Courtland Sutton sat in his locker and stared at the ground.<\/p>\n
Garett Bolles, still in uniform, embraced longtime equipment manager \u2018Flip\u2019 Valenti and looked for a moment like he might just keep hanging on.<\/p>\n
The two longest-tenured Broncos players have seen seasons end in the Empower Field locker room before, but not like this.<\/p>\n
Not one game from the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Not four points shy.<\/p>\n
Not so close they could almost feel the trip to California and the chance at a world championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one definitely carries some weight,\u201d Sutton said.<\/p>\n
There is a mural in the team\u2019s locker room with a dramatic mountain scape and the two words: Head West.<\/p>\n
The Broncos will not.<\/p>\n
They instead head into the offseason after getting knocked out, 10-7, by a stingy New England Patriots group and a second-half snowstorm that scuttled game plans, stopped offensive progress and magnified a series of first-half Denver mistakes that will leave head coach Sean Payton and company wondering what might have been for quite a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t able to get it done and it\u2019s tough, especially in this game,\u201d Sean Payton said, pausing momentarily with the blunt force of finality. \u201cEspecially in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In many ways, this game looked like so many the Broncos played this season.<\/p>\n
Vance Joseph\u2019s defense dominated, holding New England to one or zero first downs on 10 of its 12 full possessions and giving up a total of three points on the visitors\u2019 two sustained drives.<\/p>\n
They harassed quarterback Drake Maye, sacked him five times on 26 drop-backs and looked at times impenetrable.<\/p>\n
The only touchdown they gave up came after a Jarrett Stidham fumble left the Patriots with just 12 yards to cover.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I can\u2019t put our team in a bad position like that,\u201d said Stidham, who threw for 133 yards, an early go-ahead touchdown to Courtland Sutton and a late interception to Patriots star corner Christian Gonzalez in his first start in more than two years.<\/p>\n
In others, the final afternoon at Empower Field felt foreign. Sudden snow in the midst of this state\u2019s most mild winter in recent history. The absence of quarterback Bo Nix, who authored so much magic and engineered so many game-defining drives before fracturing his ankle last week against Buffalo. The team that had won 12 straight one-score games this year, finding itself in the most familiar of hand-to-hand tussles, only to finally suffer the knockout blow rather than deliver it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks,\u201d inside linebacker Alex Singleton said. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s it. Those are the only words for it. It\u2019s really miserable and it\u2019s going to hurt for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mother Nature threw a white blanket on each team\u2019s offense in the second half, a clear and cold morning turned clipper snowstorm of an afternoon in the span \u2014 literally \u2014 of a 13-minute halftime break.<\/p>\n
Neither team could move the ball much once the snow picked up.<\/p>\n
![\"Marcus](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-PATRIOTSAO2_7889xx.jpg\")
Marcus Jones (25) of the New England Patriots breaks up a pass intended for Lil’Jordan Humphrey (17) of the Denver Broncos during the fourth quarter of the Patriots\u2019 10-7 AFC Championship Game win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
Neither team could reliably kick the ball through the uprights, either. New England kicker Andres Borregales missed attempts from 63 just before the half and 46 in the third quarter, though he also managed to pop home a 23-yarder that stood as the final margin.<\/p>\n
Broncos kicker Wil Lutz missed from 54 before the half and then, critically, a game-tying attempt from 46 with 2:13 remaining and Denver trailing 10-7.<\/p>\n
The snow impacted that kick, too, not in Lutz\u2019s ability to convert from that distance but the operation itself.<\/p>\n
Lutz said afterward he thought he and punter Jeremy Crawshaw may have marked their spot to kick from incorrectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t see the lines on the field and honestly we might have been a yard short on the snap,\u201d Lutz said. \u2026 \u201cWe had to kind of estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Practice squad defensive lineman Leonard Taylor III generated enough pressure to get a hand up and deflect the ball and Denver\u2019s Super Bowl hopes onto a wayward trajectory.<\/p>\n
In the end, Sunday\u2019s loss started to percolate when the Broncos failed to do what they\u2019d done so well for most of 19 games before. They missed chances to take advantage.<\/p>\n
Over and over and over.<\/p>\n
Leading 7-0 and facing fourth-and-1 from the New England 14-yard line, Payton kept his offense on the field rather than attempt a short field goal in the still docile weather. The play blew up immediately and Denver walked away with nothing.<\/p>\n
The Broncos in total pushed the ball to the Patriots\u2019 36-yard line or deeper four times and came away with just seven points.<\/p>\n
Payton thought the Broncos had momentum and field position advantages throughout the first half, but \u201cwe didn\u2019t come away with enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Indeed, instead of a potential two-score lead, the Broncos led just 7-0 in the second quarter when Stidham made his biggest mistake of the game. Pressured on a manageable third-and-4, he retreated 20 yards then fumbled when he threw the ball backward in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a sack.<\/p>\n
Two plays later: Tie game.<\/p>\n
Denver\u2019s offense failed to score on its final 10 possessions and generated just 32 yards and one first down after halftime.<\/p>\n
![\"Wil](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-PATRIOTSAO2_8774xx.jpg\")
Wil Lutz (3) of the Denver Broncos jogs off the field after missing a game-tying field goal during the fourth quarter of the New England Patriots\u2019 10-7 AFC Championship Game win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
All of that, frustratingly, with the two offensive players best equipped to make plays in this kind of weather \u2014 Nix and running back J.K. Dobbins \u2014 sidelined by injury.<\/p>\n
This loss will sting the Broncos for days, weeks and months to come. The club has been back to the playoffs the past two seasons under Payton and should be competitive for years to come, but opportunities like this one \u2014 bolstered by home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and Hall of Fame-type quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow watching from home \u2014 do not come around often.<\/p>\n
As the end of the season sinks in, so, too, will the what-ifs. What if Nix had not fractured his ankle? What if Payton had taken the three points? What if a fourth-and-1 sneak by Maye had been ruled short on the field during the Patriots\u2019 go-ahead, third-quarter drive? What if Dobbins had made it back one week sooner? What if Lutz and Crawshaw could have seen the lines? What if safety Talanoa Hufanga comes up with an interception deep in Patriots territory on the first possession of the game?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had momentum,\u201d Sutton said. \u201cScoring early was huge. If \u2014 if, we can sit here and play the \u2018if\u2019 game \u2014 if we maximize on that momentum, we\u2019d have had them against the ropes. With the way the weather changed going into halftime, who knows what would have happened?<\/p>\n
\u201cI can sit here and play the \u2018if\u2019 game all day. We lost the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s life in this country\u2019s most popular, parity-driven sport. That\u2019s life on the razor\u2019s edge, all the sharper and all the more treacherous come late January.<\/p>\n
![\"Lil'Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/TDP-L-BRONCOS-PATRIOTSA03_4735xx.jpg\")
Lil’Jordan Humphrey (17), Courtland Sutton (14) and Kris Abrams-Draine (31) of the Denver Broncos sit on the bench as the clock ticks down during the fourth quarter of the New England Patriots\u2019 10-7 AFC Championship Game win at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
Before Sunday, the Broncos had won 12 straight one-score games<\/p>\n
They had won nine of 10 at Empower Field.<\/p>\n
They engineered an 11-game winning streak in the middle of the season, came from behind to win over and over and looked poised to do it again Sunday with their backup quarterback.<\/p>\n
It all looked so good until it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
It all looked like another bluebird day on the Front Range, with a ticket to the Super Bowl right there for the taking, until the wind and snow arrived and blew the Broncos into the offseason.<\/p>\n