Those who believed, or perhaps just hoped, that Jarrett Stidham might be able to quarterback the Broncos to the Super Bowl had to wait a long time for the Patriots to officially prove them wrong. After the Pats' go-ahead field goal to start the second half, Stidham and the Denver offense had the ball for five straight drives with the chance to tie or take the lead. Despite his first-quarter touchdown intoxicating everyone with promise—if Stidham could just do that one more time, the Broncos would be through the AFC—that skill never appeared again. It was all meager runs, ineffective passes, hopeless punts, and one blocked field goal that was doomed from the start. Drake Maye, completing just 10 passes for 86 yards, did all that it took to be the game's hero instead. It didn't take much.
I think 10-7 is more brutal for the Broncos in a lot of ways than, say, 45-10. A blowout means it's obvious when it's time to give up, and that you never should have been optimistic at the start. A 10-7 final, on the other hand, indicates that the universe just didn't like you that day. Even with Stidham forced into the injured Bo Nix's job, and even though the Patriots went 14-3 with an unbeaten road record this year, just one measly shift in the outcome of one play could have meant a Broncos-Seahawks Super Bowl. This is no guessing game; we all know exactly what that one play was.
With three minutes to go in the second quarter, before the weather got too lousy and the announcers started saying "these conditions" every other sentence, Stidham faced a third down on his own 33. The guy seeing his first real NFL action in years took the shotgun snap and was quickly startled by the New England pass rush. He ran backward in a way that signaled to everyone watching that survival instincts had overtaken the play-call. But Stidham, to the chagrin of all Colorado, held onto something in his head that couldn't accept the idea of punting from slightly worse territory. He thought fast, but he thought wrong. As Christian Elliss closed in for the sack, Stidham pump faked, pulled the ball back into his body, and then tried to dump off a feeble chest pass for an incompletion, to avoid losing yardage. It took some sorting out by the officials, but the end result was a backward pass recovered by New England, who got their lone touchdown of the game two plays and 12 yards later.
The teams traded punts and missed field goals to end the half, the Patriots got three points out of the break, and there was no other scoring for the rest of the game. A lot of people and snowflakes share responsibility for the outcome, but this is the one bit I can't shake: With the exception of that time their QB just handed the ball over in the red zone, the Broncos defense stopped the Patriots from scoring a touchdown all game. That steadfast work, however, wasn't enough to make the Super Bowl. You could live with it if Stidham didn't do enough; the problem was that he tried to do too much.
