Critics: Throw back the throwback uniforms, at least the Broncos' version

Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall and side judge
Jeff Lamberth get a good laugh before the start of
Sunday's game. Could they have been chuckling at
the Broncos' throwback jerseys and vertically-striped
socks? (AP Photos)

Those throwback uniforms gathered more ugly comments than movie stars walking the red carpet. .

Admittedly the urine-yellow and you-know-what brown color scheme from the Denver Broncos uniforms of its first two years in the American Football League were hideous. But the Internet reaction drew horrid review from some NFL observers watching the Broncos' 20-17 overtime victory Sunday over the New England Patriots.

Chris Chasse wrote on a yahoo.com blog the "bright yellow made the Broncos players look like crossing guards and the stripes on the pants give the appearance of a jaundiced zebra."

Larry Brown of larrybrownsports.com wrote "those hideous yellow and brown uniforms that have to be amongst the ugliest NFL uniforms I’ve ever seen — and that’s coming from a Bengals fan."

Even some of the Broncos were unsure of what to make of the old uniforms. Coach Josh McDaniels had his team wear the duds in Friday's practice to get used to the ugliness of it all.

"Yeah, those socks really threw me for a loop," Broncos nose tackle Ron Fields told The Denver Post after Friday's practice.

One man's opinion: I saw players in Double-A for the Amarillo Gold Sox wearing hand-me downs from the San Diego Padres, the major-league club for the Texas League team. So, now we know how the San Diego Padres got those ugly mustard yellow and brown uniforms.

A ROYAL AFTERNOON: Eddie Royal's 10 catches Sunday topped his season total of eight over the first four games. It also gave the second-year receiver 109 catches in 20 career games. Royal is the third NFL receiver to reach 100 receptions in 20 or less games. Arizona's Anquan Boldin did it in 16 games; New England's Terry Glenn took 20 games.

A VERY (BAD) BRADY DAY: Patriots QB Tom Brady has few great memories of playing the Denver Broncos. After Sunday's loss, the future Hall of Famer is 1-6 against Denver. The Broncos are the only NFL team that has a winning mark against Brady. The veteran quarterback had two touchdown passes and no interceptions, but was outplayed by his less glitzy counterpart, Kyle Orton, who threw for 330 yards and two touchdowns. Brady, who was 19-of-33 for 215 yards, also had a fumble when defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday sacked him (pictured above) and swatted the ball out of his hand giving Denver a chance to win outright with 1:30 to play. After Elvis Dumervil recovered Brady's fumble, ending New England's last-ditch, go-ahead drive, the Broncos' drive stalled and they punted. "I got a jump on the ball, recognized the pass protection and I got a chance to make the outside move," Holliday said of the player. "Brady was standing there in the pocket like he'd be standing there all day -- patting that ball. I was able to watch him on film to see how he holds that ball and was able to knock it out." The sack was the only time Brady was thrown for a loss.

NO POSTGAME HANDSHAKE: McDaniels cleared up the confusion about him eschewing the traditional postgame handshake with the Patriots' Bill Belichick. "We agreed before the game that we would wave,"
McDaniels said. "We shook hands before the game (pictured, left) and we knew that there has been so much made of him and hand shakes that we agreed to just go ahead and do that but I talked to him before the game." Nonetheless, Belichick seemed to be looking for McDaniels anyway after the game before retreating to the Patriots locker room. Belichick and one of his former assistants, Eric Mangini, had a bit of a feud going when Mangini left for the New York Jets. Mangini has moved on to Cleveland.

NOTEWORTHY: Randy Moss' business interests include several franchises of Inta Juice, a Colorado-based juice bar company. Moss also owns Moss Motorsports, a NASCAR team in the Craftsman Truck Series ... With Fred Taylor out with a possibly season-ending ankle injury, Sammie Morris got the start. Morris ran for 68 yards on 17 carries. Denver's defense held the Patriots to just 96 yards rushing and 209 net yards passing ... The throwback game came against the Patriots as a tribute to the first AFL game, played on a Friday night (Sept. 9, 1960) between the Boston Patriots and the Broncos at Boston University ... New England (3-2) has played unbeaten teams each of its five games. Besides the opener against the Buffalo Bills (a 25-24 victory), the Pats have played, in order, the New York Jets (L, 16-9), Atlanta (W, 26-10), Baltimore (W, 27-21) and Denver ... New England K Steve Gostowski's missed 40-yard field goal was his second miss after 12 consecutive successful boots ... The 98-yard drive for the tying score was the longest drive by the Broncos since 2006 ... Orton threw 124 consecutive passes to start the season without an interception. His streak ended on a Hail Mary heave at the end of the first half when wide receiver Randy Moss, playing a deep safety, intercepted Ortpon's pass near the goal line to end the half ... Moss caught two balls all day: the interception and a 36-yarder. Brady said earlier in the week he wouldn't be dumb enough to test Broncos CB Champ Bailey, who was the AFC Defensive Player of the Week. Bailey said after the game he thought Brady kept true to his word. "I was matched up on (Moss) a couple of times. I don't think (Brady) threw it over there once while I was on him. If we could take back that long one he caught, it would be a good day. You've got to give him credit, he made plays when he could, but we kept fighting, we did the best job we could against him. This team, keeping their best receiver out of the game is big for us."

Quotable:

No. I was really happy. I mean he would have been really happy had they won. He taught me a lot. I owe him a tremendous amount of my success and will always be indebted to him. He's a great friend and a great teacher of mine. I have great admiration for him and I don't think he would have expected anything less of me than to compete against him. The team that played the best as he said this week and I said this week, whoever's players executed best in pressure situations was going to win the game.

-- McDaniels, on if he had any mixed emotions about playing the Patiots and his former boss, Bill Belichick

More on Examiner.com:

• Go ahead and say it: Broncos are for real
• New England Patriots Examiner Sean Crowe
• The Patriot Way: An explanation