Denver Broncos kicker Matt Prater lives by a simple creed: Focus on the next kick, not the last one.

He’s never fully satisfied when things go right, and he doesn’t get down when things go wrong. It’s the only way the former UCF player knows how maintain success in the NFL.

So when the Broncos (8-5) host the New England Patriots (10-3) Sunday at 4:15 p.m., Prater won’t be thinking of the four game-winning field goals he has made this season. Instead, he’ll be looking toward the future, a lesson he learned late in his UCF career.

“The next kick is the most important one,” Prater said. “The past is the past.”

Statistically, the five-year veteran is having one of his least impressive seasons since becoming the Broncos’ full-time kicker in 2008. Prater has only made 73.9 percent (13-of-17) of his field goals this year, but he has displayed an uncanny ability to make the most difficult kicks look easy when it matters.

He has connected on 28-of-29 field goals in the fourth quarter and overtime during his career. Last week, he made a 59-yarder against with three seconds left in regulation against the Chicago Bears to send the game to overtime. He followed that with a 51-yarder in the extra period to give the Broncos the 13-10 win.

Prater’s penchant for making timely kicks is a primary reason the Broncos have won seven of their past eight games after starting the season 1-4. He has made now made game-winning field goals in the past three games.

Sure, there’s an unorthodox young quarterback named Tim Tebow — perhaps you’ve heard of him — who’s getting a lot of credit for Denver’s hot streak, but Prater’s performance this year hasn’t gone unnoticed. He won AFC special-teams player-of-the-week honors for his performance against Chicago.

“For kickers, these are the opportunities you always hope for. I’ve been lucky this year to get a couple opportunities,” Prater said. “It’s not just on me, though. For me to get that opportunity, the team has to do their part … especially lately, a lot of people have been giving me too much credit.”

Prater, 27, undeniably enjoys stepping up for his team in the waning moments of games, but he has learned the hard way that a kicker can go from hero to heel in a hurry.

In the last game of his senior season at UCF, Prater was finishing his collegiate career with a memorable performance against Nevada in the 2005 Hawaii Bowl. He made field goals from 38, 46 and 47 yards out but missed a potential game-tying extra point in overtime, and UCF lost 49-48.

“What stinks about that, besides that one kick, that was probably the best game I had in my career at UCF,” Prater said. “A lot of people think it was a choke, but I wasn’t nervous at all. I was confident because I was having a great game. Everyone screws up once in a while.”

The experience has helped Prater evolve into one of the NFL’s most clutch kickers.

“That’s helped me with the mind-set I have now,” Prater said. “One minute you’re the hero; the next minute you’re the dud. It’s a learning experience, and now I really focus on the next kick, not the last one.”

DENVER — Both ends of the quarterback spectrum collide today when the New England Patriots visit the Denver Broncos with Tom Brady and Tim Tebow squaring off in a matchup of quintessential vs. quirky QBs.

“Everybody’s looking forward to the Brady and Tebow matchup,” Broncos linebacker Joe Mays said of the two men who will be on the field together only for pregame warm-ups and postgame handshakes.

The two popular players have little in common except a propensity to captivate the league, deliver in the clutch and win in the end.

Despite a suspect secondary and a series of second-half collapses, the AFC East-leading Patriots (10-3) are on the verge of clinching a playoff berth because of Brady’s prolific passing attack featuring Rob Gronkowski with 15 TDs, an NFL record for tight ends, and Wes Welker, who already had 100 catches.

Turning slow starts into fantastic finishes, the AFC West-leading Broncos (8-5) have won seven of eight since Tebow took over as their starter. He’s come through with five fourth-quarter comebacks by almost magically changing from struggling scrambler and imperfect passer into clutch performer in crunch time.

The Patriots have topped 30 points 10 times, the Broncos have managed 18, 10, 17, 17, 16 and 13, yet won five of those games with a recipe of dominant defense, spectacular special teams and Tebow.

Aside from a blowout loss to Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers when Kyle Orton was still their starter, the Broncos, who are hurting in the secondary with safety Brian Dawkins (neck) and cornerback Andre’ Goodman (concussion) recuperating, haven’t faced a team like the Patriots or a quarterback like Brady.

