his fourth straight rushing day of at least 100 yards. He finished with 113 on 22 carries one week after gaining a career-high 203 yards.

His latest performance gave him 1,086 yards rushing for the season, the first time in his six years, the first five with the New Orleans Saints, that he passed 1,000.

“It really doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said. “This one’s pretty tough.”

The Dolphins had taken a 3-0 lead on Dan Carpenter’s 47-yard field goal 4:01 into the game and made it 10-0 with 1:15 gone in the second quarter on Moore’s 19-yard pass to Brandon Marshall.

They stretched that to 17-0, the Patriots biggest deficit of the season, on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Charles Clay. The 89-yard drive was helped by two defensive pass interference penalties on third down.

But the Patriots remained calm in the locker room at intermission.

“There wasn’t a bunch of yelling,” Wilfork said. “We just came in and said we’ve got to play better, we’ve got to make more plays.”

They did. The Dolphins didn’t.

“Our guys fought,” Bowles said, “but we didn’t finish.”

Notes

• Welker set a franchise record for one season with 1,518 yards receiving. He broke the mark of 1,493 set by Randy Moss in 2007.
• Bush was checked my medical personnel on the sideline late in the game “Something in my leg just didn’t feel right,” he said. “I’m walking. If it was serious, I wouldn’t be walking.”
• Moore completed 17 of 33 passes for 294 yards, his highest total as a Dolphin. He threw for more than that with the Carolina Panthers once in 2009 and once in 2010.
• The victory was the largest comeback by the Patriots from a second-half deficit since Nov. 10, 2002 when they beat the Chicago Bears 33-30 after trailing 27-6 in the third quarter.

AP PHOTO
Patriots wide receiver Tiquan Underwood speaks to reporters at the team’s facility in Foxboro Wednesday.

FOXBORO — The wins keep coming for the New England Patriots. Yet each one seems to spark doubts about whether they’re as good as their 11-3 record suggests.

There is concern, from former Patriots Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison to some of their current players to nervous fans who have watched opponents shred their defense.

How can a team that’s on track to allow the second-most yards in NFL history have a six-game winning streak and the best record in the AFC? Is it superior coaching, a star quarterback, or just a remarkable run of good fortune?

“Maybe one or two games we can say, ‘Man, that was a pretty good game,’ ” wide receiver Deion Branch said. “The rest of them you can just pinpoint a lot of mistakes. But we were lucky enough to come out with a victory.”

Last Sunday, the Patriots beat the Denver Broncos 41-23 but allowed 252 yards rushing, 167 in the first quarter alone. One week earlier, they beat the Washington Redskins, 34-27, a victory secured only by Jerod Mayo’s interception at the Patriots 5-yard line with 20 seconds left.

And the week before, they watched a 31-3 lead shrink in the last 11 minutes before they held on to beat the then-winless Indianapolis Colts 31-24.

The Patriots figure to win their remaining regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, both currently 5-9. If they do, they’ll have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

But then what? The Patriots lost their opening

playoff game in each of the last two years, games in which their best antidote to poor defense, Tom Brady, struggled.

“This Patriot team is a proven regular-season team, but they have a lot to prove in the playoffs, where they have failed miserably the last two years,” Bruschi, a linebacker on the Patriots’ three Super Bowl championship teams, said Monday during an online chat on ESPNBoston.com. “All teams that make the playoffs should be feared by the Patriots, because what I fear the most for the Patriots is them playing the way they’ve played the last two years in the postseason. So it’s not about who they play, it’s about them showing up.”

Right now, it’s about ignoring the critics and just working to get better.

“I don’t really care what everyone else says,” linebacker Rob Ninkovich said. “I’m just trying to focus on each week and playing good football. We have a good record, yes, but we have to continue to play hard until the season (ends) and when the playoffs start we need to continue to improve. So I really don’t listen to anything out there, just shut it all out.”

