The Denver Broncos are fresh off their first win of the season, but now have to travel to face the New England Patriots. The game was delayed to Monday afternoon as the Patriots continued to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak last week. The 3pm MT start time is complete garbage since the NFL moved the Kansas City Chiefs / Patriots game to prime time last week, but with the Broncos they said ‘nah’.
Even so, with all of the injuries and a third string quarterback starting for Denver, there isn’t a whole lot of optimism with the Mile High Report staff this week. Collectively, we’re predicting a 21-13 defeat for Denver.
Here is how we broken down the Broncos-Patriots score predictions individually.
Patriots 20, Broncos 10
My negativity on the Broncos continues another week. They beat the New York Jets coached by a wild eyed Adam Gase and a dirty Gregg Williams. Bill Belichick last week proved he can still coach an NFL defense when he frustrated Patrick Mahomes all night long. I think he’ll have quite a bit of wrinkles to show Brett Rypien in his second NFL start. The good news is, Drew Lock is trending to play very soon. Hell, he might even play this week, but my prediction says they’ll give him another week to heal up before starting. - Tim Lynch
Patriots 28, Broncos 13
Denver’s was able to bask in their victory over the Jets for a whole 11 days, but they won’t be stacking up back to back wins. Moving the game to Monday will allow Cam Newton to sneak in and end up playing the game, plus a Belichick defense is sure to have plenty cooked up to befuddle a QB making his 2nd NFL start. - Jeff Essary
Patriots 27, Broncos 13
The New England defense just held Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to 19 offensive points, the second-fewest the Chiefs have scored since Mahomes became the starting quarterback to begin the 2018 season. Now Belichick and the Patriots are facing a quarterback who is starting his second game. Even if Newton doesn’t play, this is a challenge the Broncos won’t overcome. - Ian St. Clair
Broncos 14, Patriots 0
Broncos defense sacks Hoyer Stidham 7 times and get two defensive touchdowns off him and leads the Broncos and my fantasy team to victory. - Scotty Payne
Patriots 27, Broncos 10
The Broncos barely had enough firepower to beat the lowly Jets. With injuries still plaguing the team, and a young QB with limited experience, it would be a huge shock to see the Broncos sneak a win. They have a shot with the poor QB play that will likely come from whichever backup Belichick employs, but in a case of backup vs backup, the home team with fewer injuries, and an evil genius head coach should be able to win. - Adam Malnati
Patriots 27, Broncos 17
No matter how good Vic Fangio’s defense plays and no matter how “lights-out” the offense could potentially maybe play, there is no beating Bill Belichick today. Peyton Manning had a hard time playing against him. Brett Rypien most certainly will too. - Laurie Lattimore-Volkmann