Image courtesy of Newsday
DENVER, CO – “This is not real. It’s a simulation.”
As Garrett Bradbury stood in the giant visitors locker room at Empower Field – stilly fully padded – his smile was impossible to wipe away from his face. He was almost speechless.
Bradbury chirped Will Campbell as he was interviewed, yelling ‘you’re 21! What do you know about this?!’ As he answered a few questions of mine, the pure joy and stunned reaction was totally understandable. Meanwhile, some players ran off the field and into the locker room noting how much they had heard about the Denver O-line and defense this week.
Miller Lites were flowing too.
It was about a half hour after the Patriots stunned over 76,000 fans in snowy Denver on Sunday, clinching an improbable, downright make believe 10-7 AFC Championship win, locking up a trip to Santa Clara in two weeks while also improving to 15-3.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since high school,” Campbell said during his scrum.
To call this one bowling shoe ugly would be an insult to bowling shoes. In the first quarter, the Patriots ran 12 plays and had 12 yards. Denver led 7-0 after the first 15 minutes after Jarrett Stidham found Cortland Sutton for a six-yard TD on the Broncos’ second drive. That was set up by a 52-yard bomb to Marvin Mims after he beat Christian Gonzalez.
Early in the second quarter, the Patriots came up with a massive 4th-&-1 stop at their own 14. The Pats couldn’t capitalize – punting for the fourth time in four drives – but, five plays later, Christian Elliss pressured Stidham as he mind bogglingly kept running backwards. He fumbled and Christian Ponder picked it up for an apparent scoop-and-score, but the play was blown dead, giving New England the ball at the Denver 12.
Two plays later, Maye ran it in on a designed run from six-yards out and Andy Borregales’ extra point made it 7-7 with 2:10 left in the half. Both teams had opportunities for go ahead field goals in the closing minutes of the half, but both were missed, keeping things locked at 7-7 heading into halftime.
“It wasn’t hard,” Kayshon Boutte said when asked how hard it was to focus on the day-to-day process this week and not look ahead at what could be. “In order to get there we had to get through this. So, I think we did a good job. 10-7, kind of a sloppy game, but we’ll take a win. A win is a win. Two weeks in Santa Clara, we get another shot at it.”
Just as the second half started, the snow moved in. By midway through the third quarter, it was almost impossible to see the field at times.
Still, the Pats opened the third quarter with a much-needed 16-play, nearly 10-minute drive, but had to settle for a 22-yard Borregales field goal. That came after a 4th-&-1 tush push using Milton Williams and Khyiris Tonga that was almost completely stuffed. Over the next 5:24 of the third, the defense forced a three-and-out, the Pats ran a 31-yard flea flicker to Mack Hollins and Borregales missed a 46-yard field goal, leaving it still 10-7 heading to the fourth.
Punt, punt, punt, punt ensued as the weather caused major issues. With 6:55 remaining, the Broncos missed a 45-yard field goal, but the Pats quickly had to punt again. But, with 2:11 remaining, Stidham finally gave the Pats a gift, lofting a bad ball in the air that floated forever and came down into the arms of a leaping Christian Gonzalez.
After the two minute warning, Maye’s third down run to the left side for a first down officially sent the Pats to the Super Bowl.
Now, this magical, almost unexplainable run in 2025 has the Patriots 60 minutes away from ring No. 7 and arguably, the sweetest one of them all.
“This is insane. I’m speechless,” added Bradbury. “Building this…we came together in April. Nobody knew anyone. Half the roster was new. To bring Vrabel’s vision to life has been everything. It’s been the most rewarding year of football of my life.”