Winner: QB Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Maye didn’t have a great game throwing the ball—he completed less than half of his passes, threw for less than 100 yards, and was sacked five times. But the second-year pro avoided the turnovers that plagued him in the divisional round, and his legs were the difference in the game: 10 carries, 65 yards, and the Patriots’ only touchdown.
Loser: Broncos Run Defense
In a game where both quarterbacks threw for fewer than 220 yards combined, the team that stopped the run was going to advance to the Super Bowl. For the second straight playoff game, that team was not the Broncos. In the regular season, Denver ranked second in the league against the run, allowing just 91.1 rushing yards per game. In the postseason, the Broncos surrendered over 160 rushing yards per game, including 141 in the AFC Championship Game.
Winner: Patriots Front Seven
The Patriots were solid defensively in the regular season: eighth in yards per game allowed, sixth against the run, and fourth in scoring defense. And while Denver’s defense disappointed on the ground in the postseason, the Pats wouldn’t let a Broncos team that badly needed to run the ball do anything—22 carries for just 70 yards and 3.2 yards per carry.
Loser: HC Sean Payton, Denver Broncos
Jarrett Stidham’s first-half fumble was a killer and led to New England’s only touchdown. But he is a backup quarterback, and given that reality, Denver head coach Sean Payton’s decision to eschew an easy field goal that would have put the Broncos up 10-0 in the second quarter was a major blunder—one that was amplified tenfold when the weather turned nasty and neither team could do anything offensively.
