DENVER (AP) — Drake Maye handled the sloppy, snowy conditions better than the home team and he scored New England’s only touchdown on a 6-yard keeper, propelling the Patriots to their 12th Super Bowl with a 10-7 win over the Denver Broncos in the AFC championship game Sunday.

Maye threw for just 86 yards, but ran for 65 and iced the win with a 7-yard keeper on third-and-5 in the waning minutes to send the Patriots (17-3) to the Super Bowl in Mike Vrabel's first year as coach.

The Patriots will play the Seattle Seahawks, who beat the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game, on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.

“I’m just proud of this team,” said the 23-year-old Maye, who's the second-youngest starting quarterback to reach the Super Bowl, behind only Miami's Dan Marino. “Don’t have many words. Just thankful for this team. Love each and every one of them. It took everybody.”

Christian Gonzalez intercepted Jarrett Stidham, starting in place of an injured Bo Nix, with 2:11 remaining for New England’s second takeaway. The first set up the Patriots with a short field and led to Maye’s touchdown scamper that tied it at 7 heading into halftime.

With Nix looking on from a suite following ankle surgery Tuesday in Alabama, Stidham made his first start in more than two years. His first completion since the 2023 regular-season finale was a 52-yard dart to Marvin Mims Jr. to the New England 7 that set up Courtland Sutton’s 6-yard touchdown catch.

That was Stidham’s highlight as he turned the ball over twice and finished 17 of 31 for 133 yards with the TD.

“I was super excited for the opportunity and just hate that we fell short,” Stidham said.

New England, which went 4-13 last year under Jerod Mayo, became the third team in the Super Bowl era to win a conference championship with 10 points or less. Buffalo beat Denver 10-7 in the 1991 AFC title game, and Los Angeles beat Tampa Bay 9-0 in the 1979 NFC championship game.

Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls as a playmaking linebacker for the Patriots, could become the first person in NFL history to also win as a head coach for the same franchise.

“I won’t win it. It’ll be the players that’ll win the game,” Vrabel said. “I promise you, it won’t be me that’ll win it, and I promise you that I’ll do everything I can, and our staff, to have them ready for the game.”

The Broncos (15-4) finished one step shy of fulfilling Sean Payton’s preseason prediction of a trip to Super Bowl 60, and he pointed the finger right at himself.

He said he regretted his call on fourth-and-1 from the New England 14 in the second quarter when a chip-shot field goal before the snow came in would have given Denver a double-digit lead. Stidham’s throw to running back R.J. Harvey was incomplete and the Broncos' early momentum vanished.

“There’s always regrets,” Payton said. “Yeah, I mean, look, I felt like here we are, fourth-and-1. We felt close enough ... So, yeah, there’ll always be second thoughts.”

The Broncos were left clinging to a 7-0 lead that was short-lived. Elijah Ponder recovered Stidham’s backward pass at the Denver 12, setting up the tying touchdown two plays later.

“I thought I threw it forward and obviously the replay said differently,” Stidham said. “Probably should have just eaten the sack and let (Jeremy) Crawshaw punt the ball and flip the field.”

Both kickers missed two field goals in the frigid conditions with Denver’s Wil Lutz and New England’s Andy Borregales wide on long tries just before the snow came in at halftime. Lutz's 45-yard attempt late in the fourth quarter was tipped by Leonard Taylor III.

The Patriots’ victory was their 40th in the playoffs, breaking a tie with the San Francisco 49ers for the most in NFL history.

It was sunny at kickoff with a temperature of 26 degrees, but by halftime the snowflakes began falling and grounds crews had to use snowblowers to mark the hashmarks and yard lines by the fourth quarter, when it was 16 degrees.

“It was a lot of fun out there,” Broncos cornerback Pat Surtain II said. “Snow game, for the conference, to go to the Super Bowl — it doesn’t get any better than that. I felt like I was a little kid out there just playing in the snow.”

And the Patriots had the most fun of all.

“What an atmosphere out here,” said Maye, in his second NFL season. “Battle of the elements. Love this team. How about the defense? I love each and every one of them.”

