You know they had 3 defenders at times on gronkowski
They were able to do that cause
A- they can get away with rushing only 3 or 4 at the immobile brady
With cam at qb there will be no double or triple teaming going on in the secondary
Also cam will freeze the coverage at times with his threat to run
B- the patroits did not have a physical ground game established
The panthers have a very physical ground game established and the qb is helping which gives them the advantage over any other nfl teams rushing attack
And C- the patriots pretty much got to where the were because of brady to gronkowski so denvers task on defense was pretty straight foward:
Stop gronkoski and you win
They didn't stop him from catching the potential game tying td
Denver's assignments on defense will be much more diversified vs carolina
You have multiple rushing threats as well as talented recievers