FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) – The New England Patriots began this season with the slogan “to climb this mountain” even though they’d already done that in three of the past four years.

They were the NFL’s defending champions, but coach Bill Belichick kept telling them they weren’t.

At least not this season.

“His main thing was that we are not defending anything because we don’t have a title. We won that last year,” said wide receiver Deion Branch, wearing last year’s gray Super Bowl XXXIX championship sweatshirt bearing the Patriots logo.

Belichick wanted them “to work at climbing that mountain, which we have been doing,” Branch said Wednesday. “We still have a pretty long way to go.”

They can get closer Saturday night when they play at the Denver Broncos for a berth in the AFC championship game.

To get there, Branch and the other wide receivers may need big games because New England had one of the worst running attacks during the regular season. Only eight teams rushed for fewer yards, and Denver allowed the second fewest yards rushing in the NFL.

“When we thought that the running game was down, it’s almost like an injury to a key player,” Branch said. “When that key player goes down, that next person has to step in and fill that role.”

The Patriots do have Tom Brady, the two-time Super Bowl MVP and the league leader in yards passing this season. His main target is Branch, who followed last year’s Super Bowl MVP performance with a career-high 78 catches.

And there’s always Troy Brown, the longest tenured Patriot and the club’s second leading all-time receiver with 514 catches.

His road wasn’t always smooth.

He wasn’t drafted until the eighth round in 1993, was released in 1994 and missed the Super Bowl after the 1996 season with a hernia injury. Then, he had 101 receptions in 2001 and 97 in 2002, the top two single-season totals in Patriots history, and had eight catches in last year’s Super Bowl win over Carolina.

So New England’s 4-4 start this season was no reason to panic.

“The guys we put in, it took us a little while to be able to play together and figure out what was going on,” Brown said, “but I’m never going to doubt a team I’m on. I’m going to have the utmost faith in the guys on the field.”

The Patriots improvement required a lot of hard work and tough practices that not “everybody was happy about,” Brown said. But they needed that.

“We have a chance now,” he said.

At age 34, the soft-spoken Brown is eight years older than Branch and helped his teammate adjust to the NFL after being drafted in 2002. He advised Branch on studying the opponent, watching film and staying under control.

“I think the main thing for me is to be calm, because emotionally I am a very emotional guy once the game starts,” Branch said. “My thing that I used to do is burn myself out before the game even started.”

He had plenty of energy a year ago when his 11 catches tied a Super Bowl record shared by Jerry Rice and Dan Ross. And he should have plenty now after Belichick kept him out of all the exhibition games even though he was healthy.

“I wouldn’t say it was my decision,” Branch said. “That was coach’s decision and that is what I went with. Overall, I feel good and I think it helped.”

The second starting receiver is David Givens, who also is in his fourth season. He caught a career-high 59 passes and Brown caught 39. Each of them scored a touchdown in last Saturday night’s 28-3 wild-card playoff win over Jacksonville.

Brown even played cornerback in that game and made four tackles.

“It’s very impressive,” Brady said. “I sit there in the captains’ meetings with Troy, and Belichick will say, “Troy, are you ready to go on dime (defense) this week?” And Troy will say, “Yup, OK.’ That’s all it is.

“That speaks to his level of commitment and to his level of talent.”

Denver’s pass defense gave up the fourth most yards in the NFL. But a big reason for that is opponents had to play catchup and pass a lot since the Broncos haven’t trailed at halftime in any of their last 14 games.

They also had 20 interceptions, twice as many as the Patriots, led by cornerback Champ Bailey’s eight.

Of course, pass defense becomes easier if a team can stop the run.

“That is always number one on our list,” Denver free safety John Lynch said, “and after we do that, we can bring multiple looks at you and try to bring pressure in a number of different ways.”

Brady is excellent at reading defenses and throwing the ball with pass rushers bearing down. And he spots open receivers quickly.

“Tom loves to throw the ball,” Branch said. “We love for him to throw it as well.”

AP-ES-01-11-06 1845EST