Winner earns Super Bowl LX spot | Message Graham
Updates from 3pm ET/8pm GMT kickoff
Oh and on the subject of Jarrett Stidham, this is of course a revenge gameTM for the QB. He was selected by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2019 draft and started a grand total of zero games for them. There were some mitigating factors such as backing up Tom Brady in his first season in the NFL. But when Cam Newton came to town in 2020, he was the backup Brian Hoyer’s backup so New England clearly didn’t think too highly of him. Stiddy has the ultimate shot to show them the error of their ways.
With about 40 minutes to kickoff we can have a short history lesson. The Broncos and Patriots have met twice before in the AFC Championship game. In 2016 when Denver’s defense shut Tom Brady down to sneak a 20-18 win. The D then rose up again to batter Cam Newton and the Panthers for a 24-10 win in Super Bowl 50. Two years before the Broncos prevailed again behind a monster 400 yard passing day from Payton Manning before losing heavily to the Packers in the big one.