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Whether you’re in the tank crowd or not, if you can’t find at least a little joy in the way things played our for the Patriots on Christmas Eve, you simply don’t have a soul.

New England got a game-winning 56 yard field goal from Chad Ryland with two seconds left to stun the Broncos in Denver, 26-23 just as Santa Clause was in the middle of his journey around the world.

The Pats (4-11) may have hurt their draft position – although probably not all that much with just two weeks left and games against the Bills and Jets remaining – but it’s hard not to appreciate the effort this team gave in a difficult spot on Christmas Eve down a bunch of guys.

Bailey Zappe (25-33, 256 yards, 2 TD) led a seven play, 46 yard game-winning drive with Ryland adding the finishing touches. The defense was stellar as well, led by a three-sack performance from Christian Barmore while holding Denver to just 276 total yards.

“Really proud of our guys,” said Bill Belichick postgame. “Players, coaches…came out here and had to leave some of our better players in Foxborough. Got off to a rough start, but those guys really battled back and hung in there. Our defense played great in the first quarter, great in the third quarter and then you know, Russ brought them back. We hit a couple big passes today which really helped us along the way and made some key plays.

“Missed some, made some, but made the ones we had to make and so, really happy for the hard work all of our players and coaches put in and how resilient they were coming out here and playing a team that’s really been playing well lately.

Down just 7-3 at the half despite some major missed opportunities, it was a perfect start to the third for NewEngland.

Barmore set the tone with a sack of Russell Wilson (25-37, 238 yards, 2 TD) on first down and Denver quickly went three-and-out. New England answered with an impressive drive, highlighted by a 41 yard leaping grab by Pop Douglas (5/74) and an eventual 15 yard swing pass TD to Ezekiel Elliott. Ryland’s season-long struggles continued throughout the night until the very end and a missed PAT made it 9-7.

Both Josh Uche and Barmore ended each Denver’s next two drives with sacks on third down in what was an impressive display all night long from that unit. After having to punt following the first stop, the Barmore sack forced Denver to punt from its own end zone and Myles Bryant took the kick to the Broncos’ 42. Zappe hit DeVante Parker with a dime down the left sideline a few snaps later, putting New England at the Broncos’ 12. A hold quickly pushed them back to the 22. After a screen to Tyquan Thornton got the Pats into a manageable third down at the 15, Zappe bought himself time and then hit Mike Gesicki for just his second touchdown of the year in the back of the end zone, making it a 16-7 game with 1:34 left in the quarter.

Stunningly, Denver fumbled the ensuing kick off and Cody Davis had the easiest touchdown of his life, recovering at the two yard line and falling into the end zone six seconds later to put the Pats up 16. Fittingly, Barmore came up with another strip sack on the final play of the third quarter, forcing another Broncos punt as the teams headed into the final 15 minute stanza.

Denver got the answer it desperately needed on the next drive when Marvin Mims hauled in a deep ball with an impressive diving catch that was reviewed and eventually upheld. A few plays later, Wilson hit his tight end Luke Krull for a short TD and a two-point conversion cut it to 23-15 with 8;33 remaining.

After forcing another Pats’ punt, Russ Wilson led an 11 play, 78 yard drive that ended with a Brandon Johnson touchdown catch. The gotta-have-it two-point attempt was also good, tying things up at 23-23 and just 2:53 to go. Playing calling got awfully conservative and another Patriots three-and-out soon meant a punt, giving the Broncos the ball back with 1:42 to go at the Broncos’ 39. That came after a Bryce Baringer touchback was negated by an illegal formation, with Denver forcing the Pats to re-kick.

Stunningly, Denver went three-&-out and Zappe had one more chance to lead a game-winning drive, taking over at the Pats’ 19 with 0:58 left.

After two handoffs to Zeke that appeared as if New England was playing for OT, Zappe hit DeVante Parker for 27 yards to the Broncos’ 47. A five yard dump off over the middle to Zeke and then a four yard slant to Gesicki followed. Zappe quickly got the team set and spiked the ball – a spike that was eerily reminiscent of Brady’s spike in the 2001 Super Bowl, as the ball softly landed in Zappe’s outstretched palm.

That left Ryland – who missed a field goal and a the PAT earlier in the game – to absolutely dril the game-winner as Zappe leapt for joy on the sidelines.

“I’m going to enjoying these next few days, Christmas, everything and then get right back at it,” Zappe said. “Going into that last drive…just get close enough to you know where we have a shot…and (Chad) made a hell of a kick. That was unbelievable.”

“Often times, you find the greatest treasure in the darkest caves and I’ve obviously been struggling a bit this year,” said Ryland. “I was really, really fortunate to be surrounded by a team that believes in me and that helps me be able to continue to move forward with my process and then go ahead and knock the last one down.”

For a game that had such little offense early, the first five minutes or so were absolutely electric.

Zappe was strip sacked on the very first play of the game deep in Patriots territory and Denver recovered, setting up 1st-&-goa at the sixl. Four plays later, the Pats’ defense got a stuff to force a turnover on downs after it appeared Mack Wilson got an interception in the end zone on 3rd-&-goal, but the ball hit the ground upon further review. The teams traded punts and the Broncos got a huge return from Mims for 52 yards down to the New England 25.  On its first three drives, Denver’s average starting position was the Pats’ 26.

With 5:15 left in the first Javonte Williams rumbled in from five yards out to make the Mims return hurt and put Denver up 7-0.

Zappe and Bill O’Brien put together a nice 13-play drive that lasted 6:45 and spanned 61 yards with a big 28 yard throw to Jalen Reagor serving as the biggest play during the sequence. Eventually, New England stalled inside the 20 and settled for a 33 yard Ryland field goal to make it 7-3 less than two minutes into the second quarter.

Denver almost immediately moved down to the Patriots 38, but Jahlani Tavai came up with a strip of Jaleel McGlaughlin on a bit of a broken play after he caught a rushed dump off from Wilson. Jeremiah Pharms then ripped the ball away from a Broncos’ offensive lineman on the bottom of the pile for a fumble recovery at the Pats’ 39. Unfortunately, the offense continued to struggle and quickly went three-and-out.

Both defenses continued to make life difficult on the offenses and Mack Wilson showed up again, getting a strip sack of Russ Wilson on a late Denver drive, but the Broncos recovered and punted.

In a frantic end to the half, the Pats wasted another golden opportunity on the ensuing drive and Denver almost responded, but couldn’t.

Zappe took off on a 3rd-&-6 scramble with under a minute to go to keep the chains moving, but Vedarian Lowe was called for a hold. After a draw to Zeke on 3rd-&-16 – a peculiar call at 3-11 – Ryland’s struggles continued as he missed a 57 yarder very wide right. Russell Wilson quickly got the Broncos downfield and in field goal range with 0:02 remaining, but Will Lutz was wide left, sending the teams to the locker room still separated by just four points.

“It was kind of an Opposite Day for us,” added Zappe. “We’ve been starting fast the last few weeks. We started very slow. First play of the game I fumble and then from there, you could just see the momentum for us…it was like ‘alright, we can move the ball on these guys,’ and that was kind of the whole mentality for us.”

In the grand scheme of things, the loss could end up hurting New England’s future more than it helps it, but if you’ve been around the guys in that locker room or saw their reactions postgame, you know how much this one meant to all of them.

As the team arrives home very, very early Monday morning while their kids and loved ones are just starting to wipe sleep from their eyes and open their Christmas gifts from Santa, it’ll be a holiday they won’t soon forget, even if the season has been up to this point.

“Yeah, of course, absolutely,” Belichick added when asked if the win would make Christmas a little sweeter. “Happy Holidays everyone.”