The Patriots (14-3) made history on Sunday, winning the AFC in Denver (14-3) by beating the Broncos 10-7 and punching their ticket to their 12th Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
This kept their perfect 9-0 road record intact, and was just another exclamation point on the dream season New England has had in 2025, going from a franchise who had reached rock bottom with consecutive four-win seasons to now being one win away from football immortality.
The bulk of the Patriots’ success in 2025 has been due in large part to the MVP-caliber season of second-year quarterback Drake Maye. And while Sunday was far from his best game statistically, the 23-year-old did just enough to help push his team over the top against yet another dominant defense while battling through an impromptu blizzard at Mile High.
His game-clinching first down scramble will go down in Patriots history, but his boxscore won’t.
“Yesterday was a little bit of an aberration [for Maye] given the second half circumstances with the weather,” Boomer Esiason told The Greg Hill Show on Monday. “I thought he was a little nervous early on. He's got to be a little bit better in [the Super Bowl]. And this game, I do believe, will probably be reasonably high scoring, meaning - I don't think either team will reach 30, but I do think that they'll be in the upper 20s.”
“When you look at that performance, how do you break down the struggles that he has, whether it was his protection, the O-line, or just Drake?” WEEI’s Courtney Cox asked the former NFL quarterback.
“Well, there's no question Will Campbell's having problems, we all know that,” said the longtime WFAN morning host. “There were a couple times [Maye] short-armed the ball yesterday. He's going to look at the tape today, and he's going to feel sick to his stomach because he had guys open, and he under-threw them.
“He was off yesterday, there's no question about it. Whether it be the altitude, the weather second-half was not pretty - but what I love about the second half is that Josh McDaniels said, ‘Screw this, man. We're going to run it down their throat and we're just going to take the game over by running the football.’ And that third quarter was really, really impressive, especially under the weather circumstances.
“So they kind of took the ball out of Drake's hands, I felt. But when they needed a play, guess who ran with the ball and made the play? That was Drake. So like I said, passing yesterday was not going to be good for either team, but the plays that needed to be made were made, and that keeper for the first down to end the game - that was a great call and a great play by Drake.”
While the weather conditions will almost certainly be better during Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, CA, the stiff competition across the line of scrimmage from Maye will continue.
The Seahawks entered the postseason first in the NFL in scoring defense, only allowing 17.2 points per game. They’re also first in third down defense (32.1% stop rate), sixth in total defense (285.9 YPG), third in rush defense (91.9 YPG), fifth in red zone (50.0% scoring rate) and 10th in pass defense (193.9 YPG).
If the Patriots finish the job and win their seventh Super Bowl in franchise history, they will have done so by beating the first (Texans), second (Broncos), fifth (Chargers) and sixth-ranked teams in total defense for 2025.
The Super Bowl may call for another Sunday in which Maye doesn’t light the world on fire. But as he’s shown all postseason long, he’s capable of leading his team to victory without individually lighting up the scoreboard.
Winning ugly means you won the game. That’s all that matters.
You can hear Kevin Harlan and Kurt Warner on the national radio call of Super Bowl LX on Westwood One. We’ll have that broadcast for you right here on 93.7 WEEI-FM in Boston, and across the WEEI Sports Radio Network in New England.
Tune in each and every Monday throughout the football season to Patriots Monday on WEEI. Head coach Mike Vrabel joins The Greg Hill Show at 6:30 a.m. ET, and quarterback Drake Maye joins WEEI Afternoons.