The New England Patriots haven’t been this close to the Super Bowl in almost a decade.
And now they have a serious chance to do it. There’s just one team standing in their way, in a stadium far away. But the Patriots haven’t lost a game all year on the road, so they are looking forward to putting in the work and improving on some of the mistakes they made in Sunday’s divisional round win over the Houston Texans.
The Patriots beat the Texans 28-16, with quarterback Drake Maye throwing three touchdown passes in the snow and rain and Marcus Jones returning an interception for a score. They’ll now take on the Broncos at 3 p.m. Sunday in Denver, with the winner advancing to the Super Bowl.
“I’m excited for these guys, but also, they’re not satisfied, and I can tell that,” head coach Mike Vrabel said. “It wasn’t pretty. Defense kept us in there. When we needed it, our offense was able to come through late in the game there in the second half with a touchdown, giving us a two-score lead. I felt like that drive, backed up there from the 3-yard line, where we ran the ball and took a lot of clock was pretty classy.”
Vrabel is scheduled to address the media again at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. You can watch a livestream of his remarks in the video player above.
The Broncos will be without their starting quarterback on Sunday, as Bo Nix fractured his ankle near the end of Saturday’s overtime win over the Buffalo Bills. He was able to continue playing and at the end of the game walked off the field on his own, but he’s now out, and the backup, Jarrett Stidham, is in.
You may remember that name because Stidham was drafted by the Patriots in 2019. He’s bounced around the league since then, and now he’s in Denver. He has yet to throw a pass this season, so it’ll be a big test for him against the stout Patriots defense.
“It’s going to keep on getting tougher. We keep on playing great defenses with great quarterbacks and teams that deserve to be here,” Maye said. “That’s what we feel like we deserve to be here, and we’ve got times where we know we’ll have to be at our best in critical moments. It comes down — it’s going to come down to the end and come down to making plays when you have them. I’ve just got to keep on giving our guys chances to make plays. I like our chances with those guys in the locker room. It’s fun to be with those guys, fun to show up here and just glad the season keeps on going. Hopefully it goes for a good while longer.”
