Though the Super Bowl is the true summit, playoff football is close to its peak during the conference championship round. Games are played in home stadiums. Teams are more familiar with their opponents. All the commercial flourishes are cut by cold air and sharp tension.
Sunday’s doubleheader opens with the New England Patriots at the Denver Broncos. Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye try to scale the Rocky Mountains for an upstart Super Bowl bid. Sean Payton and Denver’s defense look to stampede the stage with icy horsepower. Here’s what viewers should watch for as the AFC bracket closes.
How to watch Patriots at Broncos (AFC Championship Game)
CBS is free over the air. It’s also available on Paramount+.
New England Patriots
This is Vrabel’s first season as Patriots head coach. It’s Maye’s second season as an NFL quarterback. To this point, their success is whole calendars ahead of schedule.
After back-to-back 4-13 campaigns, the Pats flipped it around to top the AFC East at 14-3. Maye glided to MVP candidacy with downfield dimes and refined pocket presence. Christian Gonzalez earned his first Pro Bowl nod in lockdown corner coverage. The team overall ranked No. 2 in points scored, No. 4 in points allowed and No. 1 in yardage differential during the 2025 regular season.
Back in his linebacker days, Vrabel became an early fixture of Bill Belichick defenses. Suitably, Vrabel’s current squad has hardened and constricted for postseason football. New England gave up three points in its wild-card stomp past the Los Angeles Chargers. Free-agent additions K’Lavon Chaisson and Milton Williams each sacked Justin Herbert twice.
In divisional action, the secondary picked off C.J. Stroud four times — Carlton Davis III had two instinctive interceptions, while Marcus Jones took his turnover to the house (the Gillette Stadium Lighthouse). Maye stamped the result with this dart in snow globe-like conditions to Kayshon Boutte:
The Patriots arrive in the altitude with a perfect 8-0 road record. Their two-year turnaround has been remarkable, and an ultimate worst-to-first drive is two exits away. “Sail on, on a distant highway,” from Boston to eternity.
Denver Broncos
Last weekend introduced a new kind of playoff whiplash. The Broncos built a 23-10 lead on the Buffalo Bills, then watched Josh Allen renegade his way to a fourth-quarter comeback. Denver simultaneously won the unforgettable overtime and lost its franchise QB on the final drive.
As Bo Nix now recovers from season-ending ankle surgery, the Broncos ride with backup slinger Jarrett Stidham, who was drafted by the Patriots in 2019. The 29-year-old has just four career starts and hasn’t completed a pass since the 2023 season, but he might not need to do much given the punishers behind him.
Sunday’s host landed its top seed and first-round bye due to three-level defense. Coordinated by Vance Joseph and paced by reigning Defensive Player of the Year Pat Surtain II, Denver led the league in sacks, net yards per pass attempt and red zone conversion rate. The Broncos then forced five takeaways in the divisional drama. Elite talents trace the 3-4 defense: Surtain and fellow All-Pro Talanoa Hufanga as DBs, Nik Bonitto and Zach Allen on the D-line.
Per NFL Media, Stidham has the fewest career starts of any QB heading into a conference championship game since 1970. It’s a daunting task, yet not a solitary one. His protection is the sport’s best, according to sack rate.
Courtland Sutton can be a reliable first read at 6-foot-4. Marvin Mims Jr. comes off his best performance of the season; he seems to widen his catch radius when clutch moments come. Rookie receiver Pat Bryant, who exited due to a concussion last week, has been cleared to return, though running back J.K. Dobbins remains out with a foot injury. And Payton schemes quick-release offense with the fervor of an H.G. Wells protagonist. Last Saturday, he made an open look for … Frank Crum, backup lineman turned postseason hero.
The specifics of Stidham’s situation are unprecedented, but there’s something of a blueprint in the bigger picture. In 1972, Earl Morrall replaced the injured Bob Griese, who then returned to lead the Miami Dolphins to a Super Bowl win. Jeff Hostetler did the same for Phil Simms in 1990, and then started (and won) Super Bowl XXV for the New York Giants. The winningest player in NFL history went from QB2 to Super Bowl savior in 2001.
We’ll know if “another one came on the waves” by Sunday evening. Denver has its “Orange Crush” in tow.
