Patriots Pregame Thread Pre-Game thread - 2025 AFC Championship at Denver Broncos

Ross12 · Jan 22, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Denver would gameplan to go after whoever Davis's replacement is. I don't know who that is. If he is still in concussion protocol today, It's doubtful he plays in three days.

I wonder how many of those other guys will play.

That’s definitely not true. It’s only Thursday. He couldn’t be cleared by today. The protocol has a timeline they have to work through. He can’t really get cleared until tomorrow night at the earliest. More realistically, Saturday.

bormio · Jan 22, 2026

How many posts have said we can’t turn the ball over. Bunch of damn Calvinists

DaBruinz · Jan 22, 2026

Good to see Farmer AND Terrell Jennings at Full Practice today.. Probably means we'll be seeing 2 or 3 moves on Saturday for the roster, though if I'm Vrabel, I have to do some serious eval on whether Farmer is better than Taylor and whether it behooves the team to just promote Taylor since elevations are not limited in the Post-season.

The 3 players who are in the most tenuous position to be cut are : Dippre, Swinson, Minor.

NFL Mystique · Jan 22, 2026

Ross12 said:
That’s definitely not true. It’s only Thursday. He couldn’t be cleared by today. The protocol has a timeline they have to work through. He can’t really get cleared until tomorrow night at the earliest. More realistically, Saturday.

Ah gotcha.

Btw, do you know who his backup is?

moosekill · Jan 22, 2026

patfanken said:
And YOU support a guy who lies to us on a daily basis. Who tramples on the constitution on a daily basis. Who STEALS from us on a daily basis and added billions to his own personal wealth. Who effectively ended the federal system of government that has served us for 250 years. Who actively and openly trying to rig the midterm elections. (I have to give him one thing, T, he is certainly transparent. He isn't hiding any of this). He is running this country like organized crime. Where anyone who goes against them is subject to retribution and intimidation.

He has created a masked private army loyal to him and NOT Constitution that is being used as the fist of his VERY selective immigration enforcement arm. (and BTW, I'm all for deporting illegal immigrants AFTER due process. I'm all for actively going after criminal elements who are here illegally, just like we did when the Irish, Italian, and other ethnic groups ran the mobs. It's called LAW enforcement and you don't fire or drive away a large body of the Justice department and expect to make a dent in that element. However. if your goal is have a scapegoat to deflect attention whenever people start to question things like health care, cost of living, civil rights, or the Epstein Files; it works just fine.

BTW- T, I never thought Trump has anything to do with the sordid aspects of Epstein's life. UNTIL he started acting like he had something to hide. Christ, he's overthrown a foreign government, threatened to take over foreign jurisdictions and had done his best to act as an agent of the Russian Government and destroy NATO and disembowel Ukraine. Putin has no one on his staff who is working harder to implement his European foreign policy than Donald Trump.

And not for nothing, Tariffs are NOT paid by the governments from the countries they are levied on. They are ultimately paid by the consumers of the products being tariffed. So not only meats and cars are more expensive. My Little Debbies Donut Sticks have gone up by a 33%. Probably more to do with cost of sugar, since that's what they are 99% made of, but boy are they good.)

And for the record, I never thought Kamala was the brightest bulb in the lamp, but given the blithering idiot who was the alternative, I didn't have much of a choice. And for the record again, after you have read this rant, T, feel free to have the moderator delete it. I mostly just need to just get it down on paper so I don't blow my head off, listening to the news each day, About once every couple of weeks works just fine, and of course the Pats have helped a LOT. Feel free to PM me if you want to actually have a real dialogue on the actual issues, they are not all black and white.

Keep the politics out of this, I do t give a **** if you post long winded but interesting recaps. This is football and not cnn. If you can’t do that go somewhere else.

DaBruinz · Jan 22, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Ah gotcha.

Btw, do you know who his backup is?

Charles Woods has been the 1st player off the bench to take snaps at outside Corner position since Game 5..

Triumph · Jan 22, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Denver would gameplan to go after whoever Davis's replacement is. I don't know who that is. If he is still in concussion protocol today, It's doubtful he plays in three days.

I wonder how many of those other guys will play.

I believe that Davis will play.