To be fair, the starting defense has been battered by injuries. Safety Patrick Chung and linebacker Brandon Spikes missed the last six games. Cornerback Devin McCourty sat out two. Safety James Ihedigbo has missed parts of several games. And now Andre Carter, New England’s best pass rusher with a team-high 10 sacks, is out for the season after hurting his left quadriceps against the Broncos.

While they’ve allowed the most yards in the NFL, only 13 teams have given up fewer points. They’ve let teams score from inside the 20-yard line just 80 percent of the time, seventh in the league. They lead the AFC with a plus-12 turnover differential. And of their three losses, one came on a last-play field goal, another on a touchdown with 15 seconds left and a third by eight points.

“Our team has played well enough to win 11 games, so that’s good,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We still feel like our best football is in front of us and we keep working hard to try to perform at that level.”

But so far the Patriots have allowed 76 plays of at least 20 yards, more than five per game and 20 more than the single-season franchise high. Overall, they’ve given up an average of 414.4 yards. At that rate, they’d finish with 6,630 total yards, second in NFL history to the Baltimore Colts, who gave up 6,793 yards in 1981 when they went 2-14.

Because of injury or inconsistency, the Patriots have used 16 players in the secondary, including wide receivers Matthew Slater and Julian Edelman. On Wednesday they added a new one, signing seven-year veteran safety Vincent Fuller, who already had been cut this season by Tennessee and Detroit.

“They’ve had a lot of injuries, but (Belichick’s) moved guys around and they’re filling in and getting the job done,” said Redskins receiver Jabar Gaffney, a member of the Patriots team that went 18-0 in the 2007 season before losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. “It may not look as pretty, but they still find a way to win.”

It looked downright ugly to Harrison, a hard-hitting safety on the Patriots’ last two championship teams in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

“They should be concerned because that secondary is probably the worst secondary I’ve seen in the last decade,” Harrison, an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said after the Redskins completed passes of 51 and 49 yards against it two weeks ago. “It’s been proven the last two years in the playoffs. If Brady’s off just a little bit, they’re vulnerable to lose.”

But the Patriots try to block out the doubters. No one has to tell them what their weaknesses are.

“You listen to other people if you want to, but (we) know what’s going on inside,” said running back Kevin Faulk, a Patriot since 1999. “There’s always room for improvement and if you are to reach what you want to reach, you always want to improve your team, no matter what it is, in every aspect of it.”

——

AP Sports Writer Joseph White in Washington, D.C., and freelancer Matthew Carroll in Foxborough contributed to this story.

FOXBORO, Mass. – The wins keep coming for the New England Patriots. Yet each one seems to spark doubts about whether they’re as good as their 11-3 record suggests.

There is concern, from former Patriots Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison to some of their current players to nervous fans who have watched opponents shred their defense.

How can a team that’s on track to allow the second-most yards in NFL history have a six-game winning streak and the best record in the AFC? Is it superior coaching, a star quarterback, or just a remarkable run of good fortune?

“Maybe one or two games we can say, ‘Man, that was a pretty good game,’” wide receiver Deion Branch said. “The rest of them you can just pinpoint a lot of mistakes. But we were lucky enough to come out with a victory.”

Last Sunday, the Patriots beat the Denver Broncos 41-23 but allowed 252 yards rushing, 167 in the first quarter alone. One week earlier, they beat the Washington Redskins, 34-27, a victory secured only by Jerod Mayo’s interception at the Patriots 5-yard line with 20 seconds left.

And the week before that, they watched a 31-3 lead shrink in the last 11 minutes before they held on to beat the then-winless Indianapolis Colts 31-24.

The Patriots figure to win their remaining regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, both currently 5-9. If they do, they’ll have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

But then what? The Patriots lost their opening playoff game in each of the last two years, games in which their best antidote to poor defense, Tom Brady, struggled.

“This Patriot team is a proven regular-season team, but they have a lot to prove in the playoffs, where they have failed miserably the last two years,” Bruschi, a linebacker on the Patriots’ three Super Bowl championship teams, said Monday during an online chat on ESPNBoston.com. “All teams that make the playoffs should be feared by the Patriots, because what I fear the most for the Patriots is them playing the way they’ve played the last two years in the post-season. So it’s not about who they play, it’s about them showing up.”

