Without consulting your phone or asking your favorite AI chatbot, can you tell me which teams lost in the AFC and NFC Championships last season? Two years ago? Three?
It’s fine if you can’t, of course… because that’s the point: by losing 10-7 in the AFC Championship to the Patriots two weeks ago, the battered and beaten Broncos saved their fan base more than a little bit of heartbreak this weekend, when they would’ve likely been humiliated by the franchise’s sixth Super Bowl loss, and to Seattle again, adding even more salt into that wound.
Now, if you look at the sports world through orange-colored glasses, you might disagree. “That’s why they play they games,” you might shout, believing that – despite all evidence to the contrary – the Broncos, minus their starting quarterback and running back, would have somehow found a way to stop the red-hot Seahawks and overcome their athletic, opportunistic defense. It’s possible, I’ll admit, but it’s possible that you’ll win Powerball next week, too. Just don’t count on it.
What about backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham’s 17-for-33, two-turnover performance – at home – indicated that he would someone turn into Steve Young when he got to the 49ers’ stadium in Santa Clara this weekend?
BALL WAS OUT – GOING THE OTHER WAY‼️
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/swmdTx0TYV
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 25, 2026
Note the distinct absence of a second-half snowstorm in the play above, Broncos apologists. Following the game, Stidham had one of the most notable, ‘Gee, you think,’ quotes of the entire season. “Probably should have just eaten the sack and let (punter Jeremy) Crawshaw punt the ball and flip the field.”
Stidham performed in line with what he’s been his whole career. That’s an observation, not a criticism; there’s an immense gap between no-doubt starters in the NFL like quarterback Bo Nix, who was sidelined with a broken ankle suffered in the previous week’s playoff win over Buffalo, and journeymen backups like ‘Stiddy.’
It’s not Stidham’s fault that Nix got hurt. It’s not Stidham’s fault that he didn’t have running back J.K. Dobbins, who spent most of the year among the NFL’s rushing leaders until a hip-drop tackle ended his season prematurely. It’s not Stidham’s fault that wide receiver Troy Franklin couldn’t play due to injury, or that snakebitten rookie wideout Pat Bryant had to leave the game early after being injured once again. It’s not Stidham’s fault that tight end Evan Engram couldn’t ever get untracked during a season in which he was expected to become a difference-maker – and it definitely wasn’t Stidham that called the Broncos’ disastrous, game-defining fourth-and-1 play in field goal range… in a game in which they’d never score again.
“There’s always regrets,” head coach Sean Payton explained, after deciding to change his play and tell his clearly wobbly quarterback to roll out and throw to the short side of the field against a Patriots front seven that relentlessly blitzed Stidham all game long, correctly believing that he was not a serious threat to hurt them downfield. “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.”
On the bright side for Broncos fans, there don’t have to be second thoughts following this loss. It’s entirely fair to assume that if the Broncos had a healthy Nix (or maybe even if they just had Dobbins back), they probably would have found a way to represent the AFC in this weekend’s Super Bowl, Colorado’s now-rare snowstorm be damned. Football fans across the spectrum fully understood that, and as a result, the Broncos were basically let off the hook for losing a conference championship game at home – and with entirely justifiable reasons. Like I mentioned, people forget about who lost conference championship games quickly.
The Super Bowl, however, is another animal entirely. Watched around the globe by more people that aren’t football fans than people that are, losing that game – especially in humiliating fashion like the Broncos did following (deep breath) the 1977, 1986, 1987, 1989 and 2013 seasons – a franchise gets defined by those degradations. Ask any Broncos fansover 40, and they’ll be happy to explain. No team has lost more Super Bowls than the Broncos’ five, and the team that’s tied with them atop that ignominious list is the Patriots, who have notably won twice as many Lombardi trophies as Denver has.
In the end, the Broncos’ disappointing loss to the Patriots came with so many caveats that it basically served as a ‘get out of jail free’ for the franchise and its fans; no football fan worth their salt thinks Denver isn’t still ascending behind Nix and a scintillating defense. “I’m excited for this offseason. [It’s] definitely not the way you want [a season] to end, but my sights are already on next year,” Nix said shortly after the loss. “… I’ll feel as good as new.”
Broncos fans will, too – and just maybe, on Super Bowl Sunday, it’s the Patriots that will take the beating that was earmarked for Stidham and Co., becoming the first-ever franchise to lose six Super Bowls… and bumping the Broncos off of the top of a list that they never wanted to be on, anyway. A win’s a win.