{"id":65032,"date":"2026-01-26T04:30:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=65032"},"modified":"2026-01-26T00:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T05:14:18","slug":"morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2026\/01\/26\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\/","title":{"rendered":"MORSE: Good, Bad, and Ugly as Patriots Move On to Super Bowl LX"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!\u00a0 The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl!<\/p>\n<p>Did I say the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl?<\/p>\n<p>The remarkable season continues with a hard-fought AFC Championship 10-7 victory.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t pretty, and the cold and snow made it nearly impossible to play, but a Drake Maye naked bootleg sealed the victory and punched their ticket to Santa Clara.<\/p>\n<h2>The Good<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The underrated Defense stood tall again by forcing a Jarrett Stidham turnover, which led to their only TD. In the second half, Christian Gonzalez made up for giving up the only big play by Denver by Intercepting Stidham. They also had a turnover on downs when Sean Payton failed to kick a Field Goal and Craig Woodson nearly picked off the pass.<\/li>\n<li>The Defense held the Denver running game to 79 yards rushing and forced Jarrett Stidham to try and beat them through the air. I thought the Patriots&#8217; D-line dominated the #1 Offensive line of the Broncos.\u00a0 They put pressure on Stidham all game.\u00a0 Christian Barmore easily handled All-Pro Quinn Meinerz and turned him into a turnstile.<\/li>\n<li>A brilliant move by Zak Kuhr was to flop K\u2019Lavon Chaisson and Anfernee Jennings. This allowed Chaisson to go up against Mike McGlinchey rather than All-Pro Garrett Bolles.\u00a0 \u00a0Overall, the Pats had 3 sacks against the best pass-blocking line in the league.<\/li>\n<li>The key series in the game was the Pats&#8217; opening drive of the 3rd Quarter, which started at the NE 31-yard line. The Patriots ran a 16-play drive that consumed 9:31 off the clock and kicked a 23-yard game winning Field Goal.\u00a0 On the drive, Maye went 2 for 3 and a sack, but they ran the ball 11 times. \u00a0The big run was a 28-yard scramble by Maye.<\/li>\n<li>Interesting that the Pats O-line gave up 5 sacks for 31 yards, the same number of yards the Patriots got in 3 sacks.<\/li>\n<li>Stidham was 17 of 31 for 138 yards and a TD. \u00a0\u00a0Take away that one deep pass he was able to complete, he had 80 yards on 30 other dropbacks.<\/li>\n<li>I called the Maye naked rollout to seal the game. My wife, who was watching the game with me, is the only person who could validate that.\u00a0 In Maye\u2019s post-game press conference, he revealed that he ran that play on his own, and it was not the called play.\u00a0 He stiff-armed Denver LB Jonah Elliss (Christian Elliss\u2019 brother) to get the game-ending 1<sup>st<\/sup> down.<\/li>\n<li>No Patriots turnovers in the game under very brutal weather.\u00a0 The Defense had two big Takeaways. Drake Maye ate the ball and took sacks rather than trying to force a play.\u00a0 He also didn\u2019t have any fumbles in this bad weather game.<\/li>\n<li>Leonard Taylor was called up from the Patriots&#8217; practice squad for the game. The 6\u20194\u201d, 305-pound DT had a huge Field Goal block, which would have tied the game.\u00a0 Taylor was an Undrafted Free Agent from the 2024 Draft, signed by the Jets.\u00a0 They waived him in October, and the next day, the Patriots signed him.<\/li>\n<li>The Patriots (not necessarily Maye) beat three top 5 Defenses and that is the 1<sup>st<\/sup> time a team has done this.\u00a0 I would say that Maye did enough to win because the Defense held down the opponents.<\/li>\n<li>The Patriots are the 1<sup>st<\/sup> Team to go 9-0 on the road in a season<\/li>\n<li>Drake Maye will be the youngest (23) QB to start a game in the Super Bowl.<\/li>\n<li>The Patriots beat the Denver curse and beat the Broncos in an AFC Championship in Mile High Stadium for the first time. Neither Belichick nor Brady could do that<\/li>\n<li>Christian Elliss had the big play on the strip sack of Jarrett Stidham.<\/li>\n<li>The Patriots are going to the Super Bowl to be the 1<sup>st<\/sup> team to go to the Super Bowl in 5 straight Decades<\/li>\n<li>The Patriots ran the ball 38 times for 141 yards, 3.7 YPC.\u00a0 Despite the Broncos knowing the Patriots were going to run the ball.\u00a0 Stevenson was a workhorse with 25 carries for 71 yards, and Drake Maye had 10 carries for 65 yards.