Right now, it’s about ignoring the critics and just working to get better.

“I don’t really care what everyone else says,” linebacker Rob Ninkovich said. “I’m just trying to focus on each week and playing good football. We have a good record, yes, but we have to continue to play hard until the season (ends) and when the playoffs start we need to continue to improve. So I really don’t listen to anything out there, just shut it all out.”

To be fair, the starting defense has been battered by injuries. Safety Patrick Chung and linebacker Brandon Spikes missed the last six games. Cornerback Devin McCourty sat out two. Safety James Ihedigbo has missed parts of several games. And now Andre Carter, New England’s best pass rusher with a team-high 10 sacks, is out for the season after hurting his left quadriceps against the Broncos.

While they’ve allowed the most yards in the NFL, only 13 teams have given up fewer points. They’ve let teams score from inside the 20-yard line just 80 per cent of the time, seventh in the league. They lead the AFC with a plus-12 turnover differential. And of their three losses, one came on a last-play field goal, another on a touchdown with 15 seconds left and a third by eight points.

“Our team has played well enough to win 11 games, so that’s good,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We still feel like our best football is in front of us and we keep working hard to try to perform at that level.”

But so far the Patriots have allowed 76 plays of at least 20 yards, more than five per game and 20 more than the single-season franchise high. Overall, they’ve given up an average of 414.4 yards. At that rate, they’d finish with 6,630 total yards, second in NFL history to the Baltimore Colts, who gave up 6,793 yards in 1981 when they went 2-14.

Because of injury or inconsistency, the Patriots have used 16 players in the secondary, including wide receivers Matthew Slater and Julian Edelman. On Wednesday they added a new one, signing seven-year veteran safety Vincent Fuller, who already had been cut this season by Tennessee and Detroit.

“They’ve had a lot of injuries, but (Belichick’s) moved guys around and they’re filling in and getting the job done,” said Redskins receiver Jabar Gaffney, a member of the Patriots team that went 18-0 in the 2007 season before losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. “It may not look as pretty, but they still find a way to win.”

It looked downright ugly to Harrison, a hard-hitting safety on the Patriots’ last two championship teams in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

“They should be concerned because that secondary is probably the worst secondary I’ve seen in the last decade,” Harrison, an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said after the Redskins completed passes of 51 and 49 yards against it two weeks ago. “It’s been proven the last two years in the playoffs. If Brady’s off just a little bit, they’re vulnerable to lose.”

But the Patriots try to block out the doubters. No one has to tell them what their weaknesses are.

“You listen to other people if you want to, but (we) know what’s going on inside,” said running back Kevin Faulk, a Patriot since 1999. “There’s always room for improvement and if you are to reach what you want to reach, you always want to improve your team, no matter what it is, in every aspect of it.”

___

AP Sports Writer Joseph White in Washington, D.C., and freelancer Matthew Carroll in Foxborough contributed to this story.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The wins keep coming for the New England Patriots. Yet each one seems to spark doubts about whether they’re as good as their 11-3 record suggests.

There is concern, from former Patriots Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison to some of their current players to nervous fans who have watched opponents shred their defense.

How can a team that’s on track to allow the second-most yards in NFL history have a six-game winning streak and the best record in the AFC? Is it superior coaching, a star quarterback, or just a remarkable run of good fortune?

“Maybe one or two games we can say, `Man, that was a pretty good game,’ ” wide receiver Deion Branch said. “The rest of them you can just pinpoint a lot of mistakes. But we were lucky enough to come out with a victory.”

Last Sunday, the Patriots beat the Denver Broncos 41-23 but allowed 252 yards rushing, 167 in the first quarter alone. One week earlier, they beat the Washington Redskins, 34-27, a victory secured only by Jerod Mayo’s interception at the Patriots 5-yard line with 20 seconds left.

