FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — You can pinpoint the moment this season's first meeting between the Patriots and Broncos pivoted.
It was a tight end screen to Denver's Owen Daniels toward the end of the second quarter. The play gained 8 innocuous yards. It also knocked Dont'a Hightower out of action.
Before the linebacker suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament while tackling Daniels, the Denver running game had done next to nothing, picking up 46 yards on 16 carries (an average of 2.9 per carry). On the first snap with Hightower on the sideline, Ronnie Hillman ran right at Hightower's replacement, Jerod Mayo, and delivered as long a run as the Broncos had had all game — 9 yards.