With a maelstrom of snow swirling in Denver on Sunday afternoon, the Broncos’ season ended in the AFC Championship at the mercy of its own city’s elements. Here’s The Denver Post’s report card after the Patriots buried Denver under the snow in an ugly 10-7 win.
OFFENSE — D+
Stiddy City reached a fever pitch in the first quarter and then quickly subsided. Marvin Mims Jr. took the top off with a 52-yard bomb from Jarrett Stidham on a 3rd-and-10 in the first quarter, Courtland Sutton caught a rollout TD a couple plays later, and Empower Field set ablaze — only for Denver to quickly lose all momentum.
Broncos rookie RB RJ Harvey ran tough in the first half, as head coach Sean Payton clearly placed an emphasis on cushioning Stidham with plenty of under-center runs. But the Denver backup started to show cracks in the second quarter, suffering from happy feet against New England’s interior pressure and then inexplicably attempting a backward pass while backpedaling on a third down. The Patriots recovered and scored two plays later. Not pretty.
After that Stidham-to-Sutton connection, the Broncos mounted eight completely fruitless offensive drives, with two turnovers, two three-and-outs and six punts in the mix. Receivers couldn’t find separation in the snow. Stidham didn’t rear back to fire. Payton didn’t stick with the run game. And a last-ditch duck by Stidham to Marvin Mims in the fourth quarter was picked off by the Patriots’ Christian Gonzalez, who Mims burned earlier on that 52-yarder. Comeuppance.
DEFENSE — A
In the penultimate game of their season, Vance Joseph’s defensive line had one of their best first halves of the season. The Broncos came in well-positioned to exploit struggling rookie tackle Will Campbell, and Nik Bonitto, Jonathon Cooper and even depth edges like Que Robinson and Dondrea Tillman made life a snowy hellscape for the Patriots’ edge protection. Denver had three first-half sacks, and two shot plays from Drake Maye to Kayshon Boutte fell incomplete with blanket coverage from All-Pro corner Pat Surtain II.
And in a season of goal-line stands, the Broncos’ top-ranked red-zone defense stiffened again in the most crucial moment, as Cooper whizzed off a block and brought down Maye to hold New England to a field goal after a nine-minute-plus third-quarter drive.
They racked up five sacks Sunday in total, and stifled the Patriots’ ground game time and time again, holding lead back Rhamondre Stevenson to 71 yards. The secondary was excellent, only fooled once by a Maye flea-flicker to Mack Hollins in the third quarter. Joseph was the absolute last reason Denver’s season ended.
SPECIAL TEAMS — B-
Nine months later, the Broncos’ decision to draft a punter in the sixth round in April’s draft came to ultimate fruition on Sunday.
Rookie Jeremy Crawshaw put on an utter masterclass against New England, starting his day with a 56-yarder that pinned New England at the 8-yard-line and ending it with a 45-yarder that again pinned the Patriots at their 8 in the fourth quarter. Denver controlled field position for much of the game thanks to the efforts of Crawshaw, who resoundingly outdueled New England’s Bryce Baringer: six punts, an average of 51.5 yards, three inside the Patriots’ 20-yard-line.
In absolutely brutal conditions that were visibly shaking the yellow goalposts at Empower Field, though, Denver kicker Wil Lutz missed a 54-yarder at the end of the first half and a 46-yarder that would’ve tied the game in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t entirely Lutz’s fault, as wind whipped monster gusts of wind around the grass at Empower Field in the second half. But Denver’s special-teams play both put them in position to head to a Super Bowl Sunday — and then squandered that chance.
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Payton came out with an impressive gameplan, a mix of opportunistic shots and a ball-control run-game to set up easy play-action looks for Jarrett Stidham. And then a single fourth-down call in the second quarter changed the complexion of Sunday’s game.
Facing fourth-and-inches in the red zone, Payton could’ve opted to take the points and go up two possessions. Or try for a simple dive with Stidham or fullback Adam Prentice. Instead, he called for a play-action rollout for Stidham that went absolutely nowhere. Stidham’s pass nearly got picked. The entire first half’s momentum swung on this singular moment.
Needing to establish the run in the second half with snow making it impossible for receivers to gain any traction, Payton relied too often on a completely ineffectual screen game. And Denver looked, by the fourth quarter, like a team without any plan.
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