Bedard: With Maye's magic limited again, Patriots advance to Super Bowl on trenches and defensive plays

DENVER — Stop me if you've heard this before: the Patriots are advancing in the postseason, and not because of the possible NFL MVP, Drake Maye.

This time, however, they didn't (somewhat) win despite Maye, who put the ball in harm's way and on the ground too many times in the first two playoff victories. Fortunately, it was against outgunned opponents with sieves for offensive lines.

But, despite completing just 47.6% of his passes for 86 yards and a season-worst 14% completion percentage above expected, Maye did have a big hand in this 10-7 victory because he, and the rest of the Patriots' offense, had the biggest stat line of all: zero turnovers, even when the second half turned into blizzard conditions. It seemed fairly obvious that, with Jarrett Stidham on the other sideline, Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels were fairly content going conservative on offense to avoid the big mistake that could put the game in jeopardy.

"Just protect the football and let our defense keep doing their thing," said Maye. "It was tough elements for offenses. Defenses were playing great. Really, just give our chance to not lose the game and turn the ball over or do something where we put our defense in a bad spot. Our defense showed up every time, time and time again."

As a result, the Patriots scored only 54 combined points in their three playoff games so far in 2025. That's the fewest points scored by a team that played three games prior to making the Super Bowl, breaking the previous record low held by the 2000 Ravens with Trent Dilfer.

On the other side, the Broncos had two crucial turnovers — and another if you want to add the failed 4th-and-1 play up 7-0 deep in Patriots territory — that helped send New England back to the Super Bowl.

Maye made his biggest plays with his legs, with 10 carries for 65 yards, including the lone touchdown on a 6-yard designed QB draw where he was virtually untouched.

No turnovers and Maye's legs were the formula for a victory. But it was the Patriots' lines and different players making huge plays that sent the Patriots to the most improbable Super Bowl appearance in 25 years.

TRENCH WARFARE

Going into this game, the consensus, including in this very corner, gave the Broncos a checkmark in both line battles. When it came to the Broncos' offensive line against the Patriots' defensive line, you figured the running game would be at least a draw, if not a win for the Patriots. The Broncos haven't run the ball well consistently in weeks, at least since starter JK Dobbins was lost to injury. And the Patriots, with Milton Williams and Robert Spillane (left early), have been a very good run defense for the first half of the season, and since Williams came back. That held true, as the Patriots had their fifth-best defensive run success rate against the Broncos.

This game was going to come down to whether the Patriots could get enough pressure on Stidham, who is a completely different quarterback under the gun, behind the Broncos' offensive line, which entered the game as one of the league's best by all metrics. And they boast two first-team All-Pros in LT Garrett Bolles and LG Quinn Meinherz.

One x-factor coming into this game was how the Broncos' line would fare without the legs of QB Bo Nix, which is baked into everything they do, including Nix being the best QB in the league at avoiding sacks. Would the Broncos' pass blockesr be as good with the less mobile Stidham?

The matchup was a decided win for the Patriots. Stidham was under pressure more than 40% of his dropbacks, and they blitzed a season-high 45% of snaps. The results were striking. From a clean pocket, Stidham was 16 of 21 for 129 yards and his lone touchdown. Against pressure, Stidham completed just 1 of 10 pass attempts for 4 yards and an interception, while also taking three sacks and losing a fumble. Stidham averaged a dropback depth of 9.0 yards, the deepest by a Broncos quarterback in a game this season, and scrambled on 27.0% of his dropbacks, a career high and the highest rate by any Broncos quarterback this season. Milton Williams and Elijah Ponder each recorded a team-high four pressures.

Once again, the Patriots heard the talk about the opponent, and it fueled them.

"We've been hearing about the offensive line, knowing that it was gonna be on us every week," Williams said. "Hearing as much talk about the offensive line and what they can do and what we can't do, and all this, no, it was on us to go out there and dominate up front and try to get Stidham off his my spot. We did that."

Barmore owned Meinherz a few times, including on a huge sack.

"We know what we got, and we are going to dominate anybody in front of us, it doesn't matter who the O-line is," Barmore said. "Coach (Clint McMillan) tells every time when we're on that field, we the best. We always talk about that. So, you know, we always gonna keep grinding.

"Our coach tells us all the time that All-Pro don't mean shit, excuse my language. Doesn't matter. You know I'm saying? We know our coaches and tell us every time they All-Pro, so they were targets. That's the mission. So you know he's a hell of a player."