The Patriots have allowed 26 points across three playoff games. The only team to allow fewer points over three playoff games before a Super Bowl appearance was the 2000 Ravens, who allowed just 16 points.

After gaining just 72 yards in the first half, the Patriots opened the second half in swirling snow with a 16-play, 64-yard drive that ate up 9 1/2 minutes and ended with a 23-yard field goal by Borregales that proved the difference.

Stidham, who was drafted by the Patriots in 2019, made his first start since the 2023 regular-season finale. The Broncos were the only team in the league that didn’t give their backup QB any snaps or handoffs the last two seasons.

The Patriots have averaged 18 points per game in the playoffs, the fewest by any team to make the Super Bowl since the 1979 Rams, who averaged 15.

“I'll take an ugly win before I take a pretty loss,” Diggs said. "Nobody's satisfied. Happy, but not complacent. We’re blessed to be where we are, but we know there’s more out there for us.”

Coming up just short of a trip to the Super Bowl will drive Denver, said Surtain, who suggested: “This is not the last time we’re going to be here. We’re going to just keep on building and getting better.”

Nix, who had 11 game-winning drives in his first two NFL seasons, got hurt on Denver’s final drive in overtime against Buffalo last week, and this title game will always be dogged in Denver by the what-ifs.

“It (stinks),” linebacker Alex Singleton said. “We’ll remember it for the rest of our lives.”

Injuries

Patriots: LB Robert Spillane (ankle) left in the first quarter.

Broncos: WR Pat Bryant left with a hamstring injury in the second quarter.

Sean Payton has second thoughts about passing up easy field goal in Broncos' AFC title game loss

DENVER (AP) — Sean Payton conceded he will have second thoughts about his decision to pass up an easy field goal, as well as the play he called instead.

The Denver Broncos and their fans now have the entire offseason to argue over which part of that critical fourth-and-1 play was worse.

Because Payton decided not to kick a chip-shot field goal for a 10-0 lead in good weather in the first half of Sunday's AFC championship game against the New England Patriots, the Broncos ended up needing to make a kick once the blowing snow and wind rolled in after halftime. The decision played an integral role in Denver's 10-7 loss.

“There’s always regrets,” Payton said. “I felt like here were are, fourth-and-1, close enough — it’s also a call you make based on the team you’re playing and what you’re watching on the other side of the ball. Yeah, there will always be second thoughts.”

That fateful move put the Broncos on a slippery slope that would’ve challenged any quarterback — to say nothing of perennial backup Jarrett Stidham.

Everyone from Bill Cowher on the pregame show to Tony Romo in the broadcast booth was talking about the importance of the Broncos taking every point they could with Stidham stepping in for the injured Bo Nix, but Payton didn’t heed that advice.

Wil Lutz missed two field goals (one was blocked) on a day Denver's defense gave up one touchdown. And that score was set up when Stidham turned the ball over deep in New England territory.

Had Denver not given away three points, it may have been able to overcome those mistakes.

“There will be a number of things when we watch the tape I will look at and critique and pay close attention to,” Payton said. “It was a hard-fought game, and we didn’t do enough to win.”

Early in the second quarter — and with the skies still clear — the Broncos led 7-0 and faced fourth-and-1 at the New England 14. Denver called timeout to discuss its options. The offense returned to the field and Stidham's pass to RJ Harvey fell incomplete.

“Just didn’t work out on that one play,” said Stidham, who threw for 133 yards and a score, along with a fourth-quarter interception that sealed the win for the Patriots. “That’s just football.”

Late in the game, trailing 10-7, Payton sent Lutz out to try a 45-yard kick into a tricky wind and on a snow-covered field. Leonard Taylor III got a hand on the kick.

“Unfortunately, you couldn’t see the lines on the field and honestly I think we might have been a yard short on the snap,” Lutz said. “But you can’t see the lines on the field and we had to kind of estimate.”

The Broncos were right there, too. Only three teams have won a game to advance to the Super Bowl while scoring 10 points or fewer — and the Broncos were on the wrong end in two of them. They also lost 10-7 to the Buffalo Bills in the 1991 AFC title game, with backup quarterback Gary Kubiak replacing the injured John Elway.