SVN · Jan 23, 2026

i expect the offense will start slow. The noise and energy of their defense , silent count , jitters of a young team. We need to hold on defense until they settle in.

patfanken · Jan 23, 2026

I expect Stiddy to be well prepared for the expected. Where we will have our shot is when he gets hit by the unexpected. I know he gets throws every day. But there is a difference between game speed and playoff speed. And that is real. So it will be critical for Peyton to keep the game as simple as possible. Just aa it will be just as critical for the Pats to make him uncomfortable and unsure.

How each team succeeds in imposing their will will be fascinating intellectually.

Denier has 3 things going for it. 1. Their unfair advantage. 2. Their top 3 OL. 3. Their top 3 pass rush and top 5 D. How we overcome these 3 things should be the focus of our discussions going forward

Actual Pats Fan · Jan 23, 2026

Triumph said:
I was talking with a friend today about football.

He is a fan of another team. His take on Brady was that he can't win you a game, but he won't lose you the game either. Basically a game Manager along for the ride on a team who caught lighting in a bottle. Brady is not a Manning or a Warner or a Bledsoe. If the Pats do move on Sunday, Brady will get crushed by either NFC team. Of course, I heard about all the luck the Pats had this season.

I just let him talk and didn't want to argue with him because he provides professional services for me.

Oh, how I would love for Brady to light the Steelers up and put on a clinic to shut these folks up.

Sounds familiar...

n1997y · Jan 23, 2026

patfanken said:
I expect Stiddy to be well prepared for the expected. Where we will have our shot is when he gets hit by the unexpected. I know he gets throws every day. But there is a difference between game speed and playoff speed. And that is real. So it will be critical for Peyton to keep the game as simple as possible. Just aa it will be just as critical for the Pats to make him uncomfortable and unsure.

How each team succeeds in imposing their will will be fascinating intellectually.

Denier has 3 things going for it. 1. Their unfair advantage. 2. Their top 3 OL. 3. Their top 3 pass rush and top 5 D. How we overcome these 3 things should be the focus of our discussions going forward

#1 and #3 have little to do with Stidham. And they’re both fairly straightforward.

1. I don’t think there’s much strategically to do about the altitude, other than lots of O2 bottles on the sideline and frequent rotation especially the big guys on the DL. We’ve got good depth there so that should help.

3. Josh needs to scheme up a great game plan. Rham and Hendo both need to have themselves their best days. Will Campbell needs to handle his business better than he has past two games. Maybe platoon the OL? Or at least the left side? That should help with the unfair HFA.

Most interesting is #2.

2. Our DL strategy might start by rotating frequently. But I’m wondering if there’s a way to throw a spinner into the works and confuse Denver’s OL. I recently watched this video on how Belichick shut down the Rams high powered offense and held them to just one FG in SB 53. It described how he used a 6-1 front to attack both the zone runs and quick passing game the Rams favored. I don’t know if the 6-1 alignment would be the best choice but it got me thinking about whether it would work to throw a similar unusual strategy at them. Or maybe some exotic blitzes would be similar. First goal is to confuse the blocking assignments. Maybe the old Amoeba defense would be another alternative. I’m thinking our DBs are pretty good so they could disrupt the Denver WRs enough if the Denver OL is being overwhelmed. The real point of it is to get inside Stidham’s head and exploit his slow OODA loop. Does any of that seem like it would work?

Actual Pats Fan · Jan 23, 2026

patfanken said:
I expect Stiddy to be well prepared for the expected. Where we will have our shot is when he gets hit by the unexpected. I know he gets throws every day. But there is a difference between game speed and playoff speed. And that is real. So it will be critical for Payton to keep the game as simple as possible. Just as it will be just as critical for the Pats to make him uncomfortable and unsure.

How each team succeeds in imposing their will will be fascinating intellectually.

Denver has 3 things going for it. 1. Their unfair advantage. 2. Their top 3 OL. 3. Their top 3 pass rush and top 5 D. How we overcome these 3 things should be the focus of our discussions going forward

Denver has some good things going for them coming into this game. Being a home underdog, for one. The Patriots' history of self-destructive futility there, for another.

Stid is just as capable of going out there and throwing for 300 yards as he is putting up a stinker. He is fresh. He's not beat up. The Pats' D has been merciless so far, and has not quite received the credit they deserve for making these past two quarterbacks look terrible. I think I agree with Vrabel's preparation, it's worked for every road game we've played this year.

SVN said:
i expect the offense will start slow. The noise and energy of their defense , silent count , jitters of a young team. We need to hold on defense until they settle in.

