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Denver Broncos | News

Ready for the Revenge Factor

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Broncos haven't forgotten about their Week 15 win against the Ravens.

Linebacker Wesley Woodyard said they watched film of the game all of last week, preparing for the possibility of facing Baltimore in the Divisional Round.

With the rematch set, Denver expects the recent battle at M&T Bank Stadium to be fresh in the Ravens' minds as well.

"They are going to be ready," safety Mike Adams said. "We beat them. They'll be ready, and I'm up for the challenge."

Denver put the game out of reach with a pair of third-quarter touchdowns that made the score 31-3. The Broncos expect that to be a moment that stuck with Baltimore, a team that lost only two regular-season games at home in nearly three years prior to Week 15.

But the Broncos defense doesn't care about the 28-point second-half lead as it readies for Saturday's matchup at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. It remembers the two touchdowns that Baltimore answered with in the fourth quarter -- one on a 61-yard reception and one on a 31-yard reception to make the final score 34-17.

"We're looking to avenge ourselves too, just like they are," Woodyard said. "We gave up huge plays and we can't sit back and say we beat them outright. We have to come ready to play just like they have to come ready to play for us too."

The Ravens' late scoring barrage exposed an area that Denver has worked to correct - closing out games. In most of Denver's 13 wins, it held leads entering the fourth quarter. While the club has managed to make it through 2012 without allowing a successful comeback, Baltimore showed the Denver defense that it still had something to improve in. In the two games since then, the Broncos have surrendered a total of six fourth-quarter points.

"They got a couple plays that they shouldn't have gotten," Adams said. "We probably got lax a little bit. It shouldn't have happened. That's what we were towards getting better at - closing out games."

While it allowed some big plays through the air late in the game, the Broncos were stout for all four quarters in the running game - both on offense and defense. Running back Knowshon Moreno out-rushed the Ravens' Ray Rice by 80 yards, averaging 5.4 yards per carry for 122 yards and a touchdown.

"Being able to run against that good of a team was definitely a boost and definitely meant a lot to us," Moreno said. "Now we want to try to duplicate that."

Rice, meanwhile, was stifled by the Broncos defensive unit, totaling 38 rushing yards on 12 carries and catching three of seven balls thrown to him for 3 total receiving yards.

The Broncos know Baltimore won't accept Rice to be held under 50 yards of total offense for a second time.

"I'd expect them to try to get the run game going," cornerback Chris Harris said. "Try to get Ray Rice more involved, to get him going, and to keep (quarterback) Peyton (Manning) off the field."

But the biggest thing that the Broncos took away from their Week 15 win at Baltimore isn't in the X's and O's of the game. It's in their confidence.

"We know if we come out and play our game, we should be fine," Harris said. "Whatever they have new, whatever they do, we'll be ready for it."

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