{"id":687666,"date":"2026-01-19T01:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687666\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:46:18","slug":"2025-nfl-playoffs-odds-betting-denver-broncos-open-as-historic-underdogs-vs-patriots-in-afc-championship-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687666\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Playoffs, odds, betting: Denver Broncos open as historic underdogs vs. Patriots in AFC championship game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been an amazing season for the Denver Broncos, who rode a 14-3 record to the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Denver held on for a <a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/buffalo-bills-denver-broncos-20260117007\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills<\/a> in an instant classic in Saturday&#8217;s divisional round game. Unfortunately, starting quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the extra frame and will be out for Denver&#8217;s next game against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship.<\/p>\n<p>That means that backup QB Jarrett Stidham will get his first playoff start.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Drake Maye led the Patriots \u2014 aided by four C.J. Stroud interceptions \u2014 to a <a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nfl\/houston-texans-new-england-patriots-20260118017\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:28-16 win over the Texans;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">28-16 win over the Texans<\/a> to earn a date in Denver.<\/p>\n<p>Oddsmakers are making the Broncos historic home underdogs.<\/p>\n<p>Denver opened as a 4.5-point home underdog at <a data-i13n=\"cpos:3;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com\/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1734022\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:BetMGM;cpos:3;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">BetMGM<\/a> on Sunday night, which had already been pushed up to -5.5. That would be the biggest home underdog for a No. 1 seed in a conference championship game since at least 1970, per <a data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.covers.com\/sportsoddshistory\/nfl-playoffs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Sports Odds History;cpos:4;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Sports Odds History<\/a>. The total was set at 40.5 points.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Denver&#8217;s first appearance in an AFC title game since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s been an amazing season for the Denver Broncos, who rode a 14-3 record to the No. 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[114,925,53,1028,258,833,7,3872,249,6,84,1743],"class_list":["post-687666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-afc-championship","tag-bo-nix","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-c-j-stroud","tag-denver-broncos","tag-drake-maye","tag-football","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-the-afc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115919243717544656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}