Patriots' Drake Maye faces Broncos' D and Jarrett Stidham steps in for Bo Nix in AFC title game

New England (16-3) at Denver (15-3)

Sunday, 3 p.m. EST, CBS/Paramount+

BetMGM NFL odds: Patriots by 5.

Against the spread: Patriots 13-5-1; Broncos 8-9-1.

Series record: Broncos lead 31-24.

Last meeting: Patriots won 26-23 in Denver on Dec. 24, 2023.

Last week: Patriots beat Texans 28-16; Broncos beat Bills 33-30 in overtime.

Patriots offense: overall (3), rush (6), pass (4), scoring (2).

Patriots defense: overall (8), rush (6), pass (9), scoring (4).

Broncos offense: overall (10), rush (16), pass (11), scoring (14).

Broncos defense: overall (2), rush (2), pass (7), scoring (3).

Turnover differential: Patriots plus-3; Broncos plus-1.

Drake Maye. The MVP finalist had three touchdown passes in the Patriots’ divisional round win over Houston. It marked the 13th time in team history that a quarterback had thrown at least three TD passes in a playoff game. It was also the most since Tom Brady had three in Super Bowl 52 against Philadelphia.

Jarrett Stidham. Bo Nix's backup hasn't thrown a pass in two seasons and the only snap he played this season came on a kneel-down at the end of a blowout over the Dallas Cowboys. Stidham has appeared in 20 games with four starts in his six-year NFL career and the Patriots tried to sign him last spring before he re-signed with Denver for $12 million over two years.

Maye versus Denver's defense. The Broncos led the league with a franchise-record 68 sacks this season and sacked Josh Allen three times. They also forced Allen to turn the ball over four times after he had gone six straight playoff games without a turnover. Allen had two fumbles and two interceptions, including one in overtime. In the playoffs, Maye has been sacked 10 times, thrown two interceptions and fumbled six times, losing three of them.

Patriots: LB Harold Landry III (knee) has been ruled out. CB Carlton Davis (concussion protocol) and LB Marte Mapu (hip) are both questionable. ... WR Mack Hollins, who has been on injured reserve since Dec. 27 with an abdomen injury, was activated on Saturday. He played in the first 15 games of the season prior to going on IR, catching 46 passes for 550 yards and two touchdowns.

Broncos: RB J.K. Dobbins, who returned to practice this week for the first time since foot surgery in mid-November, was ruled out. ... WRs Troy Franklin (hamstring) and Pat Bryant (concussion) both participated in practice this week. Center Luke Wattenberg was activated off injured reserve. He went on IR with a shoulder injury last month. He took the roster spot of Nix (ankle surgery), who went on IR on Saturday, ending his season. The Broncos also promoted WRs Michael Bandy and Elijah Moore from their practice squad.

The Broncos have a 4-1 edge in the playoff matchups between the teams, winning all four games in Denver. The two most recent meetings were in the AFC championship games during the 2013 and 2015 seasons, and were both won by the Broncos. Denver's 20-18 win in the 2015 AFC title game on Jan. 24, 2016, was the final meeting between quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

