60 of 64 offensive snaps<\/a>, and finished the game with 71 rushing yards on 25 carries. He did showcase his trademark combination of power and elusiveness, but more often than not was limited to a marginal gain; he had just two explosive runs of 10-plus yards on the day. In addition, Stevenson looked solid as a pass protector yet again and was credited with only one hurry surrendered despite facing the top pass-rushing defense in the NFL this year. | Grade: B<\/p>\nWide receiver: Mack Hollins\u2019 return had a positive effect on New England\u2019s offense, and the veteran finished with a team-high 51 receiving yards on two catches as well as some good blocking on the ground. Not every wideout on the team had quite the same impact, though. Kayshon Boutte caught just one 6-yard pass, while Stefon Diggs finished with 17 yards despite hauling in five catches. DeMario Douglas and Kyle Williams, meanwhile, finished without any touches; the lone target between the two fell incomplete. It was a relatively quiet day from the group, with its separation oftentimes minimal. | Grade: C<\/p>\n
Tight end: Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper were actively involved against the Broncos, but primarily employed as blockers rather than receiving targets. Like the rest of the line, they had some good moments mixed with some challenging reps \u2014 about the results you would expect against a defense as talented as Denver\u2019s. The pass game contributions, however, were limited. Henry hauled in two passes for 12 yards and had a drop, while Hooper was not targeted all day. | Grade: C-<\/p>\n
Offensive line: Coming off two rough games against the Chargers and Texans, rookie left tackle Will Campbell managed to bounce back against the Broncos. He did not allow a sack for the first time in this year\u2019s playoffs and gave up only two total quarterback disruptions on the day. He did receive some help, but that came mostly in the form of tight end chips rather than the employment of sixth lineman Thayer Munford Jr. The rest of the line, as noted above, had its ups and downs. The group can only directly be held responsible for two of Drake Maye\u2019s five sacks, but also failed to generate a consistent push on the ground especially early on in the game. | Grade: B-<\/p>\n
Defensive line: The Patriots went up against one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, and they were ready for the challenge. Led by Milton Williams and Christian Barmore, who both afterwards complained about a lack of respect for their unit, the team was able to generate significant pressure on Denver quarterback Jarrett Stidham. Williams was credited with eight pressures on the day, while Barmore had a clean sack against All-Pro right guard Quinn Meinerz. The edge, meanwhile, also performed well. Rookie Elijah Ponder deserves a special mention for recovering a fumble he would have returned for a touchdown if not for an early whistle. | Grade: A<\/p>\n
Linebacker: Even though the Patriots\u2019 linebacker group lost starter Robert Spillane on its third drive of the game, it played at its usual high level throughout the game. Replacement Jack Gibbens took over the lead communicator role and there were no obvious issues, while Christian Elliss continued his hot streak by generating the pressure that led to Jarrett Stidham\u2019s inadvertent throwaway that was ruled a fumble after review. They also helped shut down the Broncos\u2019 run game for the afternoon, limiting Denver\u2019s backs to only 2.8 yards per carry and no run longer than 9 yards. | Grade: A<\/p>\n
Cornerback: Christian Gonzalez was involved in a coverage miscommunication on Denver\u2019s lone touchdown drive, but other than that continued to play at an exceptional level particularly in man coverage. His day was highlighted by doing his best Stephon Gilmore impression in the fourth quarter, reading the quarterback all the way to record a key interception. Carlton Davis and Marcus Jones also looked good, both when the Patriots ran zone \u2014 which they again did on a majority of snaps \u2014 or went to man late in downs. | Grade: A-<\/p>\n
Safety: Jaylinn Hawkins was the other half of that aforementioned breakdown that resulted in a 52-yard completion, and he later on that drive was caught peeking in the backfield with Courtland Sutton getting wide open behind him for a touchdown. Those miscues aside, Hawkins fared well and again had his opportunities as a blitzer as well. The same was true for fellow starting safety Craig Woodson, who made one of the game\u2019s biggest plays when he broke up (and nearly intercepted) a Jarrett Stidham pass on 4th-and-1 in the low Patriots red zone; that play kept it a one-score game in the early second quarter. | Grade: B+<\/p>\n
Special teams: The conditions for the kicking game were anything but ideal particularly in the second half, which means that we need to give Andy Borregales (two missed field goals) and Bryce Baringer (37.9-yard punt average) a bit of a pass. As for Baringer, his role for the day was not to boot the ball blindly downfield, but rather to limit NFL punt return yardage leader Marvin Mims Jr. \u2014 something he and New England\u2019s coverage team did do: he finished with only 8 total yards on three runbacks. | Grade: B<\/p>\n
All in all, the Patriots had their issues against the Broncos. At the end of the day, however, they managed to overcome them to celebrate a close win in a hostile environment. Regardless of circumstances, that is an impressive accomplishment for a young team with limited playoff experience.<\/p>\n
How would you grade the Patriots\u2019 performance against the Broncos? Do you agree with our assessment? Please head down to the comment section to discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos was a defensive battle. Neither offense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,91604,1095,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-709244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-playoffs","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709244","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=709244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}