Come Monday night, we will only know everything about the Broncos.
Their game against the New England Patriots is the most telling of the season.
Not their biggest game. Not playoff-or-bust. But the game will help resolve the mystery that has been the Broncos’ 2008 season.
Are they a good team? Or just another team that is good on any given Sunday afternoon or Monday night?
“Yeah, but if we go in there and we do happen to come out with a win, people are going to be like, ‘Well, Tom Brady is down, they’re not the same team,’ ” said Broncos center Casey Wiegmann. “There’s always going to be something at the other end why we’re not a good team. That’s the way the NFL works. But we know we’re a good team, and we’re going to go in there and give it our all.”
Wiegmann speaks from 12 years of NFL experience. The Patriots finished 16-0 in the regular season last year, and were 18-0 entering the Super Bowl. Yet, people outside New England found reason to dislike them, and critics (cough! cough!) argued they weren’t great enough to go down as the greatest team in history.
There is no such thing as perfection in the NFL, and there is no figuring a Broncos team that can score 41, 39 and 34 points in their first three games, only to get ripped by the horrific Kansas City Chiefs in Game 4.
The high-scoring victories were an encouraging start. It was the debacle at Kansas City that brought pause and uncertainty to Broncoland.
Lose to the Patriots without Brady and the Broncos will enter their bye week surrounded by doubt. At that point, it would be easy to conclude the Broncos aren’t good enough on defense, and too young on offense, to sustain a playoff march.
But if the Broncos beat the Patriots, imagine the confidence that will permeate the Dove Valley locker room. Even without Brady, the Patriots are 3-2. After getting embarrassed last week in San Diego, the Patriots will play like an injured animal, ready to deliver its best game of the season in front of their home crowd and a national audience.
“You’ve still got their core guys, Randy Moss, Wesley Welker,” said Broncos safety Marquand Manuel. “You put your game plan together from the standpoint those guys are used to winning. They know how to win games.”
Brady or not, beating the Patriots at New England would become a telling accomplishment.
No. 6 is No. 16.
The only Broncos player cracking the NFL’s top 25 in jersey sales is quarterback Jay Cutler. His No. 6 jersey ranks 16th in sales. It was the eighth-best selling jersey during September when Cutler was the AFC offensive player of the month.
Champ Bailey is the only other Broncos player whose jersey made the top 50.
Apparently, the Broncos would sell more merchandise if they engaged in more controversy. The Dallas Cowboys by far are No. 1 in team jersey sales with four of their players ranking in the top 10 — Tony Romo (2), Marion Barber (4), Jason Witten (8) and Terrell Owens (10).
Weird stats
Should we call him Peyton “Checkdown” Manning? Manning ranks 15th with a 34.6 first-down percentage on pass attempts. Nothing unusual there except Manning has never ranked lower than eighth in first-down percentage since his rookie season of 1998.
• Any debate regarding Cutler and Ben Roethlisberger must factor in this: Big Ben has been sacked the third most in the league, once every 6.89 pass attempts (18 sacks in 124 attempts). Cutler has been sacked twice in 228 pass attempts.
• Can everybody agree there was no wrong choice between Mario Williams and Reggie Bush for the top pick in the 2006 draft? As fantasy nerds well know, Bush leads the NFL with eight touchdowns — two rushing, three receiving and three on punt returns. Williams already has six sacks.
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
