The New England Patriots pulled off a shocker on Sunday night, defeating the Denver Broncos 26-23 in dramatic fashion.
New England began the game by getting strip-sacked on the opening play from scrimmage, then did next to nothing offensively for the entire first half. Amazingly, a Patriots team that had scored 26 third-quarter points all year tallied 20 of them in the third quarter of this contest, with Bailey Zappe throwing two touchdown passes and the special-teams unit coming away with a score when Broncos return man Marvin Mims muffed and then fumbled a kickoff into his own end zone.
Because nothing about this Patriots season as been easy on any level, the Pats then quickly began to squander their improbable double-digit lead. The defense that has held the Broncos in check throughout the game suddenly began leaking big plays, and Russell Wilson eventually connected with Lucas Krull and Brandon Johnson for touchdowns, and Johnson and Javonte Williams for two-point conversions.
With just over two minutes left, the game was tied. When the Pats went three-and-out, it looked like Denver was going to pull off the miracle comeback. Instead, New England's defense again buckled down, forced a punt, and then Zappe, DeVante Parker, and Mike Gesicki set the stage for Chad Ryland -- who had already missed both a field goal and an extra point -- to drill a 56-yard kick to win the game.
Why the Patriots won
Honestly, the Broncos lost it just as much, if not more than the Patriots won it. The defense was mostly very good, except for those pesky fourth-quarter drives where it was seemingly trying to give the game away. Zappe came through with a solid performance, completing 25 of 33 passes for 256 yards and two scores, and limiting the turnovers with the exception of the aforementioned first play of the night. New England's defense, meanwhile, forced two turnovers, and turned one of them into immediate points.
Why the Broncos lost
Their offense was horrendous for the significant majority of the evening, and they failed to take advantage of countless opportunities afforded to them by the Patriots. That started pretty much right away when they were set up with first-and-goal from the 6-yard line after the aforementioned Zappe fumble, but they were stopped on four straight goal-to-go opportunities. They ran every play of each of their first three drives in New England territory, but only came away with one score. And with a chance to drive for the win late in the game, they failed miserably and then let the Patriots do it instead.
Turning point
Amazingly, it was a seemingly innocuous play on the Broncos' last real drive of the game. After getting the ball back with 1:42 to go on their own 39-yard line, Denver set up a screen to Samaje Perine to open the possession. That screen was blown up immediately, lost 4 yards, and set the Broncos up behind the chains. They eventually went three-and-out and gave the ball back to the Patriots, which set the stage for ...
Highlight play
DeVante Parker was targeted five times on the evening, and he made two pretty incredible contested catches. The second of those came at the biggest moment of the game, and set up Ryland's 56-yard field goal to give the Pats the win.
That type of play is Parker's specialty, and he came through in the biggest way possible.
What's next
The Patriots are 4-11 after the victory and are now tied for the league's third-worst record along with the Washington Commanders. They travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills next week, then host the Jets in their regular-season finale.
The Broncos are 7-8 with this loss and now have very little hope of making the playoffs. They host the Chargers next week and then play the Raiders in Las Vegas, and they will need to win both of those games and get a ton of help in order to make a postseason trip.