ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos haven't been to the playoffs since 2006, so they're in no position and certainly no mood to judge the quality of the opponents they're dispatching with all this last-minute magic.
They're 7-1 since Tim Tebow took over and started engineering a series of outrageous second-half comebacks. Those opponents, though, have a combined record of 39-52.
With Tom Brady and the powerful New England Patriots (10-3) coming to town Sunday, the Broncos (8-5) see this as a chance to prove they're not just a curiosity but a contender.
"Yeah, well, we need to prove it to ourselves," cornerback Champ Bailey said. "We've played against some teams that were kind of struggling. We'd like to go put it together against a top-quality quarterback like Brady."
It's not just Tebow who's facing what could be his toughest test since he started the final three games last season and then supplanted an ineffective Kyle Orton in October after a 1-4 start.
Denver's dominant defense, which has two hiccups against the multifaceted Lions and Packers, faces another formidable challenge in the Patriots, led by Brady, who's thrown for 33 touchdown passes, 15 of them to big tight end Rob Gronkowski and nine to Wes Welker, who already has 100 catches.
And so, the AFC East-leading Patriots are feasting on opponents, putting up an AFC-best 31 points per game.
That kind of firepower means the AFC West-leading Broncos' notoriously slow-starting offense will have to keep pace, and given New England's defensive shortcomings, this game could turn into a shootout.
Only twice have the Broncos piled up points since Tebow took over in October. They put up 38 at Oakland and 35 at Minnesota. But six times they've failed to even score 20 points with Tebow starting.
That's why so many see this game as the Broncos' best barometer yet.
"Obviously New England has been a team that's been in the playoffs for the last decade or whatever. So they've got a lot of players who've been there," Broncos pass-rusher Elvis Dumervil said. "They're the team that's always been in the playoffs. We want to establish ourselves as that team. This is a good challenge for us."
The Broncos have long been Brady's bugaboo, beating him five times in six tries, including a 27-13 win on Jan. 14, 2006, when Bailey returned a game-changing interception 100 yards, helping hand Brady his first playoff loss and ending New England's 10-game postseason winning streak and a shot at an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