“He’s mastered so many things about the quarterback position,” Tebow said. “Footwork and accuracy, and he’s also been blessed with good players around him, but he’s still been one of the best in the league for a long time.

“He’s someone that I’ve watched and seen probably thousands of cut-ups of him. He does a lot of things very well, very cerebral and understands the game very well. For a young quarterback like myself, he’s definitely someone to look up to and learn from, what he does well and try to implement that in my game.”

Brady and his teammates watched the end of last week’s Broncos’ win over Chicago while they were flying home from Washington, D.C. on Sunday, and they came away impressed by Tebow, who was bullied by the Bears, completing 3 of 16 passes for 45 yards through three quarters before connecting on 18 of 24 throws for 191 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime.

“I appreciate good quarterback play,” Brady said. “I’m always watching around the league, whether it’s Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees having phenomenal years. Obviously, Tim is having a great year. You watch guys and the way that they perform under pressure and it says a lot about who they are and the way their teammates feel about them.

“It’s a big challenge. It’s going to be a very electric environment out there. We’ve had some really great games against the Broncos over the years. I’m sure this will be no different.”

The prolific Patriots would love to score early and often to keep Tebow from even having the chance to work his last-minute magic on them.

The Broncos are intent on starting faster. In the first half, they’ve scored six times in 49 drives behind Tebow. In crunch time, he’s engineered scoring drives 16 times in 28 possessions.

“For some strange reason we come out slow and sluggish,” Broncos running back Willis McGahee said. “… then we get the train moving.”

Through the first three quarters, Tebow has completed 39 percent of his passes for 520 yards with a passer rating of 65.1.

In the fourth quarter and overtime, he looks like, well, Brady, with a 61 percent completion rate, 770 yards through the air and a passer rating of 107.9 — about Brady’s overall rating.

Tebow also has 517 yards on 94 keepers, an average of 5.5 yards a carry. Against San Diego last month, Tebow ran 22 times, six fewer carries than Brady’s had all season.

“He obviously has a skill set as a quarterback that not many have,” Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich said. “But he’s a great quarterback and his team follows him just like we follow Tom.”

Tebow is breaking the mold that Brady and others have built as a pocket passer, showing there’s more than one way to win in today’s pass-happy NFL.

“I think everybody has strengths and weaknesses at every position,” Brady said. “As a quarterback, you try to play to your strengths. I think that’s what we all try to do.”

Tebow isn’t just unorthodox in his athleticism but in his approach.

Wired with a microphone as part of NFL Films’ “Sound Effects,” last Sunday, Tebow showed a remarkable poise under pressure. When Elvis Dumervil recovered Marion Barber’s fumble in overtime and the Broncos’ sideline went wild, Tebow calmly trotted out to the field singing a hymn.

“I’m not exactly sure what song I was singing, maybe ‘Our God is an awesome God,”‘ Tebow said. “I know I was singing that one a little bit. It was in my head from the car.”

With the Broncos foundering early on again, Tebow’s position coach Adam Gase asks, “Why do we have to do it this way?” Tebow puts his right hand on Gase’s shoulder, smiles and says, “It’s all right. We’ll figure it out, man.”

Demaryius Thomas sat bummed out on the bench after letting a long touchdown toss slip through his hands at another point. Tebow puts his arm around him and says, “You’re good. Hey, no big deal. It just makes it closer for a little bit longer. You’re about to catch the game-winner. And then you’ll be the hero of the game.”

The latest image fans have of Brady, on the other hand, is his sideline screaming match with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien at Washington following his first interception in more than a month.

“We’re both pretty emotional guys,” Brady said after the game.

That bad pass notwithstanding, Brady is once again at the top of his game with 33 TD passes and 11 interceptions.

“Everything that he does, he does well,” said Welker. “Accuracy, getting us in the right play, understanding what the defense is trying to do and putting us in good situations. It just continually gets better.”

