Broncos take hard loss despite stifling Patriots, Tom Brady

It’s been nearly a decade and a half since the Denver Broncos held Tom Brady under 200 yards passing.

In 16 career games against Denver, both regular and postseason, the New England Patriots gunslinger has been held below the benchmark just twice, the first occasion a 2002 loss in which he threw only 130 yards.

The other? Sunday night, in an AFC East- and first-round-bye-clinching victory on the road, 16-3 in Denver.

And in the Patriots locker room Sunday, the story was earning a key win despite the offensive struggles.

In Denver’s locker room, however, a different tale — one of frustration and disappointment in keeping a future Hall of Famer at bay and not coming away with a win.

“Well we held them to 16 points, you have to feel good about that. That’s a high-powered group. They put points on the board and ever since (Brady’s) been back, there have been a lot of points put on the board,” Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak said after the game.

“Our defense played tremendous and held them to 16. The disappointing thing is, we had some ball movement but could have had a lot more ball movement if we make about four or five more plays.”

It was statistically Brady’s worst outing of the season, completing just half of his 32 attempts with no touchdowns and a passer rating of 68.2.

Brady’s counterpart, Trevor Siemian, threw for nearly 100 more yards than Brady and complete 62.5 percent of his passes, but Denver’s offense still mustered just a first-half field goal.

On the day, Denver racked up 309 total yards of offense but could not turn much of its effort into points.

“Frustrating no doubt. Especially earlier on when we were moving the ball really well and have no points to show for it,” Siemian said after the game. “A lot of that’s on me. Missed a couple opportunities to get us points early on, and that comes back to haunt you for sure.”

Denver gave up 10 points after turnovers, including a muffed punt by Jordan Norwood after the defense held Brady to a three-and-out in the game’s opening drive.

And on the first play of the second quarter, Siemian threw a near-pix six at the Broncos goal line, which would turn into a touchdown on the Patriots next drive and, subsequently, likely a 14-point swing.

“When you kill yourself with two early turnovers, (and) you’re not putting points up, it’s hard to win games. Point-blank, period,” safety T.J. Ward said after the game. “That’s what we’ve been doing the last few weeks, and you see we’ve got two (losses) on that side of the column.”

But despite the dominant defensive effort being squandered by offensive woes, several Broncos players said after the game that frustrations in the locker room are only counterproductive.

“That’s not really going to take us anywhere, though. Just being frustrated and beefing with the offense. That’s not going to get us anywhere,” cornerback Aqib Talib said after the game. “We’re going to ride. We’re going to stick together, and we’re going to go play Christmas night.”

Said linebacker Von Miller after the game:

“There’s not going to be any friction. I’m the partition here. There’s not going any friction. It’s just a tough loss. You’ve got grown men in here. It’s hard to accept it, especially after you put so much in during the week, and knowing what this game means to us and our organization and our fans. It’s just a tough loss, a tough one to swallow. But we’ll get over it. We’ve got two big games left, and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be ready to go. We’ve got two big games left, and who knows what can happen.”

Denver likely needs to win both of its next two games — at Kansas City on Christmas Day and at home in the season finally New Year’s Day against the Raiders — to have a shot at a postseason berth.

However, even winning out does not guarantee Denver a playoff spot with several teams vying for position after Sunday’s action.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.