Pros & ConsW 10–7Jan 25, 20264 min read

Conference Championship: Patriots 10 – Broncos 7

By PatConference Championship

Patriots celebrate in the locker room after winning the conference championship in Denver — Mike Vrabel and the Patriots advance to the Super Bowl in his first year as a coach.

Introduction

It took an act of God (Bo Nix getting hurt, the snow, Jarret Stidham thinking shotputting a football is a good idea, etc.) but the Patriots have actually won a playoff game in Mile High stadium. I don't think the media has done a very good job of explaining how rare this is so I will do it for them. Here are the facts:

The Patriots once went 30 years without winning a single game in Denver 1969-1998
This is the first time ever that the Patriots won a playoff game in Mile High Stadium. We had previously lost during the 2005 season with Jake Plummer as QB. In 2013 with the infamous Wes Wellker hit on Aqib Talib and most recently in the 2015 playoffs when Manning could barely throw but Von Miller was completely unblockable.
When we do beat Denver in the regular season it is usually because they have a bad team and we have a good team. When Denver has a good team we almost always lose. The two times I can remember that we won in Denver and they had a good team was in 2003 and 2013. The 2003 game is one of my favorite Patriots wins ever, I stayed up late with my dad on a Monday night and watched the Patriots on the final drive of the game with a TD pass to David Givens with 30 seconds remaining. This is the famous game where Bill Belichick decided to take a safety by having the long snapper hit the goal posts to improve their field position for a punt. The 2013 win took another series of unlikely events to get the win as well. In this game, BB decided that Peyton Manning will not beat us and dared the Broncos to run. Well that is exactly what they did, Knowshon Moreno ended up gaining over 200 yards rushing. It took a late Wes Welker fumble on a punt to turn the tide and get us a win.

In both of those games I remember thinking I can't believe we won that game and this win is no different. This was the only way we were ever going to win in Denver, it was never going to be pretty. So ignore everything the media says, the patriots winning in Denver (no matter how it looks) is like lightning striking and serves as a good omen looking ahead to the Super Bowl. If we can win in Denver, anything can happen.

Pros

The Patriots defense is on fire. Defense still wins championships and the Pats defense is putting up championship numbers. During the playoffs, the Pats defense is allowing 8.7 points per game, has 8 takeaways and has registered 12 sacks. No one is talking about how dominant the Patriots defense has been because they don't have many big names and Christian Gonzalez is the only player to make the Pro Bowl. This reminds me a lot of the 2001 team
Milton Williams and Christian Barmore continue to reek havoc from the middle of the defensive line. The broncos have one of the best offensive lines in the league and some all-pro guards. As usual, accolades do not matter, performance does. Pressure up the middle is killer for a QB because it prevents them from stepping up in the pocket to avoid the rush and makes it difficult to put their body weight behind a throw.
Drake Maye did not have the best game again but his guts and running ability made the plays when we needed them the most
While Campbell had a missed block that was replayed multiple times on the broadcast, he did not allow a sack yesterday. I watched him almost every play and I thought he played much better than the previous two games. With two weeks to rest up before the super bowl, I am hoping he can heal up and return to who he was during the regular season

Cons

The main question mark from these games and going into the Super Bowl is the offense. Can the offense return to the form that we saw during the regular season. Is the lack of production caused by a fatal combination of inclement weather and top tier defensive competition or is the step up in competition too much for this unit? Many are predicting a blowout in the Super Bowl, I do not see that coming. The Patriots are 4.5 point underdogs and deservedly so, the Seahawks have looked like the stronger team all year. However, the Patriots have faced many top tier offenses during the regular season and the defense has held up well. Our defense is going to keep us in this game provided that the offense doesn't turn the ball over. If the offense can show up, I think we have a good chance to pull off the upset.

Written by Pat — independent Patriots and UCLA commentary. New posts after each game.

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