NFL: The 'good' and 'bad' sides of the Final Four

#2 Denver Broncos

Aqib Talib (21) and Chris Harris, Jr. could be the antidote to the Patriots passing game.

The Good

The Denver Broncos defense has been a thing of beauty to watch, with top flight performers at every level. They have consistently dominated in both run and pass defense all year, and have a terrorizing pass rush to go along with a scary secondary when they put teams in obvious passing situations. They rank as the top pass defense this year, as Chris Harris, Jr. Aqib Talib, and Bradley Roby have worked expertly on receivers while Demarcus Ware and Von Miller have put consistent pressure on the quarterbacks. The Broncos will need to lean on their defense to shut down a very good pass offense.

The Bad

Quarterback play has not been pretty this year for the Denver Broncos, whether Peyton Manning or Brock Osweiler has been under center. After having Osweiler start the game against New England in November, the Broncos will turn to Manning and hope he can muster enough of a passing game to win the game. Last week, he was about as average as can be and the Broncos were barely able to squeak out a victory. Manning is going to need to hit some downfield passes this weekend so the Patriots can’t just key on the run game.