This time, Stidham started in place of Nix, who broke his ankle in a 33-30 overtime win against Buffalo last week, and began in stellar fashion. He had a 52-yard completion to Marvin Mims Jr. that set up a short TD pass to Courtland Sutton.

Denver was rolling — until New England's fourth-down stop.

Late in the second quarter, the Patriots took advantage of Stidham's first turnover. Under pressure from Christian Elliss, he tried to toss the ball away but it was ruled a backward pass, which was recovered by Elijah Ponder. Two plays later, Drake Maye sauntered into the end zone.

“Obviously, I can't put our team in a bad position like that,” Stidham said. “That was completely on me.”

The play was initially ruled an incomplete pass and intentional grounding, but officials changed the call. Stidham did not realize he'd thrown a lateral.

“No, I thought I'd thrown it forward,” he said.

Explained referee Alex Kemp in a pool report: “I initially ruled it as a forward pass, which was incorrect. I proceeded to go through the administration of an intentional grounding foul. The down judge and the umpire came and talked to me and provided more information. The down judge explained that he extended his right arm to signal that he had a backward pass and at that point we determined that New England had picked up the then backward pass.”

Stidham conceded that he “should’ve just eaten the sack anyway,” adding, “I can’t do that.”

With the snow picking up and the wind at their back, the Patriots went on a 16-play drive to start the third quarter that ended with Andy Borregales' go-ahead, 23-yard field goal. That was the final score by either team in the deteriorating conditions.

“I was dealing with it. Drake was dealing with it,” Stidham said of the snow and wind. “You can't really make an excuse of it.”

Patriots are heading to their 12th Super Bowl, seeking an NFL-record 7th victory

Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel and a stifling defense have the New England Patriots back in the Super Bowl for the first time since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their sixth ring together seven years ago.

The Patriots (17-3) beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 on Sunday in the AFC championship game to advance to their 12th Super Bowl.

They’ll face the winner of the NFC championship game between the Los Angeles Rams (14-5) and Seattle Seahawks (15-3).

Either way, it’ll be a rematch.

Brady led the Patriots to a 20-17 victory over the heavily favored “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams on Feb. 3, 2002, for the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.

And the Patriots also defeated Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams 13-3 on Feb. 3, 2019, to capture the franchise’s sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.

New England edged Pete Carroll’s Seahawks 28-24 on Feb. 1, 2015, when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass from the 1-yard line.

Maye scored on a 6-yard touchdown run in the second quarter after a critical turnover by Jarrett Stidham, who made his fifth career start filling in for injured Broncos quarterback Bo Nix.

“The Pats are back, baby,” Maye said. “Now, gotta win one.”

Playing through a snowstorm in the second half, Maye only threw for 86 yards and ran for 65. Stidham had 133 yards passing and one TD, one interception and one costly fumble.

The 23-year-old Maye, a finalist for AP NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, will become the second-youngest QB to start a Super Bowl behind Dan Marino. He’s the fourth second-year QB in the past seven years to lead his team to the NFL title game. Patrick Mahomes (2018) won it while Joe Burrow (2021) and Brock Purdy (2023) lost.

Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls as a linebacker for the Patriots in the 2000s, turned the team around in his first season as coach. New England went from 4-13 last year under Jerod Mayo to 14-3.

Vrabel is trying to become the first person to win a Super Bowl as a head coach and player for the same team. Tom Flores, Mike Ditka, Tony Dungy and Doug Pederson won Super Bowls playing for one team and coaching another.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be associated with these guys and this organization,” said Vrabel, who is a finalist for AP NFL Coach of the Year. “I won’t win it. It’ll be the players that’ll win the game, I promise you. It won’t be me that’ll win it and I promise you I’ll do everything that I can and our staff to have them ready for the game.”

No team has played in the Super Bowl more than the Patriots, who are 6-5. They're tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most wins.

It's been a long road back to the top for New England, which came off consecutive four-win seasons and only had one winning season after Brady's departure in 2020.