As snow and sacks thwart Drake Maye’s passing dreams, his ‘demoralizing' legs find a way to send Patriots back to Super Bowl

DENVER — With the sunny, blue skies that colored the first half a distant memory, the New England Patriots had no intention of passing the ball.

One minute and 57 seconds remained in the AFC championship game. Third-and-6 loomed, and snow blanketed Empower Field at Mile High so thoroughly that stadium staff were powering snowblowers every game break to elucidate the down-and-distance markers vanishing beneath the powder.

But facing what Patriots center Garrett Bradbury called a “sideways blizzard,” just one first down separated the Patriots from a Super Bowl berth.

The Denver Broncos knew the weather drastically decreased the chance of a pass, so they left no safeties deep. They saw heavy personnel New England had earlier aligned on for a stretch run to the right, and defenders slid to their left accordingly.

As Drake Maye surveyed his options in an offense that puts a lot on the quarterback’s plate but also empowers the quarterback, Maye thought to himself: “At some point, they get lackadaisical.” Translation: If the Broncos were going to slide toward his right, Maye would take it around the left edge.

Broncos outside linebacker Jonah Elliss seemed to travel with Maye as he took off behind the line of scrimmage, then across the line of scrimmage, and nearing the first-down chains. But as Elliss dove to prevent Maye’s conversion, he instead ended up sprawled in the snow as Maye’s speed proved unmoored by the slick conditions that his teammates and opponents confirmed impacted their ability to find solid footing.

“If it's a pass play called, then we're going to protect him the best we can and he's got obviously that threat to take it, and so we'll ride with him any day of the week,” Bradbury said from a celebratory postgame locker room. “He understands his skills and how he can hurt a defense. I mean, that's got to be demoralizing for a defense.

“Gutsy effort from him in those conditions.”

After scoring just 10 points to the Broncos’ 7, the Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl. Because on a day when two high-performing defenses were further aided by conditions that countered the pass game the NFL has tried so hard to promote, the Broncos’ mobile, first-string quarterback was confined to the fourth floor with a scooter.

And while Bo Nix recovers from a broken ankle he suffered in overtime of the Broncos’ divisional-round win, Maye validated why he’s a finalist for this season’s MVP as he rushed for 65 yards and a score.

Maye is poised to be the youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl since Dan Marino in 1985.

Patriots defensive tackle Milton Williams echoed Bradbury’s phrasing from the opposite side of the locker room.

“It’s demoralizing,” he said of Maye’s escapability. “I mean, dem boys, they rushing. They trying to go get him and he fast. He [is] fast and that's a backbreaker when you [are] rushing and you can't get back there. Now you got to chase him after you done beat your guy.

“That was a big play by Drake that ended it for us. We’re going back to the Bowl.”

AAron Ontiveroz via Getty Images

Patriots offensive strategy vs. Broncos: Don’t lose it

Three days before the Patriots arrived at a game in which the weather would rapidly become “worse and worse and worse,” per head coach Mike Vrabel, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels spoke candidly about the nature of NFL playoff games.

No, they don’t all end with 17 combined points, as the 58-point NFC championship game would show fans hours later.

But matchups of the best players and best coaches with the biggest stakes often don’t elapse without hiccups, McDaniels said Thursday.

“It’s like a great boxing match: I don’t think either guy leaves the ring at the end of the fight if it’s a 12-round split decision where one of ‘em thinks they really got the better of the other.”

As McDaniels advanced to his sixth Super Bowl as coordinator, the framework would come to describe the AFC championship offensive outings well.

Beyond each team scoring just one touchdown, and each missing two field-goal attempts, the Patriots and Broncos attacks struggled to stay on the field.

The Patriots converted just one third of their third-down attempts (six-of-18), which fared better than the Broncos’ 28.6% (four-of-14). The Broncos managed just 79 rushing yards on 24 carries, while Maye completed fewer than 50% of his pass attempts (10 of 21 for 86 yards).

The boxing decision would come down to Maye’s mobility — beginning with the contrasting second-quarter stretch that would define the game.