And the week before that, they watched a 31-3 lead shrink in the last 11 minutes before they held on to beat the then-winless Indianapolis Colts 31-24.

The Patriots figure to win their remaining regular-season games against the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, both currently 5-9. If they do, they’ll have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

But then what? The Patriots lost their opening playoff game in each of the last two years, games in which their best antidote to poor defense, Tom Brady, struggled.

“This Patriot team is a proven regular-season team, but they have a lot to prove in the playoffs, where they have failed miserably the last two years,” Bruschi, a linebacker on the Patriots’ three Super Bowl championship teams, said Monday during an online chat on ESPNBoston.com. “All teams that make the playoffs should be feared by the Patriots, because what I fear the most for the Patriots is them playing the way they’ve played the last two years in the postseason. So it’s not about who they play, it’s about them showing up.”

Right now, it’s about ignoring the critics and just working to get better.

“I don’t really care what everyone else says,” linebacker Rob Ninkovich said. “I’m just trying to focus on each week and playing good football. We have a good record, yes, but we have to continue to play hard until the season (ends) and when the playoffs start we need to continue to improve. So I really don’t listen to anything out there, just shut it all out.”

To be fair, the starting defense has been battered by injuries. Safety Patrick Chung and linebacker Brandon Spikes missed the last six games. Cornerback Devin McCourty sat out two. Safety James Ihedigbo has missed parts of several games. And now Andre Carter, New England’s best pass rusher with a team-high 10 sacks, is out for the season after hurting his left quadriceps against the Broncos.

While they’ve allowed the most yards in the NFL, only 13 teams have given up fewer points. They’ve let teams score from inside the 20-yard line just 80 percent of the time, seventh in the league. They lead the AFC with a plus-12 turnover differential. And of their three losses, one came on a last-play field goal, another on a touchdown with 15 seconds left and a third by eight points.

“Our team has played well enough to win 11 games, so that’s good,” coach Bill Belichick said. “We still feel like our best football is in front of us and we keep working hard to try to perform at that level.”

But so far the Patriots have allowed 76 plays of at least 20 yards, more than five per game and 20 more than the single-season franchise high. Overall, they’ve given up an average of 414.4 yards. At that rate, they’d finish with 6,630 total yards, second in NFL history to the Baltimore Colts, who gave up 6,793 yards in 1981 when they went 2-14.

Because of injury or inconsistency, the Patriots have used 16 players in the secondary, including wide receivers Matthew Slater and Julian Edelman. On Wednesday they added a new one, signing seven-year veteran safety Vincent Fuller, who already had been cut this season by Tennessee and Detroit.

“They’ve had a lot of injuries, but (Belichick’s) moved guys around and they’re filling in and getting the job done,” said Redskins receiver Jabar Gaffney, a member of the Patriots team that went 18-0 in the 2007 season before losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants. “It may not look as pretty, but they still find a way to win.”

It looked downright ugly to Harrison, a hard-hitting safety on the Patriots’ last two championship teams in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.

“They should be concerned because that secondary is probably the worst secondary I’ve seen in the last decade,” Harrison, an analyst on NBC’s “Football Night in America,” said after the Redskins completed passes of 51 and 49 yards against it two weeks ago. “It’s been proven the last two years in the playoffs. If Brady’s off just a little bit, they’re vulnerable to lose.”

But the Patriots try to block out the doubters. No one has to tell them what their weaknesses are.

“You listen to other people if you want to, but (we) know what’s going on inside,” said running back Kevin Faulk, a Patriot since 1999. “There’s always room for improvement and if you are to reach what you want to reach, you always want to improve your team, no matter what it is, in every aspect of it.”

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Patriots outside linebacker Rob Ninkovich (50) sacks Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow (15) on fourth down in the 4th quarter. (Staff photo by Keith Nordstrom)

DENVER (AP) – Not this time, Tim Tebow.

Not with Tom Brady on hand.