\u00a0 Stevenson should be given credit for his ball security as Denver was desperately trying to strip the ball out of his hands.<\/li>\n<li>Carlton Davis led the team with 7 Tackles, Christian Gonzalez, Marcus Jones, and Jack Gibbens had 6 each.<\/li>\n<li>Gibbens filled in admirably in Robert Spillane\u2019s absence.<\/li>\n<li>Vrabel is the first Head Coach to go to the Super Bowl with the same franchise he played for. He has a chance to also win a Super Bowl as a coach and as a player.<\/li>\n<li>Brilliant play call of the QB draw for the TD. Garrett Bradbury had his man pushed deep into the End Zone.<\/li>\n<li>You have to love Coach Vrabel\u2019s breakdown of the team in the locker room after the game. He yelled out \u201cWarriors,\u201d and then he said \u201cCome out and play\u201d.\u00a0 This was from the movie \u201cthe Warriors\u201d where two rival gangs fought.\u00a0 Mack Hollins even dressed in Warrior\u2019s attire before the game.\u00a0 It could also be a reference to the Patriots being Road Warriors with the 9-0 record.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Bad<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>This was not Drake Maye\u2019s best game. He finished 10 of 21 for 86 yards.\u00a0 He is the 1<sup>st<\/sup> QB to win an AFC Championship game while throwing for under 100 yards.\u00a0 Part of this was that the team was trying to run the ball to take time off the clock.\u00a0 The Patriots ran the ball 29 times in the second half.\u00a0 They had the ball for 21 minutes in the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> half to the Broncos&#8217; 9 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Jaylinn Hawkins had a bad game. It appeared that Christian Gonzalez was expecting help over the top on the 1st Quarter deep pass, and Hawkins was nowhere to be found.\u00a0 \u00a0Hawkins got caught peaking in the backfield on the Sutton TD too.<\/li>\n<li>The weather was a huge factor. Greg Bedard reported that the local Denver weathermen did not predict that the snow would be that heavy.\u00a0 If Sean Payton knew that the weather was going to be that bad, he would have kicked that Field Goal.<\/li>\n<li>This was bad for the Patriots. Denver punter Jeremy Crawshaw was the best player on the field for the Broncos.\u00a0 He had 6 punts and averaged 51 yards per kick.\u00a0 He had three of those kicks inside the 20.\u00a0 He kept the ball away from Marcus Jones, and he only had one return.<\/li>\n<li>That was the 1st time that Denver has lost at a temperature under 50 degrees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Ugly<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sean Payton got greedy and tried to get a 2<sup>nd<\/sup> TD, foregoing a chip shot Field Goal. The Patriots got tremendous pressure on Stidham, and he threw it short.\u00a0 The ball should have been picked off by Craig Woodson.<\/li>\n<li>What were the officials thinking when they blew the play dead on the fumbled backward pass by Stidham? They usually let the play run through because all turnovers are automatically reviewed.\u00a0 That cost Elijah Ponder a scoop and score.\u00a0 Luckily, it didn\u2019t hurt the Pats, as Drake Maye ran a QB draw for the TD.<\/li>\n<li>Bryce Barringer nearly lost the game with his ineffective punting. He had 8 punts for a 37.9 average and only 1 inside the 20.\u00a0 I have the Patriots drafting a Punter in the Draft.<\/li>\n<li>Sean Payton kept spouting his mouth off all week and gave the Patriots bulletin board material on how the Broncos fans will have two weeks to get ready for their next game \u2026 jackass.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0Quotes<\/h2>\n<p>Milton Williams asked if he thinks the Patriots&#8217; defense has been &#8216;overlooked and underrated&#8217; &#8220;Definitely. All year. And we&#8217;ve got that chip on our shoulder to come out here every time we step between those white lines and show everybody who we are. And that&#8217;s the bottom line.&#8221;\u00a0 He also was heard saying, \u201cNo. 1 offensive line can kiss my ass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nate Tice said, \u201cBroncos subbed late on the Stidham INT in the 4th quarter. It allowed the Patriots to take their time and run their biggest DL on while the ref sat on the football and the clock kept ticking. You can feel the entire operation get hurried.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Somebody should tell Stephen A. Smith that Zak Kuhr is the Defensive Play Caller and not Terrell Williams, who has been out battling cancer since before the Pre-season.