The Broncos faced third-and-4 from their own 33, when Nix’s replacement, Jarrett Stidham, sought to make something out of nothing. But the Broncos’ offensive line hadn’t slowed linebacker Christian Elliss off the left edge, so Stidham sought to release the ball, instead throwing what was ruled a backward pass and fumble recovered by Patriots outside linebacker Elijah Ponder.

This was before the sun had fled and before the snow had fallen, but the Patriots' offense had nonetheless struggled against the No. 1 sack unit and No. 2 defense the Broncos fronted.

The gifted short field was a panacea. Maye hit receiver Kayshon Boutte for 6 yards in the red zone on the first play. The second, Maye hitched as if he would throw to his left then tucked the ball and ran up the middle for a 6-yard score.

By day’s end, Maye’s legs would not only account for the Patriots’ lone score. They would also account for three of New England’s five longest plays.

General manager Eliot Wolf had seen that mobility in Maye’s college career, the quarterback accounting for 1,147 yards and 16 touchdowns rushing his final two years at UNC. With a league-best accurate arm this season, defenders have needed to respect both Maye’s arm and his legs. Honest defenses have suffered.

 “The way that’s translated to up here has been pretty cool to see,” Wolf told Yahoo Sports. “From the standpoint of having another weapon to extend plays, obviously some of the biggest plays that we had had today were those plays.

“One of the differences in the game.”

Robert Kraft’s bet on Vrabel has paid off in no time

Another difference in the game ran up and down the Patriots’ sideline Sunday afternoon, the recipe he brought to New England this season on full display.

Vrabel has now tied the NFL all-time record for most wins in a head coach’s first season with a club (17). He is the eighth head coach in NFL history to advance to the Super Bowl in his first season with a team, and the seventh head coach to lead the team he once played for to the Super Bowl, per the team’s postgame notes.

Vrabel has elevated the Patriots with his schematic influence and his emphasis on speed and violence in defensive play. But as a walk-around coach who does not call plays on game day, Vrabel’s influence also has permeated deeply with his rare ability to balance supporting his players while holding them accountable.

His postgame speech reflected that deeply.

The Patriots’ in-house media uploaded a clip of Vrabel’s speech in which he promised his players he would “let you celebrate,” as they’d “earned the right.” And he reminded them the importance of believing, sometimes, before they could see — because “everyone’s journey to the Super Bowl looks a little different.”

 The team did not upload Vrabel outlining the rules of celebration.

Williams, however, recounted his coach’s directive.

“He proud of us, said no curfew tonight, but the bus leaving at eight in the morning so if you ain't on it, you ain't playing in the [Super] Bowl,” Williams said. “So I'm pretty sure everybody going to be on that.”

Did Vrabel really say that?

“Oh yeah, I ain’t playing,” Williams said. “He said that.”

So a nighttime celebration in snowy Denver awaited before the Patriots hoped weather would permit them to return to New England on Monday to prepare for the biggest stage. An offense with struggles that predated the snow (think: allowing five sacks for three straight weeks) is ready to find ways to contribute more thoroughly to its final result, while team brass noted its desire for Maye to remember he has the option to scramble.

Patriots kicker Andy Borregales will be glad that the Super Bowl is scheduled this year for the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium in the Bay Area, snow highly unlikely to reach the forecast.

And Patriots defenders will have the chance to again fuel themselves with narratives that they’re not the best defensive unit advancing to this game.

The Seahawks, in Mike Macdonald’s second season, allowed the fewest points per game (17.2) all season.

Preparations will continue, analyses of situational football and schematic edges and maximizing personnel ahead.

Over time, the reality may hit. On Sunday night, for many players, it had not.

“You can’t put into words what this means,” Bradbury said. “It doesn’t feel real. It’s like a simulation, what’s going on?”

Maye similarly was still processing after he hoisted the Lamar Hunt Trophy on a stage of his opponents’ field, “MVP” chants drowning out his answers to any questions he was asked.

“Get a chance to go win the Super Bowl,” Maye said later at the podium, as if trying out the words. “That’s what it is, and that’s pretty cool.”