DENVER — Eventually, somebody was going to put an end to this Patriots charade, expose the smoke-and-mirrors act Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have been pulling off all season with remarkable sleight of hand and limited talent.
That somebody was the Broncos, who utilized a roster of talent so far superior to that of New England, they thoroughly exposed the Patriots en route to a 26-16 victory that was not nearly as close as the score indicated.
So the Broncos go to Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium to play the NFC champion Seahawks. It is the Broncos’ first trip to the big game since John Elway led them to consecutive titles in the 1998 and ’99 seasons.
The Patriots? They are like roaches; you can’t kill them.
Until now.
Who knew it would take five months and 18 games before someone did?
The first body blow came when tight end Aaron Hernandez was sent to jail for murder before the season even started. Then their other star tight end, Rob Gronkowski, played for about five minutes before injuries knocked him out for good.
They lost the guts of their defense, linebacker Jerod Mayo and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, for the season. Starting defensive tackle Tommy Kelly and right tackle Sebastian Vollmer were also lost.
Every team loses players to injuries every year, but it got to the point where it seemed Belichick was hiring guys off the street so he could fill a roster.
Through it all, though, the Patriots inexplicably kept winning.
Making matters worse for themselves, the Patriots’ refusal to re-sign receiver Wes Welker, who caught 672 passes for them the previous six years, was a rare personnel-decision blunder.
The gaffe was glaring — and it was fitting Welker was on the other side of the field wearing an orange Broncos uniform Sunday while Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was floundering, trying to make big plays in the passing game that weren’t there.
The fact the fourth pass Brady threw was to a special teams player, Matthew Slater, gives you an idea of how limited Brady’s targets were, while Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning had a league-record five skill position players who scored at least 10 TDs this season.
Eventually, the magic Belichick and Brady were making en route to winning the AFC East and beating the Colts in the wild-card playoff round had to run out.
But as Sunday’s game approached, even though this matchup screamed Broncos blowout, a lot of people were cautious to buy into that because of what Belichick and Brady have accomplished — even with so little to work with.
The Broncos entered the game having scored 75 touchdowns this season to New England’s 44. The Broncos scored an NFL-record 606 points. That’s a lot to overcome.
“I’m proud of our team and the way we fought; we have a lot to be proud of,” Brady said. “We will be back next year.’’
“The finality of it all is tough to deal with,’’ Slater said. “But I’m proud of this team and what we were able to accomplish this year with all the adversity we faced. To even make it this far says a lot about our football team.’’
After the game, Belichick — who, whether you like him or not, did as masterful a coaching job as anyone in the league this year — did not want to hear about how his team persevered through the litany of adversity, calling it “a bunch of hot air.’’
When Aqib Talib, the Patriots best cornerback and arguably their best defensive player, was lost for the game to a knee injury, it seemed that was the last card holding up the weakened house of cards.
Belichick called it “a key play in the game.’’
But the reality is the Patriots were going to lose this game whether Talib was playing or not, because the Broncos are better. The fact New England came back from a 24-0 halftime deficit to defeat Denver in November was one part Patriots magic act and one part Broncos easing off the gas pedal.
If these teams played each other 10 times, the Broncos should win eight of them. Order was simply restored Sunday in Denver. Credit to the Patriots for surviving to get this far, but the right team will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl in two weeks at the Meadowlands.