Nobody tips their hand when Bill Belichick comes to town. And Broncos quarterback Trevor Siemian is not about to reveal trade secrets about how his offense will function against the Patriots and their secretive head coach.

But, eh, why not?

“We took the zone-read out of the playbook,” Siemian said Wednesday. “We’ll save that for the playoffs.”

The Broncos’ first-year starter was joking. An injury to his left foot that put him in doubt last week hardly hobbled him as he threw for 334 yards in a loss at Tennessee on Sunday. But the Broncos are not sitting around this week devising option running plays for their quarterback.

At 8-5, with three games remaining to stake a claim for the playoffs, the Broncos welcome the Patriots on Sunday in a nearly must-win situation. They are 1-2 since a bye week, averaging just 19.0 points per game over that span.

And the playoffs are suddenly in doubt for the defending Super Bowl champions. But if there’s something going right for Denver recently, it’s a passing game that netted 340 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs three weeks ago and 330 against the Titans.

Paxton Lynch’s 104 yards passing against Jacksonville two weeks ago — when he filled in for Siemian because of his bum foot — led the Broncos to their only victory in the last month.

“As a quarterback, you want to throw it 100 times a game,” Siemian said. “But you have to have balance, especially down the stretch. Selfishly it would be easy to say, ‘Yeah, I want to rip it.’ But you have to be able to do both.”

Even Belichick, the notoriously terse longtime coach, had something seemingly sincere to say about Siemian.

“Athletic. Certainly has a good arm,” Belichick said Wednesday. “He’s got a couple of great receivers to throw to. But he’s done a good job on the bootlegs and moving-pocket plays and, you know, there are some checks at the line of scrimmage.”

Siemian on Sunday survived a hard-hitting game against the Titans and nearly rallied the Broncos back in the second half. As Denver sputtered to just 18 yards rushing, and just 43 yards of total offense in the first half, Siemian let loose in the third and fourth quarters.

The Broncos managed only 10 points. But Siemian proved he could move them down the field, despite a sprained foot and a sore shoulder.

“I feel lucky to come out of the game feeling pretty good,” Siemian said.