To make matters worse, before Lutz’s attempt drifted wide of the post in the final minute of the first half, Stidham made a huge mistake by fumbling the ball on a pass defense deep in Denver territory, giving the Patriots their best scoring opportunity of the day. Two plays later, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye ran into the end zone for the tying score.
“Obviously, I can’t put our team in that bad of a position,” Stidham said. “I was trying to throw it to TB (Broncos quarterback Tyler Badie). He was in the zone. He just got up on me real quick and I was trying to get rid of him. Like I said, I can’t put the ball in that position. It was totally on me.”
“…I thought I threw forward. Obviously the replay said otherwise. Probably should have just eaten the sack anyway.”
Payton admitted after the game that the turnover “was a big play.”
Those struggles coincided with the flow of the game, a contest in which Denver grabbed an early advantage on the scoreboard and in the momentum battle and appeared poised to ride the positive wave to a 14-0 lead had they converted the aforementioned fourth-and-1. But when Stidham took the snap, rolled to his right and immediately ran into a group of Patriots defenders, all he could do was throw a desperation pass out. into the traffic, which led to turnovers on downs and ineffective possession.
“Decisions like that. The tough ones,” Payton said when asked what he would focus on when criticizing his coaching performance. “Fourth and 1. Frustrated. I felt like we were going to be able to run the ball consistently. I thought that was going to be important. We felt like we had one of our better running schemes coming in.
“…I think the big thing was that first half, that first half momentum and field position didn’t deliver what it needed to deliver. We needed more than that.”
Payton added: “You don’t know how a game is going to go and then how it started to go. … I felt like we played most of the first half on their side of the court. We didn’t get enough points on offense or take advantage of that position. Our turnovers were bad and we had our chances.”
A conference title race that seemed destined to come down to its final possessions came to a screeching halt in the second half when a blizzard swept over Denver, reducing both offenses to Pop Warner’s impressive outfit and forcing each team to battle for field position and pray for special teams success. It was a stark contrast to how the first half unfolded, with each team enjoying a flurry of success that left them tied at halftime, 7-7.
Instead of seeing the game play out for four quarters, the Methodist took New England’s opening drive with 9:31 left on the clock in the third quarter, holding Denver’s offense off the field just as the blizzard was beginning to dump its contents on the field and giving the Patriots a three-point lead that would ultimately be enough to advance to Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California. Stidham’s brief moment in the sun — a five-play, 59-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton early in the first quarter — became irrelevant as snow obscured the painted lines at Empower Field at Mile High.
Lutz’s final field goal attempt — a 45-yarder in a snowy environment that could have been a misnomer for the 2001 AFC Championship Game in Foxborough — captured the agonizing reality of Denver’s Sunday experience. As the ball followed a low trajectory toward a body collision along the line of scrimmage, he appeared to be in line for a game-tying layup, but Patriots linebacker Leonard Taylor III’s outstretched hand tipped the kick and deflected it wide of the post.
Even when the Broncos were within striking distance of keeping their incredibly successful season alive, the slimmest of margins held them back.
“It’s obviously an unfortunate day,” Broncos forward Mike McGlinchey said. “We didn’t execute. We made a mistake before the weather turned that put the game on its head. But very, very thankful for the year we’ve had. For the team we have, for the coaching staff we have. It’s just sad that you don’t get it today.”