Patriots vs. Broncos 2017: Time, TV schedule for ‘Sunday Night Football’

It’s been an interesting two weeks for the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos, with the former shipping backup QB Jimmy Garoppolo to San Francisco ahead of the trade deadline, and the Broncos getting blown away on the road by the Philadelphia Eagles. Heading into the second-half of the 2017 season, the Broncos will play host to Bill Belichick and Co. in Week 10 on Sunday Night Football at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC (live stream it on NBCSports.com).

The Patriots are off to a 6-2 start this season, after losing to the Chiefs and Panthers early on. It isn’t so much their record that is surprising, but the close contests they’ve had in the first half of the season. They beat a then-struggling Houston in Week 3 by only three points, and then beat the Jets by just a touchdown in Week 6. The team has faced some injuries to key offensive players, but New England is coming in fresh off a bye and should be recharged for their primetime matchup against the Broncos.

Denver’s defense, usually touted as one of the best in the league, struggled mightily against the Eagles last week, with CB Chris Harris Jr. saying Philadelphia knew everything the Broncos were going to try and do defensively and effectively shut it all down. Despite allowing 51 points from Carson Wentz and team, Von Miller is still trying to rally his team to finish the year.

Whether the defense is able to step up and stop a Tom Brady-offense is unknown — although, seemingly unlikely — but the real questions for Denver remain on the offensive side of the ball. This week, they’ll go to battle led by Brock Osweiler, with second-year Paxton Lynch still not ready to take over as the starting quarterback. With the Patriots expected to return CB Stephon Gilmore, the Broncos will have an even tougher time getting some momentum and getting into the endzone.

Drawing his first start against a defense like the Eagles was probably not a good litmus test for a guy coming in cold off the bench, so we’ll get to see what he can do against a much weaker defense in the Patriots.

After ranking 31st or 32nd in points allowed, passer rating allowed, yards allowed per rush, yards allowed per game, and most other defensive stats over the first four weeks, the Patriots rank 3rd in points allowed per game since week 5, behind only the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams and they rank 14th in passer rating allowed.

“Obviously there’s going to be some adversity, but it’s been four in a row. It’s not so much if you lost to an NFL team, it’s how you lose sometimes. The Giants game bothers me how we played after the bye and how we lost that game. The Chargers game, obviously being shut out, and yesterday.

Coming off a bye, the Patriots have their sights set on the postseason and will make Denver look silly two weeks in a row. The Broncos have been demoralized the past few weeks and would need to keep things close if they have any hope for the upset — which would be the pinnacle of their season. However, seven of our eight experts chose the Patriots in their Week 10 picks, as did OddsShark’s computer.