After backup-turned-starter Jarrett Stidham followed a 52-yard completion to Marvin Mims with a 6-yard touchdown toss to Courtland Sutton on Denver’s second possession of the AFC Championship Game, the outlook seemed sunny for the Broncos on Sunday.

But Denver didn’t score again as the game degraded into a snowstorm, and the Broncos’ season ended with a 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots.

An ankle injury to Bo Nix in last week’s 33-30 overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills last week left Denver seeking a spot in Super Bowl LX with a backup quarterback who had taken four snaps during the 2025 season and most recently threw a pass in an NFL regular-season game on Jan. 7, 2024.

No quarterback had started a conference-title game with as few career starts as Stidham, who had four. But on the Denver offense’s sixth snap, the former Auburn QB found Mims far down the field, then cashed in with a touchdown pass.

“It was fun to get back out there with the guys,” Stidham said. “I mean, moments like this is why you play the game. This is why you grow up playing the game of football and all the long hours that you put into it, offseason, in-season, all those things. I mean, this is why we do what we do. So I was obviously super excited for the opportunity today and just hate that we fell short.”

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The Broncos had the opportunity to take a 10-0 lead but instead had an incompletion on fourth-and-1 at the New England 14 with 9:22 left in the first half.

“Felt like the first half, we really moved the ball pretty well at times,” Stidham said, “and we were kind of moving the ball really well on that drive, and you get an opportunity fourth-and-1 and convert and try to go up 14 if you can, I mean, that’s part of it. So it just didn’t work out on that one play, and, you know, that’s just football.”

On Denver’s next possession, Stidham tried to push a pass away while being sacked. Originally ruled intentional grounding, the play was changed to a backward pass, which made it a fumble recovered by New England on the Broncos 12-yard line. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye turned the turnover into a touchdown with a 6-yard run two snaps later as New England tied the score at 7-7 with 2:10 left in the first half.

“I can’t put our team in a bad position like that,” Stidham said. “I was trying to throw it away to (running back Tyler Badie). He was in the area. And the pressure, he just got up on me real fast, and I was trying to get rid of it, and, like I said, I just can’t put the ball in a position like that, so that was completely on me.

“I thought I’d thrown it forwards, and then, obviously, the replay or whatever said differently. So, like I said, just probably should have just eaten the sack anyway, and let Jeremy (Crawshaw) and the punt team punt it down the field and flip the field. But like I said, I can’t do that.”

Denver’s Wil Lutz missed a 54-yard field-goal attempt with 20 seconds left in the first half.

New England’s Andres Borregales made a 23-yard field goal to conclude a 16-play, 64-yard, 9:31 drive to open the second half.

That’s when the snowstorm hit. Stidham completed 5-of-10 passes for 10 yards with no touchdowns and one interception in the second half.

“The conditions are what they are,” Stidham said. “I mean, both teams were playing in it.”

Even though the Broncos offense had only one first down in the second half, Lutz had an opportunity to tie the score with a 45-yard field goal with 4:42 to play. But Patriots defensive lineman Leonard Taylor III got a hand on the kick, and the football fluttered wide left.

Denver had one remaining possession, and it ended with cornerback Christian Gonzalez’s interception off Stidham.

For the game, Stidham completed 17-of-31 passes for 133 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran four times for 23 yards.

“I thought he fought hard in tough conditions,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said. “I think we’re going to look at the film. I know this: I’m going to look at it and be critical of myself.”