Elvis Dumervil and the rest of the Denver defense needs to pressure Tom Brady on Saturday night. (Lenny Ignelzi/AP Photo)

The Denver Broncos’ season continues this weekend when they travel to Foxborough to take on the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional Playoff game. After a thrilling overtime defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round, Denver looks to once again overcome the odds and win as a big underdog.

This will be Denver’s 3rd all-time playoff matchup against the Patriots. The Broncos are 2-0 in the previous games, although both of those were played in Denver. These teams met after the 1986 and 2005 seasons with the Broncos winning 22-17 and 27-13, respectively. The 1986 matchup was John Elway’s first playoff victory as a player and it led to the 2nd Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. The win during the ’05 season was the first playoff victory during the post-Elway era, and up until last weekend it was the only playoff victory since Denver won their 2nd of back-to-back Super Bowl Championships after the 1998 season.

Although New England is favored by about 2 touchdowns, there is something special about this Denver team. I fully expect them to compete and play much better than they did during the regular season matchup a month ago. I would not be surprised at all if the Broncos keep this wild ride going for at least another week.

Here is the recipe for a Divisional Playoff win over the New England Patriots:

• The Broncos need to win the turnover battle. If I were to write 100 articles like this before playoff games, all 100 of them would start this same way. Turnovers are the key to every playoff game but it’s even more so for a team that is a big underdog. During the regular season loss to the Patriots, Denver dominated the game until a string of 3 turnovers spun it into a blowout the other way. If Denver wins the turnover battle this time around they will absolutely have a shot to win it at the end.
• Denver’s offense needs to pound the rock. The best defense against Tom Brady is to keep him on the sidelines looking pretty for the cameras, and the best way to do that is to own the time of possession. The Broncos need to run the ball and eat some clock during their scoring drives. They rushed for 252 yards in the first meeting which is a ridiculously big number. If they can approach that production again it will result in good things on Saturday night.

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The Houston Oilers came into the game one week removed from their 17-10 AFC Wildcard game victory over the New York Jets.  The Warren Moon-lead Oilers picked up right where they left off a week earlier and quickly built a 14-0 lead against the Broncos resulting from touchdown receptions by Haywood Jeffires and Drew Hill.  The Broncos finally got on the scoreboard with a 10 yard pass from John Elway to Vance Johnson.  Before the break, Houston added another touchdown by Curtis Duncan, and the Broncos answered with a one yard TD run by Greg Lewis; capping off a long drive set up when Steve Atwater intercepted Warren Moon with just over six minutes left in the half.  Unfortunately, due to a missed extra point after the Bronco’s first touchdown, the Broncos went into the locker room at halftime losing 21-13 to the AFC Central Division Champions.  Would this missed extra point come back to haunt the Broncos and possibly prevent their season from continuing?

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