Brady threw for two touchdowns, ran for another and the New England Patriots shut down Tebow’s late-game heroics and clinched a playoff berth with a 41-23 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

“It was a really good day for us,” Brady said. “Very emotional game. It was really rocking early. We showed some mental toughness.”

The Patriots (11-3) won their sixth straight game and another AFC East title by bouncing back from an early 17-6 deficit and an awful first quarter in which they were outgained on the ground 167 yards to 4.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) throws under pressure from Broncos outside linebacker D.J. Williams. (Staff photo by Keith Nordstrom)

This time, there was no last-minute magic from Tebow, who had guided the Broncos (8-6) to four straight fourth-quarter comebacks and six straight wins.

Instead of another slow start followed by a fantastic finish, the Broncos started fast and then fizzled.

They scored on their first three possessions and then were done in by a trio of turnovers in the final 81/2 minutes of the second quarter.

“We did have things going pretty well early, scored on the first three possessions and felt like we were moving the ball good and then we put it on the ground,” Tebow said. “That’s something you can’t do against a great team and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

“Besides that, we were right there with them.”

Champ Bailey had said the Broncos needed a big game against a big QB to prove to themselves and others that they were not just a curiosity but a contender.

They didn’t get it on this day.

“We showed today that we’re not ready to go to the playoffs and make a push,” Bailey said. “We’ve got to get better and we only have two or three weeks to do it. If we don’t, then we’ll be sitting home.”

For a sixth straight season.

With their first loss since Oct. 30, the AFC West-leading Broncos face a tougher path to the playoffs, with a trip to Buffalo next week followed by a season finale against Kansas City, which ended Green Bay’s 19-game winning streak Sunday behind Kyle Orton, the player Tebow replaced in Denver.

“I definitely feel like we’re all right,” said Tebow, now 7-2 as Denver’s starter.

He threw for 194 yards and ran for 93 yards and two scores but was sacked four times, including a 28-yard loss in the fourth quarter.

“I thought he improved,” coach John Fox said. “He’ll continue to improve. This was a setback, no doubt about that. But sometimes setbacks are setups for bigger things to come.”

After all, the last time Tebow lost, to Detroit on Oct. 30, he was put on notice that his starting job was a week-to-week proposition, and Tebow won his next six starts.

The one thing Tebow and the Broncos haven’t been able to do is keep up with the league’s elite passers. Denver has faced four QBs currently ranked in the top-10 in yards passing – Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers (twice) and Brady. They’re 1-4 in those games.

Asked if Tebow & Co. can keep up with the league’s top passers if they make it into the playoffs, Fox said: “I can’t predict that. He’s gotten better every week. Six or seven weeks ago, people said he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. He does that. I think he can do that. I don’t think that was why we lost the game tonight.”

Brady was.

“He’s still the best out there, in my opinion,” Bailey said. “And you make mistakes against a guy like that, he’s going to make you pay. That’s pretty much what happened all day.”

Safety Brian Dawkins missed the game with a neck injury and the Broncos missed him as they had to rely on rookies Quinton Carter and Raheem Moore.

“You can’t expect to get the same results when you lose a guy like that,” Bailey said. “But, at the same time, guys have to step up as professionals. You can’t play like that and expect to get wins.”

Brady was 23 of 34, including his first scoring toss to Chad Ochocinco. His TD run was his first of the year.

Brady made up for another bad day by the Patriots’ defense to beat the Broncos for the second time in eight career starts – the only team with a winning record against the three-time Super Bowl champion.

The Broncos’ 167 yards rushing in the first quarter – 11 more than their league-leading per-game average – represented the biggest output in any quarter of the Belichick era in New England.

But they would manage just 85 more.

After the Patriots fell behind 16-7, they went to the no-huddle and Brady threw a 1-yard TD strike to Aaron Hernandez, who set career highs with nine catches for 129 yards.

The Broncos’ ball-control offense stumbled after that.

