The New England Patriots are back in the Super Bowl after just two years of 4-13 misery. Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 in a snowy, messy AFC Championship Game, and the rest of the NFL is already bracing for what comes next.
The celebration for the end of the Patriots’ dynasty is over. Now perhaps there will be a new round of complaints about a new era of dominance. Maye threw for a career-low 86 yards, got sacked five times, and still found a way to clinch New England’s 12th Super Bowl appearance. When your legs work and your defense forces turnovers, the box score becomes irrelevant.
Sean Payton’s Gambles Came Back Empty
The Broncos had every chance to bury the Patriots early. Denver led 7-0 and faced a 4th-and-1 at New England’s 14-yard line when Payton left Jarrett Stidham on the field instead of sending out Wil Lutz for a field goal. The play failed. The points stayed off the board. Then came Stidham’s fumble that handed the Patriots a short field and the game-tying touchdown.
Payton spent the week telling reporters he believed Stidham was a starting-caliber NFL quarterback. “I felt like our two quarterbacks were inside the best 32,” Payton said Wednesday. That confidence looked misplaced by the fourth quarter, when Stidham’s desperation heave to Marvin Mims was picked off by Christian Gonzalez to seal it.
Since that Super Bowl win over the Rams in 2019, only two other AFC teams, the Chiefs and Bengals, have won the conference. Meanwhile, the Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game, the Jets haven’t sniffed one, and the Bills just fired their head coach after six separate devastating playoff losses. The Patriots were supposed to be the ones suffering. Instead, they’re picking out flights to Santa Clara.
“WE’RE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!” – @iamcardib pic.twitter.com/B6ZWNH0trm
— NFL (@NFL) January 25, 2026
The blizzard conditions turned the second half into survival football. The Patriots opened the third quarter with a possession that lasted over nine minutes, running 16 plays for 64 yards and a field goal that gave them a 10-7 lead they’d never relinquish. When the snow made throwing impossible, Maye used his legs. He ran for 68 yards on 10 carries, including a crucial 7-yard scramble on third-and-6 with under two minutes left.
The numbers confirm what the snow obscured. According to PFSN’s Offense Impact metric, Denver posted a 58.0, an F, the worst offensive performance of any team in these playoffs. Worse than Pittsburgh’s Wild Card exit. Worse than any playoff game since 2000, save one: the Giants’ 34-7 beatdown by the Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV. The Patriots weren’t much better at 71.4, a C-minus, but in a blizzard with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, passing grades are optional. Surviving is the only metric that matters.
This was New England’s first playoff win in Denver. Ever. The Patriots had been 0-4 in the playoffs in the Mile High City before Sunday. They’re now 9-0 on the road this season. Vrabel’s team doesn’t flinch regardless of venue or weather.
Vrabel is funny. Maye had his first legal beer two years ago. His wife posts baking videos. They’re harder to hate than the cold, robotic Brady-Belichick machine. But make no mistake, the results are already looking familiar.
Two weeks until Santa Clara. The Rams and Seahawks are still fighting for the right to face them. The Patriots already know where they’re headed.