The broadcast: “It all comes down to this”
Jim Nantz is on play-by-play. He brings a singular blend of gold polish and dramatic punch — the enduring voice of the Masters, plus a longtime narrator of March Madness. Because CBS usually gets the AFC marquees, Nantz has had big January calls for Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Patrick Mahomes. If Sunday stays close down the stretch, Maye and Stidham will get his spirited refrain of “it alllllllll comes down to this.”
Tony Romo rounds out the booth in color commentary. The former Dallas Cowboys QB likes to predict offensive sets and belt, “here we go, Jim!” on third downs. Nantz and Romo were just in Denver for last Saturday’s stunner. Together, the duo marked a mismatch and trumpeted a go-ahead touchdown in real time:
With Tre White out, the Broncos went at Dane Jackson pic.twitter.com/fDTvvfttnm
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) January 18, 2026
Tracy Wolfson and Evan Washburn are the sideline reporters. The pregame centerpiece starts at 1 p.m. ET, two hours before kickoff. “NFL Today” is hosted by James Brown, with Bill Cowher and Nate Burleson in analysis. The studio show added Kyle Long and Kirk Cousins to the desk for the divisional and conference championship rounds.
AFC Championship Game history
Under Brady and Belichick, the Patriots made an absurd 13 AFC title games between 2001-18. They claimed six Super Bowls from the extended run. New England is 11-4 overall in the championship round, and it won its first five tries — with Tony Eason at quarterback in 1985, Drew Bledsoe in 1996, and Brady in 2001, 2003 and 2004. That streak was snapped in 2006, when Manning’s Indianapolis Colts finally broke through in an RCA Dome classic.
Meanwhile, Denver is 8-2 in this round. The franchise’s earliest triumph was the 1977 AFC Championship Game, where Red Miller and the Broncos survived John Madden’s Oakland Raiders. Their only blemishes here were 1991 (Bills) and 2005 (Pittsburgh Steelers). The Broncos have three Super Bowl wins — one with Manning at QB, two with John Elway.
Head-to-head matchups
Denver leads the all-time playoff series 4-1. Home teams are 5-0.
Broncos 22, Patriots 17 (1986 divisional round)
Elway completed just 13 of his 32 attempts, but his team was buoyed by Sammy Winder on the ground and Rulon Jones off the edge. Eason took six sacks across 30 dropbacks. Dan Reeves and Denver advanced to the AFC Championship Game in Cleveland, where Elway authored “The Drive” against the Browns. Then the Broncos hit Super Bowl XXI and were outdone by the Giants.
Broncos 27, Patriots 13 (2005 divisional round)
The first of Belichick’s three Mile High knockout losses, this one against Mike Shanahan. Champ Bailey sealed the W with a coast-to-coast INT return. It might be the peak highlight for his Hall of Fame run. The Broncos fell to the Steelers that following Sunday.
Patriots 45, Broncos 10 (2011 divisional round)
A cold-water luge to the Tim Tebow fever dream. Denver earned a second playoff game because of the Tebow-to-Demaryius Thomas revelation. New England then cooked up a 45-10 blowout as reward. Brady passed for 363 yards and six scores. Rob Gronkowski’s receiving line was 10 catches for 145 yards and three TDs. The Patriots rolled to Super Bowl XLVI, where Eli Manning proved to be dynastic kryptonite.
Broncos 26, Patriots 16 (2013 conference championship)
A Brady-Peyton Manning title tilt. Manning still had the zip on his deep ball and threw for exactly 400 yards, 134 of which went to the late legend Thomas. John Fox’s side was up 23-3 in the fourth quarter and finished with a 10-point win. After that came Super Bowl XLVIII, the full-on beatdown from the Seattle Seahawks. That potential rematch is one of four permutations left on the table this year.
Broncos 20, Patriots 18 (2015 conference championship)
The final postseason pairing of Brady and the older Manning brother. The latter lobbed two first-half TDs to Owen Daniels. Denver’s defense was liquid nitrogen; Von Miller balled out with 2 1/2 sacks and an interception. New England rallied to a 20-18 deficit when Brady found Gronkowski at end zone’s edge. But the 2-point try to tie was denied by Aqib Talib. That sent Gary Kubiak and the Broncos to Super Bowl 50, which they won off the strength of Miller’s turbo dominance.
Updated odds
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