The Broncos may come out and ambush the Patriots right out of the gate. The good news is, I think the Patriots are the better team and will ultimately take control of the game.

If we find ourselves down 21-0 or 24-3 in the second quarter, we will need to settle down and get at least one score going into halftime.

Problems the Patriots may face? Well, you all know what I'm going to say.

It has to do with someone who's a finalist for Assistant Coach Of The Year. Who was our OC for two unfortunate previous AFCCG's at Denver, in which, along with taking points off the board by eschewing not long field goals for unlikely fourth downs late in the game, we (he) failed to run the football.

Even if we're down 27-0 in the second quarter, we must run the ball. For the same plethora of common sense reasons I've stated so many times before.

Enough Debbie Downer. This team, with Josh as our OC, has fought and overcome obstacles and adversity all season long. They will continue to fight, and make us proud. We have two games to go.

As for Sean Payton's fans and their 'two weeks', that's going to seem more like six months. Because it will be six months.

Actual Pats Fan · Jan 23, 2026

n1997y said:
1. I don’t think there’s much strategically to do about the altitude, other than lots of O2 bottles on the sideline and frequent rotation especially the big guys on the DL. We’ve got good depth there so that should help.

I would say, don't fight it. I use attitude (altitude?) and adrenaline to combat, or even turn into an advantage, things like jet lag, etc. The Patriots have won in Denver before.

KCSVEN · Jan 23, 2026

Tom Brady lists the top throws of 2025, only 1 QB makes the list twice, I wonder who?

TommyD4207 · Jan 23, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
I was asking a legit question. QB's do not go to silent count on every snap on the road.

They go on silent snap counts in every road game. No, it's not every snap if you get a lead or something, but they do it in every road game, at least to start. 8-0 on the road.

Although now I know where you get your talking points. That's helpful. 2 days in a row.

Ross12 · Jan 23, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Ah gotcha.

Btw, do you know who his backup is?

Davis? Usually when he is out, they put in Charles Woods.

Patsfan1645 · Jan 23, 2026

The game plan should be straight forward make Stidham drive the field 10+ plays to score. I don't think he can do this with any regularity. Its hard for any starting QB to do this consistently let alone a guy who has been holding a clipboard his entire career. The media has to report something to hype things to get ratings. This crap of getting his chance to shine is just drama. Dude has been in the league for 7 years on his third team and never won the starting job. How many coaches have watched him day in and day out and said that should be our guy? If he was starting caliber he would be a starter. Could he come in and have a great game? Sure. But I am betting he wont be the deciding factor if they win. If our O can score 3 TDs on the Texans then we certainly can hang 20+ on the Broncos. Our D has given up more than 20 points 5 times out of 16 games, I dont see the stidham stallions breaking 20. The Pats dont turn the ball over 2 or more times its their game.

40yrpatsfan · Jan 23, 2026

There's no reason the Pats going to Denver on Sunday should be any different than the Jaguars going to Denver last month. Pats and Jags are comparable teams who play at sea level. Jags won decisively, and that was with Nix playing.

The one caveat is the weather. What started as a sunny 49 degree forecast is now overcast, 22 degrees, 10 mph winds. Of course, Monday and the rest of the week will be 40's and sunny. Drake has to be extra careful, and Aurora has to be on target, as turnovers and FG's will now decide this game.

Dexter · Jan 23, 2026

PATSYLICIOUS · Jan 23, 2026

40yrpatsfan said:
There's no reason the Pats going to Denver on Sunday should be any different than the Jaguars going to Denver last month. Pats and Jags are comparable teams who play at sea level. Jags won decisively, and that was with Nix playing.

The one caveat is the weather. What started as a sunny 49 degree forecast is now overcast, 22 degrees, 10 mph winds. Of course, Monday and the rest of the week will be 40's and sunny. Drake has to be extra careful, and Aurora has to be on target, as turnovers and FG's will now decide this game.

I was looking at all the teams denver didn’t give up 23 or more points to: titans, bengals minus burrow, eagles, jets , texans (davis mills), chiefs 2x(one with 3rd string qb), raiders 2x, chargers without Herbert. None of those offenses are good, eagles included. The other 8 opponents (buff, gb, lac with herbert, jac, colts with jones, nyg, dallas, wash) have scored at least 23, unless we falter in a big way we should fall in the latter category.

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