Lance Ball, who earlier scored his first TD in the NFL on a beautiful 32-yard scamper, fumbled at his own 19 and linebacker Rob Ninkovich recovered, leading to Stephen Gostkowski’s 21-yard field goal put the Patriots up for good at 17-16.

Then, defensive end Mark Anderson, subbing for Andre Carter, who seriously injured his left knee earlier in the game, forced and recovered a fumble by Tebow at the Broncos 40. Six plays later, Brady took it in himself from a yard out to make it 24-16.

Brady celebrated his eighth career TD with a masterful spike.

“I don’t get in the end zone very often,” Brady said. “Maybe once a season. So, when I do I get pretty excited.”

The Broncos’ bumbling ways – which included a bad snap on an extra point attempt – continued when punt returner Quan Cosby tried to field a punt on the run and muffed it with three seconds left.

Dane Fletcher recovered for New England and Gostkowski trotted out for a 34-yard field goal to make it 27-16 at halftime.

Tebow’s 2-yard keeper with 8:41 left pulled the Broncos to 34-23 and had the crowd thinking comeback again, but Brady led the Patriots on another 80-yard scoring drive, this one culminating in BenJarvus Green-Ellis’ 1-yard TD run.

“The more we fight, the better this team gets,” defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said. “We knew they were going to come out fighting. They were going to come out fast and explosive. Our main goal was to weather the storm.”

Notes: The Patriots qualified for the playoffs for the 13th time since Robert Kraft bought the team in 1994. … The Broncos haven’t won seven straight since 1998. … New England hadn’t won in Denver since 2003. … Brady’s last TD run was Nov. 14, 2010, at Pittsburgh.

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DENVER — Not this time, Tim Tebow.

Not with Tom Brady on hand.

Brady threw for two touchdowns, ran for another and the New England Patriots shut down Tebow’s late-game heroics and clinched a playoff berth with a 41-23 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

“It was a really good day for us,” Brady said. “Very emotional game. It was really rocking early. We showed some mental toughness.”

The Patriots (11-3) won their sixth straight game and another AFC East title by bouncing back from an early 17-6 deficit and an awful first quarter in which they were outgained on the ground 167 yards to 4.

This time, there was no last-minute magic from Tebow, who had guided the Broncos (8-6) to four straight fourth-quarter comebacks and six straight wins.

Instead of another slow start followed by a fantastic finish, the Broncos started fast and then fizzled.

They scored on their first three possessions and then were done in by a trio of turnovers in the final 8½ minutes of the second quarter.

“We did have things going pretty well early, scored on the first three possessions and felt like we were moving the ball good and then we put it on the ground,” Tebow said. “That’s something you can’t do against a great team and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

“Besides that, we were right there with them.”

Champ Bailey had said the Broncos needed a big game against a big QB to prove to themselves and others that they were not just a curiosity but a contender.

They didn’t get it on this day. “We showed today that we’re not ready to go to the playoffs and make a push,” Bailey said. “We’ve got to get better and we only have two or three weeks to do it. If we don’t, then we’ll be sitting home.”

For a sixth straight season.

With their first loss since Oct. 30, the AFC West-leading Broncos face a tougher path to the playoffs, with a trip to Buffalo next week followed by a season finale against Kansas City, which ended Green Bay’s 19-game winning streak Sunday behind Kyle Orton, the player Tebow replaced in Denver.

“I definitely feel like we’re all right,” said Tebow, now 7-2 as Denver’s starter.

He threw for 194 yards and ran for 93 yards and two scores but was sacked four times, including a 28-yard loss in the fourth quarter.

“I thought he improved,” coach John Fox said. “He’ll continue to improve. This was a setback, no doubt about that. But sometimes setbacks are setups for bigger things to come.”

After all, the last time Tebow lost, to Detroit on Oct. 30, he was put on notice that his starting job was a week-to-week proposition, and Tebow won his next six starts.

The one thing Tebow and the Broncos haven’t been able to do is keep up with the league’s elite passers. Denver has faced four QBs currently ranked in the top-10 in yards passing — Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Philip Rivers (twice) and Brady. They’re 1-4 in those games.

