Brady, Patriots ready for return matchup with Denver Saturday

The Broncos held off a New England rally to win 28-20 back in October.
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Tom Brady has made a career out of leading New England to comeback victories. But even he has his limits.
The Patriots were trailing by 22 points with a quarter left and a hostile crowd in Denver enjoying the Broncos' blowout on Oct. 16.
So the quarterback went to work. In less than seven minutes, he and his teammates had cut the deficit to 28-20. Then New England got the ball back with 5:02 remaining at its 8-yard line with two timeouts.
Denver "really lives on pressuring the quarterback," Brady said Tuesday. "Once we started handling that, I thought we did a little bit better."
But not well enough.
Brady threw an incompletion, was called for intentional grounding then missed on another pass. The Patriots punted from their 28-yard line with 3:46 left, never got the ball back and lost 28-20.
Too much to overcome
A 28-6 deficit -- whittled from 28-3 on Adam Vinatieri's field goal with 5:53 left in the third quarter -- was too much to overcome even for Brady, who has 21 successful comebacks from ties or deficits in five seasons.
"It was just poor execution," he said. "There were plays there to be made. We just didn't come up with them. It was a frustrating flight home realizing that ... you're within one score and you have the ball with an opportunity to go down and tie the ball game. We just didn't get it done."
The Patriots fly back to Denver on Friday with much more at stake in Saturday night's rematch with the Broncos -- a spot in the AFC championship game.
Broncos had bye
Denver (13-3) drew a bye last weekend while the Patriots (11-6) beat Jacksonville by that familiar 28-3 margin. The vastly improved New England defense stopped the Jaguars from mounting a comeback.
The Patriots should have linebacker Tedy Bruschi back. He missed the last two games with an injured left calf but wasn't on the team's injury report Tuesday. The report contained 12 names, all listed as probable.
"We're playing better against the run," linebacker Mike Vrabel said. "Now, having the ability to give the ball to a Tom Brady-led offense and watch them go out there and grind clock and score touchdowns" is better than it was when the Patriots were 4-4.
That's how the Broncos play.
They were second in the league in rushing, just 7 yards behind Atlanta. They rushed for 178 yards against New England. And they were able to run out the last 3:36 of that game with two completions, three runs and two kneel-downs by quarterback Jake Plummer after New England's last timeout.
Both completions came against cornerback Duane Starks, who was battling injuries and went on injured reserve three weeks later. Rookie Ellis Hobbs has improved play at that position.
Denver 8-0 at home
Still, the Patriots may have to mount another second-half comeback. The Broncos haven't trailed at halftime in their last 14 games -- leading in 11 of them and tying in three. They're also 8-0 at home this season.
"They get up so early in games, it seems like they're running the clock out in the second half," Vrabel said.
Brady will have a better surrounding cast this time. Corey Dillon and Kevin Faulk, the Patriots top two running backs, and Troy Brown, their No. 3 wide receiver, all missed the first meeting but should be back.
On defense, All-Pro lineman Richard Seymour will face the Broncos for the first time this season.
"They were pretty injured when we played them," Plummer said, "so we know that their confidence coming in here is high stopping the run."
Brady led the NFL in yards passing and hopes to play better if another comeback is needed.
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