The Mile High playoff curse continues for the New England Patriots.
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Quarterback Peyton Manning and the top-seeded Denver Broncos have beaten the New England Patriots 20-18 in the AFC Championship game to book their place in the Super Bowl. Brady led a final drive, completing a touchdown pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski with just 12 seconds left to play – but the Patriots didn’t manage the two-point conversion necessary to tie it and put the game into overtime.
That left it to one play, and after the Broncos took a timeout to give DeMarcus Ware time to rest and get back in the game, Aqib Talib stepped in front of Brady’s pass and deflected it skyward.
The Broncos’ 39-year-old quarterback Peyton Manning, who has faced criticism all season after struggling with poor form and injury, has a chance to win his second Super Bowl title.
So in a game with a bevy of storylines (Tom Brady’s Deflate-gate revenge, Peyton Manning’s swan song among others), the Broncos played tough, smart and adaptive football to thwart the slight underdog Patriots 20-18 Sunday afternoon.
The Broncos (14-4) will play the NFC champion in Super Bowl 50 on February 7.
Here’s the failed 2-point conversion, which sealed the game for Denver.
The Broncos finally broke a long run in the fourth quarter as C.J. Anderson ran for 30 yards. Two plays later, Daniels slipped past linebacker Jamie Collins with a double move and Manning lofted a pass from 12 yards out that Daniels caught up with in the corner of the end zone.
Poor end-of-quarter execution on the part of the Patriots led to another three points for Denver at the end of the half. This year may lead to a different ending.
Von Miller finished with 2½ sacks and an interception.
That missed extra point loomed large for the New England Patriots Sunday.
“The big thing is we’ve got to win”, Broncos boss John Elway said.
Brady had an 18.1 quarterback rating at halftime, but looked better on his first drive in the second half.
SB Nation’s experts see the Panthers punching their ticket to Super Bowl 50 as well.
Steven Jackson scored from a yard out, but reliable kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed the extra point and the Broncos held a 7-6 in the AFC championship game after the first quarter.
Gostkowski had made an NFL-record 523 consecutive PATs.
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots came up short against the Denver Broncos in the 2016 AFC Championship Game.
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It was a play that personified this team’s mental toughness, and the battle that Manning himself has fought throughout this season. The term “Tabletgate” quickly was coined on social media after CBS reported New England’s league-issued Microsoft Surface tablets malfunctioned temporarily in the first half.
