Broncos v Patriots
The Denver Broncos have gone 9-1 at home this season ( including playoffs ) while the Patriots are a flawless 8-0 on the road, facing a Denver Bronco team relying on back-up Jarrett Stidham to keep their season alive.
Despite Drake Maye's recent turnover struggles, it is reasonable to expect Drake Maye, despite recent turnover struggles, to play better and do what he has done all season long; get it done on the road by any means possible. The Patriots have been criticized all year long thus far for having the softest schedule and an easy path to the Super Bowl, never having been truly challenged. Well, they can only play the opponents on their schedule and they've done so flawlessly-- as theyve been by 10 PPG on average in road games.
A big storyline has been that the Pats arrived just 19 hours before kickoff and that the Pats are not giving players time to acclimate to the altitude. They've overcome adversity all year, and in Drake Maye's first full season and Mike Vrabel's first coaching the New England Patriots, went 14-3 , winning an AFC East title and 2 home games en route to the AFC Championship game and are on the precipice of making history. Less oxygen and more fatigue should not be something that phases a team like this that has passed every other test with flying colors. What people aren't mentioning is by staying in Massachusetts all week, they maintained the same practice routines, sleep scheduled & recovery which are more important anyway.
The Patriot offense has proven that it can perform no matter how strong a pass rush it faces, so I'd temper expectations on the Broncos and their league- leading D-line coming in with 68 sacks.
Many are giving " positives " when mentioning Jarrett Stidham and that he would've been a starter on many teams... and that the " unknown" of how he performs or how aggressive he is today will be harder to gameplan for.
Yes, the Broncos are 4-0 all time against New England in Mile High.
That said... Stidham hasn't thrown a pass in two seasons and certainly does not have the same familiarity with the first team offense. He has had just 4 starts in his six year career and prior to Denver signing him, the Pats had tried to re-sign him last Spring.
This is not a revenge game. He has been a back-up on both squads, he does not have the reps to be facing a top tier defense in a game of this magnitude.
Yes, the Broncos forced Josh Allen into 4 turnovers and yes, Drake Maye has been sacked 10 times this postseason , thrown two interceptions and fumbled 6 times. These are normal growing pains. But there is one thing we cannot take away from Drake Maye. He's a winner and he always seems to find a way. Going from 2 home games in the playoffs to a road game will not phase this kid, and he can only get better.
Sean Payton has already talked about looking forward to having 2 weeks off after this game ( hinting that we would be seeing them in the Super Bowl). Well, it is gonna be a lot longer than two months. Vrabel & Zak Kuhr are likely to use blitzes from LBs and secondary to confuse Stidham and it is likely he will have difficulty diagnosing a defense like this. Sure, Stidham can throw the ball in tight windows but he is not a very elusive scrambler and typically the Pats D is known for their discipline, so don't expect more success from Stidham than Stroud or Herbert had the past few weeks.
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