https://twitter.com/SportsQuotient/status/810642054829092864
Denver and New England battled it out in the Mile High cold on Sunday, but the unfortunately Brady-Siemian didn’t quite live up to the Brady-Manning battles of yore. Don’t tell that to T.J. Ward though, as the Broncos’ safety clearly tried to make a statement by body slamming Julian Edelman and then flexing to show his strength.
Ultimate tough guy move right here pic.twitter.com/41L7BLNlf5
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 19, 2016
Unfortunately, the pass was incomplete, and that meant the tackle was more than a bit excessive. Ward got flagged for it and now his strong man routine looks pretty dumb, especially because this essentially helped the Patriots seal a 16-3 win.
New England was driving to kill off the clock and faced a 3rd and 3 with 3:43 left up 16-3. That’s only a two-score game! When Edelman missed the catch, that meant Denver was likely to get the ball back with just over three minutes left. Unfortunately, Ward’s uneccessary roughness got flagged for 15 yards and an automatic first down and allowed New England to kill off another minute. Denver didn’t get the ball back until after the 2-minute warning and was unable to make the comeback happen.
Two scores against a defense that held the Broncos to three points might seem pretty unlikely, it’s true. But with Denver battling it out for a playoff spot, they need to be smarter than this.
