Most experts picked the New England Patriots to beat the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship on Sunday and safety T.J. Ward took notice. After a 20-18 win, the Broncos safety told reporters that the team felt "totally disrespected" by media predictions, although he wouldn't mind if experts picked the Carolina Panthers to win Super Bowl 50.
T.J. Ward says Broncos will ‘feed off’ being Super Bowl underdogs
Ward said the Broncos felt “totally disrespected” by media picking the Patriots to win the AFC Championship.
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
"Go ahead. We feed off of that," Ward said. "Keep us as the underdog [against] whoever wins [the NFC Championship]. Tell us how bad we are and how we can't cover and stop ‘this person,' and I bet we win the Super Bowl."
He’ll likely get his wish, too, with the opening line for the Super Bowl at 3.5 points in favor of the Panthers and up to as much as 4.5 points in some sportsbooks, according to OddsShark. Against the Patriots, the Broncos were three-point underdogs, despite having home-field advantage.
"We felt like we were totally disrespected by everybody in the media," Ward said. "I don't think I heard one telecast that had us winning, and as good as defense we've been playing all year that was the focal point -- €”that Tom Brady was going to shred us apart. We took total disrespect to that."
While a touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski with 12 seconds remaining gave the Patriots a last-ditch effort at forcing overtime, Brady finished with a completion percentage under 50 for the first time in his career in a postseason game. With two interceptions, Brady's 56.4 passer rating was the second worst of his career in the playoffs.
“Besides the big plays at the end of the game, I think he had about 150 yards passing, got sacked five times, threw a pick and we dogged him,” Ward said. “We dominated him. They’re a great team, but we just don’t like being disrespected. Nobody likes being disrespected. That’s how we felt.”
The Broncos managed to get to Brady on 20 of his 60 dropbacks, and did so without the blitzing that has become a signature for Wade Phillips. After blitzing 41.7 percent of the time during the regular season, the Broncos dialed back the rush and managed to harass Brady anyway, according to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell.
The Broncos blitzed on just 16.4 percent of Brady’s dropbacks. That’s a lower blitz rate than any Phillips-led defense has attempted in more than eight years, dating back to Week 9 of the 2007 season, when Phillips was in his first year as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. After rushing three men just 30 times all season, Phillips sent a mere three-man rush on 14 dropbacks versus Brady on Sunday, with the star Patriots quarterback going 4-of-13 for 41 yards with a sack, an interception and a passer rating of just 9.5.
Now Phillips and the Broncos defense have two weeks to prepare a plan to stop Cam Newton and the Panthers offense. Denver finished the regular season No. 1 in total defense and No. 1 in pass defense, but the Carolina offense finished No. 1 in scoring and the team managed to light up the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals to the tune of 80 combined points, despite both teams finishing near the top of the league in defensive rankings.
"We play with a chip every week, so it doesn't matter what anybody else says because those fans, they aren't going to win the game," Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall said after the game. "Whatever they say, the projections, the predictions, none of that matters because we know who we are. We're confident in ourselves, we're confident in our abilities and we showed it on the field today."
The Broncos and Panthers have met just four times and haven’t faced each other since 2012 when Denver cruised to a 36-14 win. Newton finished that game with 241 passing yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, while Manning tallied 301 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.
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