Brandon McManus kicked a franchise-record six field goals to lift the visiting Denver Broncos to an 18-12 victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday.
Phillip Lindsay rushed for 101 yards in his return to the lineup from a toe injury, and Drew Lock completed 10 of 24 passes for 189 yards and two interceptions in his first game since suffering a right-shoulder injury on Sept. 20. Tim Patrick had four catches for 101 yards for Denver (2-3).
Broncos running back Melvin Gordon III (strep throat) did not make the trip.
The game, originally scheduled for Oct. 11, was pushed back to Oct. 12 and then postponed until Sunday due to several COVID-19 cases in the Patriots' organization. New England was unable to hold many practices over the previous two weeks, including having Friday's session canceled due to center James Ferentz being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Quarterback Cam Newton ran for 76 yards and a touchdown and went 17-for-25 passing for 157 yards, with two interceptions, for the Patriots (2-3). James White finished with eight receptions for 65 yards.
New England, already shorthanded with five players on the reserve/COVID-19 list, lost guard Jermaine Eluemunor to an ankle injury in the first half.
McManus kicked field goals of 45 and 44 yards in the first quarter. He hit from 27 and 52 yards in the second quarter, the last one with 19 seconds left in the first half to give Denver a 12-3 lead.
New England's only points in the first half came on Nick Folk's 41-yard field goal late in the second quarter.
After forcing a three-and-out to open the third quarter, the Broncos drove to the Patriots' 3 before McManus hit a 20-yard field goal. A Patriots fumble led to McManus' sixth field goal, from 54 yards, to make it 18-3.
New England went 65 yards in just 1:43 to score the only touchdown of the game, a 1-yard run by Newton. The Patriots' two-point conversion attempt failed and left them trailing 18-9 with 8:31 remaining.
New England cornerback J.C. Jackson's interception set up Folk's 38-yard field goal that made it a one-score game. Lock threw an interception on his next pass, giving the Patriots the ball with 3:14 left, but Newton's incompletion on a fourth-down pass with 59 seconds left ended the comeback attempt.
--Field Level Media
Denver | New England | |
Phillip Lindsay | Player | Cam Newton |
23 | Attempts | 10 |
101 | Yards | 76 |
4.4 | Avg Yards | 7.6 |
0 | Touchdowns | 1 |
20 | Long | 38 |
Denver | New England | |
Tim Patrick | Player | James White |
4 | Receptions | 8 |
101 | Yards | 65 |
25.2 | Avg Yards | 8.1 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
41 | Long | 22 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Denver | 299 | 135 | 164 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4.0 | 3 |
New England | 288 | 117 | 171 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2.0 | 0 |