Following a difficult loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday, the Denver Broncos will be wondering how things went so badly. Broncos Country will be pointing fingers in multiple directions.
The Broncos got up 7-0 in this one and looked to be in control during most of the first half of the game. The biggest play of the game came in the second quarter, when Jarrett Stidham dropped back for a pass and, while facing a fierce New England pass rush, threw a pass with two hands to get rid of the ball.
It was originally ruled an incomplete pass with an intentional grounding penalty, but the officials quickly changed that, ruling it a backwards pass and recovery by New England. Two plays later, the Patriots scored a touchdown and were on the board, tying the game. In the second half, a grand total of three points were scored... By both teams.
There were multiple reasons for that, and all of them played a factor in how this game ended up.
Sean Payton
The Broncos' head coach is going to get some heat for this loss due to his play-calling, but his decision to go for it on 4th-and-1 from the New England 14-yard line rather than kicking a field goal will be questioned for quite some time.
In addition to choosing against taking a chip-shot field goal and taking a 10-0 lead, the play call was poor. Jarrett Stidham dropped back to throw a quick pass to RJ Harvey. It didn't even come close to working. The Broncos turned the ball over on downs and gave away all of the momentum they had earned.
It turned out to be a critical sequence in this game.
Jarrett Stidham
When looking back at this game, the majority of Broncos fans are going to put this loss on Stidham and say that with Bo Nix, the Broncos would have won. While that is quite possible, Stidham is not the reason the Broncos lost this game.
To be clear, he was far from good. But the weather in the second half (more on that later) made it all but impossible to do anything on offense. Stidham threw an interception on what ended up being the Broncos' final possession. That was easily the worst play he made in the game. But he had Courtland Sutton drop two passes and he got little help from his running game. It's hard to put this loss all on his shoulders.
Controversial calls
What would a loss in today's NFL be without some controversy? Fans of the Buffalo Bills have spent the past week having that discussion, and Broncos fans have some good ammunition to do the same following this game.
The backwards pass call was highly questionable.
The refs are at it again
— Benchwarmer Sports (@bdubsports_) January 25, 2026
This was called a backwards pass by Stidham. It’s clearly going forward
The Broncos just got screwed pic.twitter.com/8OljvmyAgM
This was clearly a "pass" by Stidham and not a fumble. One angle of the replay shows the ball start to leave Stidham's hands and get deflected by a Patriots defender. What does that result in on any other play? An incomplete pass.
So in this situation, it truly does not matter where the ball lands in relation to where it was thrown. If it was deflected, it's incomplete. The Patriots go into halftime with no points if not for this play.
On the opening possession of the second half, the Patriots went for it on 4th-and-1 from the Denver 8-yard line. Drake Maye used a quarterback sneak up the middle and was down right near the line to gain. An overhead replay seemed to show that he came up short, leading to a challenge from Payton. Payton asked for the officials to look at that overhead replay.
It was extremely close either way, but the referees chose to stick with the call that was made on the field. The Broncos were able to hold to a field goal, but those ended up being the winning points for the Patriots.
The elements
While many fans are going to passionately criticize Payton and Stidham for this defeat, the snow that began to fall at halftime ended up being the biggest factor in this game.
After the initial drive by the Patriots, offensive football was almost non-existent. The footing was terrible for the players and vision was extremely obstructed due to the blizzard-like conditions. This game would have had a much different outcome without the snow and it's an unfortunate turn of events for the Broncos that the weather in their own stadium pretty much ended their hopes of going to the Super Bowl.
For anyone suggesting that the Patriots had to play in the same conditions, that's not entirely true. If you look at the conditions in the early third quarter compared to how it was just moments after that, it was a drastic change, which is exactly why the score of 10-7 ended up being the final score.
It was nearly impossible to produce any points once it got like that.
READ: 4 things Denver Broncos must do in order to beat Patriots in AFC Championship Game
The Broncos had their chances and this was a difficult way to end what was a great season.
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