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Andrade posted, \u201cThe Patriots have allowed 26 points across 3 playoff games to reach Super Bowl LX. The only team to allow fewer points over 3 playoff games before a Super Bowl appearance was the 2000 Ravens (allowed 16 points).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Evan Lazar posted \u201cDefense wins AFC championships: the Patriots become the first team in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl a year after losing 13+ games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Patriots defy odds, winning the AFC Championship 10-7 against Denver to reach Super Bowl LX. Here&#8217;s the Good, Bad, and Ugly of their hard-fought victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":64996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_pfeai_meta_description":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[24061,2313,24152,22492,23269,24096,796,23466,23801,2013,23698,24151,664,23933,8,24156,24154,24050,22588,24155,90,24117,23922,24153,23664],"class_list":["post-65032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-news","tag-afc-championship","tag-anfernee-jennings","tag-broncos","tag-christian-barmore","tag-christian-gonzalez","tag-coaching-decisions","tag-defense","tag-drake-maye","tag-jack-gibbens","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-klavon-chaisson","tag-leonard-taylor","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-offense","tag-patriots","tag-post-game-analysis","tag-punting","tag-quarterback-play","tag-rhamondre-stevenson","tag-road-warriors","tag-sean-payton","tag-super-bowl-lx","tag-turnovers","tag-weather-impact","tag-zak-kuhr"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MORSE: Good, Bad, and Ugly as Patriots Move On to Super Bowl LX<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patriots defy odds, winning the AFC Championship 10-7 against Denver to reach Super Bowl LX. Here&#039;s the Good, Bad, and Ugly of their hard-fought victory.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2026\/01\/26\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MORSE: Good, Bad, and Ugly as Patriots Move On to Super Bowl LX | PatsFans.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patriots defy odds, winning the AFC Championship 10-7 against Denver to reach Super Bowl LX. Here&#039;s the Good, Bad, and Ugly of their hard-fought victory.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2026\/01\/26\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PatsFans.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pfans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-26T09:30:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_28085841_168390408_lowres.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Morse\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@patsfans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@patsfans\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mark Morse\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0875cc85178886af95675a008e5fca25\"},\"headline\":\"MORSE: Good, Bad, and Ugly as Patriots Move On to Super Bowl LX\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-26T09:30:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1438,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/USATSI_28085841_168390408_lowres.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AFC Championship\",\"Anfernee Jennings\",\"Broncos\",\"Christian Barmore\",\"Christian Gonzalez\",\"Coaching Decisions\",\"defense\",\"Drake Maye\",\"Jack Gibbens\",\"Jarrett Stidham\",\"K'Lavon Chaisson\",\"Leonard Taylor\",\"Mike Vrabel\",\"Offense\",\"Patriots\",\"Post-Game Analysis\",\"Punting\",\"Quarterback Play\",\"Rhamondre Stevenson\",\"Road Warriors\",\"Sean Payton\",\"Super Bowl LX\",\"Turnovers\",\"Weather Impact\",\"Zak Kuhr\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Patriots News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/\",\"name\":\"MORSE: Good, Bad, and Ugly as Patriots Move On to Super Bowl LX\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/26\\\/morse-good-bad-and-ugly-as-patriots-move-on-to-super-bowl-lx\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.patsfans.com\\\/patriots\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/USATSI_28085841_168390408_lowres.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-26T09:30:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Patriots defy odds, winning the AFC Championship 10-7 against Denver to reach Super Bowl LX. 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