Patriots’ win over the Broncos showcased New England’s many ways to beat you

Tom Brady had the worst game of his 2016 season. Rob Gronkowski didn’t play. LeGarrette Blount ran for 31 yards on 17 carries.

And the New England Patriots still beat the Denver Broncos at Mile High Stadium by 13 points.

Denver’s mistakes shifted the tide of this game early. A botched punt return and a careless interception in the New England red zone equated to a 16-point swing in the first half.

However, the Patriots regrouped after a rocky opening to dominate the third and fourth quarters. Though the offense only scored six points in that span, a dynamic defensive effort held the home team to just 9 total yards through its first five drives after halftime.

There were two major contributors to New England’s 16-3 win over the Broncos — tailback Dion Lewis and a pass rush intent on blasting through the Denver offensive line’s weakest points. By the time the fourth quarter dawned, the Broncos simply didn’t even have fingers to plug all the holes the Patriots had drilled.

The Patriots signaled their switch to Dion Lewis as a featured runner early in the game. The shifty all-purpose back earned the team’s first three carries of the game, but didn’t make his impact truly felt until the second half. Lewis only had seven carries in the third and fourth quarters, but never gained fewer than 4 yards while working as the lightning to Blount’s thunder. He finished the half with 36 yards.

While Blount is much more elusive than he gets credit for, the difference in how the two backs elude tackles is significant. Here, Lewis gets great blocking to clear space for an 8-yard gain, then uses his lateral quickness to make a quick cut when Denver’s defensive backs rise up and tack on 7 more yards.

Another trend from Lewis’s runs in the second half? They all stayed the hell away from Von Miller. By the time Miller caught up to the elusive tailback, he was often already 4 yards downfield.

Here, the team uses the gap created from Miller’s edge rush to help spring Lewis for 8 yards on first-and-15.

New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels worked to take 2015 NFL Defensive Player of the Year out of the equation on Sunday. The Patriots hounded the quarterback-hunter with decoys, at one point even putting linebacker Shea McClellin on the field to draw Miller’s attention. The ploy worked — McClellin wasn’t an eligible receiver, but his presence as a split-wide tackle occupied the Broncos’ MVP and effectively removed him from the play.

Plays like that kept Miller from the epicenter of the action. He finished the game with only five tackles.

The other half of the equation was a defensive effort that kept the Broncos from scoring a touchdown. Some of Denver’s problems were its own creations — Trevor Siemian’s red zone interception was the product of a forced pass thrown behind its intended target. Others were caused by an explosive pass rush that never let the second-year quarterback get comfortable in the pocket.

Trey Flowers, a second-year defensive end, was the team’s breakout defender Sunday. Here he is turning third-and-1 into fourth-and-15 and derailing the Broncos’ first attempt at a fourth-quarter rally.

All Flowers needed was a simple swim move to send Siemian panicking through his own backfield. A split second later, Malcolm Brown came in to finish the job. He’d add another drive-killing sack on Denver’s next drive to push the Pats’ win probability into the high 90s.

Denver doesn’t have the pass protection to keep its passers upright or the kind of quarterback who can excel under that pressure. While the team has one of the league’s toughest defenses, not even Von Miller can be everywhere at once. Bill Belichick’s Patriots uncovered the Broncos’ fatal flaws on Sunday then dove at them repeatedly like a blue jay.

That’s what Belichick-coached teams so best. That’s why they can win on days where Brady, Gronkowski, and Blount combine for just 219 yards.

That’s why the Patriots remain favored to win Super Bowl LI.