AFC Championship Game takeaways: Patriots are back in the Super Bowl 

In the fourth quarter, he took a deep shot downfield in the snow that was intercepted by Christian Gonzalez to pretty much end any hope the Broncos had. 

Stidham was only in the lineup due to the season-ending injury to starting quarterback Bo Nix. Outside of one big throw early in the first quarter, he struggled to make plays all day and severely limited the Broncos offense. 

Maye's arrival in New England has been a franchise-changer. Nix's injury was a season-changer for Denver. The one quarterback who made the big mistakes on Sunday was the game-changer. It always, in some ways, comes down to the quarterback. 

Should Sean Payton have just 'taken the points?'

Another big pivotal moment in this game came just before Stidham's backwards pass.

With the Broncos on top, 7-0, and inside the New England 15-yard line, they faced a fourth-and-one that resulted in Payton bypassing the three points and trying to get the first down.

It failed. The Broncos never scored again after that and ended up losing the game by three points. That might be a big regret for him going into the offseason. 

Being aggressive and going for fourth downs is the popular strategy in the NFL right now, but sometimes you have to know the situation and adjust to that. When you have a backup quarterback, with the chance for bad weather later in the game, in a game that is expected to be a low-scoring, defensive slugfest, it sometimes makes sense to play it safe. Sometimes you have to just take the three points when they are sitting in front of you. 

Patriots chasing all sorts of history in Super Bowl

There are a lot of potential firsts at play for the Patriots when they take the field in two weeks.

They not only have a chance to become the first team to win seven Super Bowls, but head coach Mike Vrabel has a chance to become the first person to ever win the Super Bowl as a player and coach with the same organization. Vrabel won multiple Super Bowls as a player in New England and has now guided them there as a coach.

Maye is also the second-youngest quarterback to ever start a Super Bowl, trailing only Dan Marino in the 1984 season.