four interceptions thrown by Texans QB C.J. Stroud<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe defense sacked Stroud three times and forced him into bad throws that found their way into Patriots hands.<\/p>\n
Carlton Davis III had two interceptions, Craig Woodson had an interception and fumble recovery and Marcus Jones returned his interception for the touchdown that gave New England the lead for good early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of what the play call was, man \u2014 you see ball, you get ball,” linebacker K\u2019Lavon Chaisson said. \u201dWe had our opportunity to make those plays happen, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
New England has never won a playoff game in Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge,\u201d said tight end Hunter Henry, who spent five seasons facing the Broncos in the AFC West while with the Chargers. \u201cWhen that place is rolling, it\u2019s going to be extremely loud. They\u2019ll be ready to go. \u2026 I know the environment will be a lot, it\u2019ll be loud and we\u2019ll have to match that intensity. So, it\u2019s a big opportunity and I know all the guys will be excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Patriots had the easiest schedule in the league this season, leaving doubts about their ability to advance once the competition improved in the playoffs. But they have now won back-to-back games over two of the top five defenses in the NFL \u2014 the Chargers (No. 5), and Texans (No. 1) \u2014 with Denver (No. 2) up next.<\/p>\n
No quarterback has ever beaten three top 5 defenses in a single postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey (the Broncos) are playing with a lot of confidence,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cThey\u2019re good on the perimeter, really good up front. The athleticism, they have size, they put a lot of pressure on you. That\u2019s just how this thing goes: Each and every week, they get tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maye put up an MVP-caliber regular season but he turned the ball over twice in the wild-card victory over the Chargers and three more times on Sunday. (He lost the ball a total of six times in the two games, but New England recovered three of them.)<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit to the defense. We knew they were going to be good, and they lived up to the hype and all the statistics, and all the ball hunting that we saw on film,\u201d Maye said. <\/p>\n
\u201dThe elements were a little tough. I have to be better with the football when I\u2019m taking off and running. From there, just know that the football is the prized possession. And when we don\u2019t turn the ball over and put the team in the best spots, I like our chances.” <\/p>\n
LB Robert Spillane left in the first quarter with a thumb injury, but returned. … RB TreVeyon Henderson was shaken up after a second-quarter run before jogging off. … S Craig Woodson left after his interception with a head injury, but returned. … RB Rhamondre Stevenson left in the second quarter with an eye issue. … Davis injured his head in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
8-0 \u2014 The Patriots are undefeated on the road this season.<\/p>\n
The winner of Sunday’s game will advance to the Super Bowl to play either the Seattle Seahawks (15-3) or Los Angeles Rams (14-5).<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NFL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — All that stands between the New England Patriots and their first trip to the Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[100818,1101,13781,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,498,15377,208,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-690953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-100818","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-athlete-injuries","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-new-england","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-nfl-football","18":"tag-nfl-super-bowl","19":"tag-patriots","20":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115927033035350183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690953","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=690953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}