FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Seriously? This is what the best team in the NFL looks like?

Time to recalibrate those power rankings. The Denver Broncos, the trendy team with the most prolific touchdown thrower in history, the defense that had allegedly coalesced behind a healthy Von Miller, newcomer DeMarcus Ware and former Patriot Aqib Talib, and a corps of receivers that on any other day would leave Tom Brady green with envy, showed up at the house of horrors known as Gillette Stadium and were thoroughly slashed in just about every possible category, losing 43-21.

Tom Brady threw for four touchdowns against the Broncos, bringing his total to 18 during the Patriots' five-game winning streak. Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports

It was the New England Patriots' defense that was superb, holding the high-octane Broncos to seven first-half points. It was New England's special teams that produced the game-changing play with Julian Edelman's 84-yard punt return, and it was the home-team quarterback who generated the kind of glitzy numbers (four touchdown passes) that are usually associated with his visiting counterpart.

It was all too familiar to Peyton Manning, whose struggles in the harsh New England climate are well documented.

You need look no further than last season when, in gusting winds and temperatures that hovered about 22 degrees, Manning and the Broncos pinned a 24-0 halftime deficit on Brady and the boys in Foxborough, only to collapse in a big orange heap in the final two quarters and lose in overtime.

In that game, Manning averaged just 4.0 yards per attempt and posted a QBR of 27. (For those of you scoring at home, Brady averaged 8.7 yards per attempt, threw two touchdowns and submitted a 95 QBR in the same conditions.)

Manning is now 2-8 when making the dreaded trek to Foxborough. He spent many miserable seasons in these parts as the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback, but usually made up for it in his home sweet dome. The Broncos and Patriots are following a similar pattern. Neither team can win in the other's stadium.

Naturally the Broncos 'quarterback was queried on his lack of success in this stadium through the years.

"I guess I'm not smart enough to draw that many connections," Manning said. "I take them one year at a time. There are different players and we didn't do the things on offense we talked about doing.