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

BOSTON (CBS) – It’s another matchup against a lesser opponent, but the New England Patriots have to focus on playing a full 60-minutes Sunday against the Washington Redskins.

Washington has lost seven of their last eight, but still have the talent defensively to make the Patriots miserable. Head coach Mike Shanahan has always done well against Bill Belichick and the Patriots (owning a 5-3 record over Bill) and his defense’s seem to know how to disrupt Tom Brady. At least they did in Denver.

Life in Washington has been different for Shanahan, but the scheme remains the same. While the Patriots will have to worry about slowing the Skins down on defense, the concern with Washington’s offense will be about getting one individual the ball, and making sure he is the one to make a mistake with it.

Here are a few of the key matchups heading into Sunday’s tilt.

Another Great Pass-Rush

In what seems to be an ongoing trend, the Patriots will face another one of the NFL’s better pass-rushing teams on Sunday. Washington features a strong tandem of linebackers, including Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan who have combined for 12.5 sacks this season.

“They’re good, very good,” said quarterback Tom Brady. “They can rush, they’re good in coverage, too; I think that’s the thing that surprises a lot of people because they’re 260, 265-pound guys. I feel like every week, we’re talking about their pass rushers.”

“We’ve played quite a few good pass rushers this year. I think these two guys are right up there in terms of their ability to set the edge in the running game, to collapse a pocket, strip sack the quarterback,” added Brady. “Even if they’re not sacking the quarterback, they’re forcing the ball out quickly. They’re good players I think. They’re the key to the whole defense.”

Despite going up against some of the league’s best pass-rushers, New England has only allowed 21 sacks in the first 12 games.

Stopping the Redskins rush will not be easy though, and will be a full team effort. Shanahan, who Brady is 1-5 against in his career, likes to bring his linebackers up to the line of scrimmage to mask who is blitzing and who is dropping back into coverage. All the Patriots on the field, not just linemen, will have to be ready to do their job, whether it be blocking or getting open as fast as they can.

“The front line will do their job; we need to make sure we’re in the right place,” said receiver Deion Branch. “They do a great job at disguising a lot of different things. We have to be on point this week.”

Read: Vollmer Out, 12 Patriots Questionable

“They have great rushers, great outside linebackers. We have to be ready and block them,” said tight end Rob Gronkowski. “Whenever I’m in pass protection I have to do a good job there. Tom has to get the ball out quick so they only have a chance at getting to him.”

“When you play good pass rushers, you’ve got to understand that at some point, they’re going to be there. So you just don’t have all the time to sit around and make decisions, so you just try to get the ball out,” said Brady. “A lot of it comes down to coordinating the routes with the protection and then ultimately getting the ball out fast enough. If you know that these guys are really aggressive pass rushers, than you have to throw the ball quick. You have to screen them, you have to trap, you have to draw, you have to do all the things it really takes to keep them off-balance as well. But if you just let certain guys tee off, play from behind all day, it’s going to be a long, hard day.”

Watch: Gresh & Zo Whiteboard

Even if the Patriots contain Orakpo and Kerrigan, there are still other veterans that can hurt the Patriots on the defensive side. Defensive Ends Stephen Bowen and Adam Carriker are enjoying all the focus both Orakpo and Kerrigan draw, already setting new career highs with 4.5 and 5 sacks, respectively. There is also 14-year veteran linebacker Londan Fletcher patrolling the field, who leads Washington with 124 tackles.

“London’s a great football player; he’s played a lot,” Waters said of the 36-year-old Fletcher. “He’s all over the field. He hasn’t changed much and he hasn’t slowed down much. If you ask me how long that could play, he could probably play for a long time.”

If the Patriots can keep Brady standing, he will still have corner DeAngelo Hall to deal with. But as long as he gets a chance to throw the ball, New England should be fine.

Make Rex Grossman Throw

As bad as the Patriots secondary has been this season, their goal on defense Sunday should be to make quarterback Rex Grossman throw the ball.