Brock Osweiler to Start against Patriots?

Brock Osweiler looked impressive in the first start of his career, earning a road win in Chicago.

Brock Osweiler earned the first start of his career after Peyton Manning went down with a plantar fascia injury against the Kansas City Chiefs. Manning proved to be rather ineffective in his last game, which prompted Osweiler into the starting lineup. Brock Osweiler entered the game against the Chiefs in the third quarter, but he led two successful drives to bring the game to a more respectable score line.

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It remains to be seen how long Peyton Manning is sidelined with his foot injury, but Manning did not travel with the team to Chicago on Sunday. In Brock Osweiler’s first start of his career, he did nothing to lose the job. If anything, Osweiler strengthened his case on why he should be the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Brock Osweiler possess a strong arm with above-average accuracy; moreover, he is more nimble and elusive in the pocket than Manning.

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Brock Osweiler started the game against the Bears where he left off against the Chiefs. Osweiler led the Broncos down the field on a four-play, 74 yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. Brock Osweiler connected on a 48-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas, and the touchdown pass to Thomas ended Thomas’ six game touchdown drought. Osweiler showed immediately why he needs to be the favorite to start heading into week 12’s matchup against the New England Patriots.

Osweiler led the team on several impressive drives during Sunday’s game. In addition to his touchdown pass to D-Tom, he tossed a 10-yard pass to Cory Latimer in the fourth quarter to extend the Broncos’ lead. Brock Osweiler finished the game completing 20 of his 27 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. Impressively, Osweiler did not turn the ball over once, a stark difference to Manning’s league-leading interception rate.

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Brock Osweiler provided ball security, and for the first time since the beginning of the season, teams fear that the Denver Broncos could expose them over the top with a deep pass. With Manning heading the Broncos’ offense, opposing defenses tend to cheat up, because they do not fear that Manning can beat them deep. Numerous times, Denver Broncos receivers would beat their man to only end up having Manning’s pass be under-thrown.

Also, with Brock Osweiler under center, the Denver Broncos experienced success in their rushing attack. Ronnie Hillman finished the game with 102 yards on 21 carries. With Hillman and Osweiler’s impressive week against the Bears, Gary Kubiak should stick with the duo heading into, perhaps, the season’s toughest matchup against the New England Patriots. Most certainly, Manning would like to return to face his arch nemesis Tom Brady, but Brock Osweiler presents the higher upside out of the two.

Next: Denver Broncos, Brock Osweiler Win Against Bears

With the win on Sunday, the Denver Broncos snapped their two-game losing streak and improved their record to 8-2. After losing back-to-back games, it was nice to see Brock Osweiler lead a more-than-capable offense, on the road, to a victory. While Peyton Manning remains the face of the franchise, Brock Osweiler is the future in the Mile High City. Kubiak needs to stick with the hot hand heading down the stretch-run of the season, because the Broncos have a chance to make a deep playoff run.