Said Christian Gonzalez, who sealed the game by picking off a desperation heave/punt from Stidham late: "It’s been two weeks in a row. It was always, you know, whoever the [Houston] Texans, they talked about the [Houston] Texans defense, and this week it was all about the Broncos defense, and I mean, like [DT] Milton [Williams] said, I think it’s, it’s shown we have that chip on our shoulder. I mean it’s cool, it’s great if you want to count us out, because we're just going to go out there and show what we can do and play team defense and get the ball back to [No.] 10 and let him do his thing.”

On the other side, the Patriots' offensive line against the Broncos' defensive front, the Patriots were also going to be about a stalemate in the running game, as neither side stands out in that area. But the Patriots did manage to run 29 times for 98 yards, including a season-high 4 rushes for 10+ yards in the second half. The Patriots used jumbo personnel (6+ OL) on a season-high 33.3% of their offensive plays against the Broncos, doing so on 42.1% of second-half plays as the weather worsened. The Patriots controlled the ball for 21:06 of the second half.

Maye may have become the first QB in NFL history to be sacked 5 times in 3 different games within a single postseason (5 for 21 Sunday), but the pressure rate of 37.9% was close to the season average (37.3%). While vaunted edge rusher Nik Bonitto did lead the Broncos with four pressures against Will Campbell, DT Zach Allen only had one. So, an improvement for the Patriots' offensive line, which was probably helped by the elements.

MAKING THE KEY PLAYS

The Patriots made all of them, outside the Broncos' one touchdown drive.

Leading 7-0 with 9:28 left in the first half with the ball at the New England 14 with fourth and 1 coming, Sean Payton made the curious decision to go for it, and not take the points and go up 10-0. The Patriots were all over it, with Williams coming unblocked and Craig Woodson nearly intercepting the ball.

"Yes, it just felt like we had momentum to get up 14," Payton said. "It felt like we had a good call. I think the feeling was, ‘Man, let’s be aggressive.’ To get up 14, I was just watching the way our defense was playing. Look the turnover on our end resulting in a touchdown, and outside of that, I thought we did a good job in containing them. There’ll be a number of things when we watch the tape I’ll look at. You know, critique and pay close attention to. But it was a hard-fought game, and we didn’t do enough to win it.”

Said Williams: "We had a slant call on, and they just dropped me. I was unblocked, so I just tried to get back there as fast as I could, try to get my hand up, tip the pass or something. I thought we had an interception on the play."

The Broncos' next drive also ended in a turnover when, on 3rd and 4 from their own 33-yard line, the Broncos called a screen the Patriots were again all over, and Christian Ellis pressured Stidham into a lateral that set up New England's only touchdown two plays later.

"Once I saw him panicking, I was just trying to go for the ball," Ellis siad. "I thought I hit it, but, you know, I thought we scooped and scored. I thought they're gonna let the play it out. It was a great play. Can't complain."

Said Stidham: "Obviously, I can’t put our team in a bad position like that. I was trying to throw it away to ‘TB’ (RB Tyler Badie), he was in the area. The pressure… He just got up on me real fast, and I was trying to get rid of it. Like I said, I can’t put the ball in a position like that so that was completely on me.”

The Broncos also attempted a game-tying 45-yard field goal with 4:46 remaining, but Leonard Taylor, a practice squad elevation, got a finger on it to help the ball side left.

"Elliss continues to make plays," Vrabel said. "We talk about it, it just takes one play. Whether that’s [CB] Marcus Jones last week, Christian Ellis, which, it would have been a touchdown, you know what I mean. They blew it way too late, blew the whistle. ... The fourth (down), just coming up huge stops and then our ability to get the little bit of yards that we needed in critical situations.”

“‘Lenny T’ (DT Leonard Taylor III) revenge game Week 5. Two weeks will be revenge game Week 6. [Defensive Line Coach] Clint McMillan does a great job of getting those guys ready to go, and each and every one of them has made the plays to help us win. He’ll have to continue to do that.”

As has been the case in this most unexpected of seasons, the Patriots have found a different way to win — with different players starring — each rung on the postseason ladder. And here's the thing: the Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl to face the Seahawks, and their quarterback hasn't been a starring role yet. The forecast right now for Super Bowl Sunday is 64 degrees and 25% chance of precipitation in Santa Clara. Imagine what the Patriots are capable of Maye heats back up.

"Props to this team, man. Went after it tonight," he said. "We're going to the Super Bowl, that sounds pretty good, that sounds pretty cool. [I'm] proud of this team, proud of the defense. We didn't play our best ball in the first half, and in the second half came out and just battled the elements, snow, and the elements. It was a gritty win. Our defense stepped up. It was fun to watch."