While Brady has the pedigree as a pro with two MVP trophies and three Super Bowl rings, he didn’t enter the league with nearly as much fanfare or scrutiny as Tebow, the raw thrower but two-time national champion and Heisman Trophy winner from Florida who’s considered by many the best combination college quarterback ever.Tebow was a first-round pick, taken 25th overall. Brady was the 199th player selected in 2000 — yet, he owns the best record for any quarterback in the Super Bowl era with a 121-35 regular season mark.

“He didn’t come in this league with a silver spoon, so to speak,” Broncos coach John Fox said. “And he’s mastered his trade.”

Like Tebow, Brady had his own doubters, waiting until the sixth round to hear his name called on draft day.

“I think you just really have confidence in yourself that you can achieve whatever you think you can achieve,” Brady said, “and then you try to work hard at it, and then when you get your opportunity you try to take advantage of it.

“… Not everyone is a high pick or not everyone gets a lot of chances right out of the box, but when you do get your opportunity, you really try to take advantage of your opportunity and do your best and give everything you have.”

Tebow has, and he’s winning at a .727 clip to Brady’s .776 mark. He’s thrown 11 TD passes and two interceptions.

“He’s a winner,” said Patriots cornerback Antwaun Molden, who was with Houston last year when the Texans lost 24-23 to the Broncos in what was Tebow’s first career fourth-quarter comeback.

“Be alert. Every play he can hurt you,” Molden said of the lessons he learned that day. “Some say he can’t pass. … The guy can pass. And he can also run. He’s more accurate than what people think.”

Tebow topped 300 yards that day, something Brady’s done 42 times in his career.

What Brady hasn’t done much of is beat Denver. The Broncos are his bugaboo. At 5-1, they’re the only team with a winning record against him.

Still, perennial Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey said Brady is the ultimate test for this bunch of Broncos.

“He’s one of the best ever, and I think a lot of people want to find out who’s going to be the next guy,” Bailey said. “But he always reminds everybody who’s still the best.”

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AP Sports Writer Howard Ulman contributed to this report

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Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/arniestapleton

Read More: Ty Warren (DE – DEN), Kevin Vickerson (DT – DEN), Denver Broncos

If there’s one thing the Denver Broncos have learned over these past two years, it is that a team can never have too much depth on the defensive line. It hurt the Broncos in 2010 and it could have hurt them in 2011. Ty Warren was lost before he even took a regular season snap for the Broncos and Kevin Vickerson was lost as well. However, the team also brought back Marcus Thomas as a free agent and traded for Broderick Bunkley, both a huge part of a resurgent Broncos defense this season.

However, the Broncos are far from settled at the position. In Chad Reuters’ latest mock draft for CBS Sports, the Broncos select Michigan St. Spartans defensive tackle Jerel Worthy with the No. 23 overall pick. Reuter’s writeup is mostly about John Elway trading down or waiting until some time in the second round to select a quarterback, which really doesn’t mesh so well right now.

However, Reuter is correct that the Broncos need an upgrade at the position. Worthy has 12 sacks in his career as a Spartan and the team could certainly use a push up front. Still, we’ve got four more months to figure this all out.

For in-depth coverage of the Broncos, visit Mile High Report. For more on the NFL, be sure to check out SB Nation NFL.

Read More: Brian Dawkins (S – DEN), Andre Goodman (CB – DEN), Tony Carter (DB – MIN), Kyle McCarthy (S – DEN), Derek Domino (LB – DEN), Denver Broncos

Three Denver defensive backs had to leave Sunday’s game against Chicago, including cornerback Andre Goodman and safety Brian Dawkins. Goodman suffered a concussion and may not have to sit for long, but the Broncos made a couple of transactions on Tuesday to prepare for his potential absence:

With cornerback Andre’ Goodman’s availability in question for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, the Broncos signed cornerback Tony Carter from their practice squad today.

To make room for Carter on the 53-man roster, the team waived safety Kyle McCarthy.

Carter appeared in two games for the Broncos in 2009 and two games for the New England Patriots in 2010. He has four tackles in his career.

Additionally, the team waived rookie linebacker Derek Domino.

For more updates, stay tuned to SB Nation Denver. For more on this game, visit Mile High Report, SB Nation’s Denver Broncos blog. For news from around the NFL, visit SB Nation’s NFL news hub.