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Some reactions following the Patriots’ 10-7 win against the Broncos in Denver:
1) This week, it was obvious that the focus was on minimizing turnovers and making sure Drake Maye was better when it came to ball security compared to recent weeks.
However, the result was Maye being a little tentative with the football, which saw him get dropped on a couple of plays rather than trying to extend things.
Still, as they’ve done all year, they did just enough, and things ended up working out, especially in contrast to what happened for the Broncos.
Maye ultimately never fumbled or threw an interception, and it was Jarrett Stidham on the other side who ended up being the one who was careless with the football. New England’s defense did a good job of getting pressure on him and making him run around, never letting him get comfortable in the pocket.
They harassed him all day, and save for an early 52-yard bomb he completed to help put Denver up early, that was more or less it. New England’s defense settled in and set up a long afternoon for the former Patriots quarterback.
As the game went on, Stidham became more erratic, and that’s when the mistakes started. One of those miscues ended up being big, with the Patriots defense forcing an ill-advised decision where Stidham tried to get the ball out with defenders bearing down late in the second quarter. On the play, Stidham attempted to push the ball out laterally, with the ball landing short for what turned out to be a backwards pass.
That ball ended up on the ground and was scooped up by New England’s defense deep in the Broncos’ end of the field. New England capitalized on the turnover, with Maye taking the ball in from six yards out to give the Patriots their only touchdown of the game.
Stidham also had a chance late to try and lead his team down the field to potentially kick a field goal or score, but he threw up what turned out to be an interception by Christian Gonzalez that sealed the victory.
All in all, it was Maye’s legs (10 carries, 65 yards) that became the difference, along with the fact that he ended up being the one who played mistake-free football. By the time it was late in the third quarter, the weather took the passing game out of the equation, and he and the Patriots ended up being the ones to come out on the right side of a 10-7 win to advance to the Super Bowl.
“That’s a great thing about Drake, the ability to extend plays, and if it’s not there, gain chunks, and he’s done that most of the year,” said head coach Mike Vrabel after the game. “Again, we’ll have to get a lot of things corrected, and we’ll have to play our best football game in two weeks if we want to finish champions.”
2) Mack Hollins came up with a big performance, coming up with two catches for 51 yards, on Sunday. Hollins caught a 20-yard pass early in the game on a 3rd-and-13, as well as another pass that went for 31 yards in the third quarter. He was also active throughout the game, blocking in the run game, and it was good to see him making an impact in his first game back off of injured reserve.
3) Rhamondre Stevenson was solid on Sunday, with Stevenson finishing with 25 carries for 71 yards, including a nice showing to start the 3rd quarter. New England put together a 16-play drive that went for 64 yards and ended in a field goal, but to add to that, it chewed up nearly 10 minutes and happened just as the weather was starting to turn.
By the time Denver got it back, they couldn’t get much going, and the weather deteriorated. That possession turned out to be the difference in the game, but Stevenson helped ensure that by the time the Broncos had the chance to do anything with the football, they just weren’t able to.
4) Drake Maye had a rough afternoon. He was under pressure for a good portion of the contest, and he looked nervous and indecisive, largely because it felt like he was hyper aware of trying to ensure Denver didn’t force any turnovers.
Maye finished the afternoon just 10-of-21 (47.6%) for 86 yards with just two passing first downs. What made things even more difficult was the fact that he had a brutal time on second down, completing just 2-of-8 on the afternoon for 36 yards. That caused them problems on third down, with the Patriots spending 10 of their 18 third-down attempts in 3rd-and-7 or longer, including 8 plays of 3rd-and-9 or longer.
Overall, they finished 6-of-18 (33%) on third down, with 10 of their 12 total first downs for the game coming on the ground.
Maye was also just 3-of-7 (42.9%) for 45 yards in the second half, with Maye attempting just one throw in the fourth quarter as the coaching staff shifted to running the football.
Denver spent most of the game making his life pretty tough, but give Maye credit. He came up with a huge play on that long drive, taking off for a 28-yard run on a 3rd-and-9 from the Broncos’ 45. That put them deep in Denver territory, and helped set up Andy Borregales’ go ahead 23 yard field goal.
After the game, Maye was just thankful that he was able to do his part while the defense helped close out the game.
“Knowing that protecting the football, once we got those three points out of halftime, that was a huge drive,” said Maye. “Just protect the football and let our defense keep doing their thing. It was tough elements for offense. The defenses were playing great and 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, and our defense showed up every time, time, and time again.”
5) There were some gutsy calls in this game, including the Patriots pulling out the big guns with both Khryis Tonga and Milton Williams coming into the game at one point as the Patriots faced a huge 4th-and-1 on their opening third-quarter drive. Looking at the replay, while Maye ended up being the one running the football, it was certainly close.
Fortunately, those two guys helped push just enough where the officials ruled Maye got the first down.
But Sean Payton is likely taking some heat in Denver after going for it deep in New England’s end early in the game rather than settling for a field goal. The Broncos ended up coming away empty-handed, and as the weather turned, that decision certainly loomed large when points became that much harder to get with the amount of snow coming down.
For the Patriots, they finish the year 9-0 on the road, becoming the first team in NFL history to accomplish that feat. Vrabel said it’s a group that he’s really enjoyed coaching, and he’s proud of what they’ve accomplished to this point and the way they handled all the adversity they’ve faced to get here.
“Well, it’s a group effort,” said Vrabel. “It just wasn’t me. Again, I stand up in front of you guys [the media], and I am thankful of the people that are around us in that building in our program. You have to come together, and you have to do what’s best for the team and from a personnel standpoint, from a coaching standpoint, and from the players. You get everybody to believe in something and to buy in. Again, that doesn’t come without adversity. You have to have adversity.”
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