This will be the Patriots’ 13th appearance in the AFC title game in the past 25 seasons. ... The Patriots (Mike Vrabel) and San Francisco 49ers (George Seifert 1989, won the Super Bowl) are the only teams in the Super Bowl era to go undefeated on the road with a new head coach. ... Vrabel is attempting to become the eighth coach in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl in his first season with a team. ... Maye has completed 3 of 10 deep passes (20 or more yards) through his first two playoff games. The Broncos didn’t allow Buffalo’s Josh Allen a completion and intercepted him twice on nine deep pass attempts in the divisional round. ... With a win, Maye would become the first quarterback to win three playoff games against top-five defenses in the same postseason: the Chargers entered the playoffs ranked fifth, the Texans ranked first, and the Broncos ranked second. ... Maye has been strip-sacked 11 times this season, including the playoffs. The Patriots have recovered six of Maye’s fumbles on sacks, with three recoveries by LT Will Campbell. The only other quarterbacks strip-sacked 10 or more times since 2020 are Matt Ryan (11 in 2022), Derek Carr (10 in 2021) and Kirk Cousins (10 in 2021). ... Maye is one of three quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era with five or more turnovers and 10 or more sacks. He joins Russell Wilson (2014, lost in the Super Bowl) and Roger Staubach (1973, lost in the NFC championship game). ... WR Stefon Diggs has played in 16 postseason games and has 75 receptions for 965 yards and five touchdowns. He needs 35 yards to become the 18th NFL player to reach 1,000, and the third Patriots player. Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski are the only Patriots players to eclipse the mark. ... Diggs has played in the most postseason games among all Patriots players with 16. CB Carlton Davis III is second with 11 postseason games. ... LB K’Lavon Chaisson has three sacks this postseason. With another he’ll joint Willie McGinest (five in 2003 and 4 1/2 in 2005) and Garin Veris (four in 1985) as the only Patriots with at least four in a single postseason. ... The Broncos are 18-5 all time in home playoff games since their first one in 1977 during the "Orange Crush" era. ... This is Denver's 11th appearance in the AFC championship game. ... Stidham is 1-3 in his four NFL starts with his only victory coming against the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 31, 2023. ... K Wil Lutz made all four of his field-goal attempts and all three of his extra points against Buffalo last week. His four field goals are one shy of the franchise playoff record of five set by Brandon McManus in the playoffs following the 2015 season. ... Last week OLB Nik Bonitto became the third player in Broncos history to force two fumbles in a playoff game. By stripping the ball from Josh Allen twice, Bonitto joined Von Miller (against Carolina in Super Bowl 50) and Tom Jackson (against Dallas in Super Bowl 12). ... ILB Alex Singleton's 14 tackles last week, including 11 solo, were the most by a Denver defender in a playoff game this century. ... DE Malcolm Roach is coming off a big game against Buffalo. He had 1 1/2 sacks and recovered a fumble.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye speaks at a news conference after an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham responds to questions after an NFL football practice at the team's headquarters Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Centennial, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye (10) walks off the field after an NFL divisional playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham warms up before an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Buffalo Bills, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

A massive winter storm continued Sunday morning, dumping sleet, freezing rain and snow across the South and up through New England, bringing frigid temperatures, widespread power outages and treacherous road conditions.

The ice and snowfall were expected to continue through Monday in much of the country, followed by very low temperatures, causing “dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts” to linger for several days, the National Weather Service said.

Heavy snow was forecast from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, while “catastrophic ice accumulation” threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

“It is a unique storm in the sense that it is so widespread," weather service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said in a phone interview. "It was affecting areas all the way from New Mexico, Texas, all the way into New England, so we’re talking like a 2,000 mile spread.”

As of Sunday morning, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warning, she said. The number of customers without power was approaching 800,000, according to poweroutage.us, and the number was rising.

Tennessee was hardest hit with more than a quarter of a million customers out, and Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi all had more than 100,000 customers in the dark.

More than 10,000 flights had already been canceled Sunday and another 8,000 have been delayed, according to the flight tracker flightaware.com. The biggest hubs hit so far were in Philadelphia, Washington, Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina, New York and New Jersey.

Even once the ice and snow stop falling, the danger will continue, Santorelli warned.

“Behind the storm it’s just going to get bitterly cold across basically the entirety of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, east of the Rockies," she said. That means the ice and snow won't melt as fast, which could hinder some efforts to restore power and other infrastructure.

President Donald Trump had approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected to come. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, staff and search and rescue teams in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Nashville and the surrounding area was seeing ice accumulations of half an inch or more, with icicles hanging from power lines and overburdened tree limbs crashing to the ground.

"We typically say that once you start seeing, you know, roughly a half an inch of ice, that’s when you’re going to start seeing the more widespread power outages,” Santorelli said.

In Oxford, Mississippi, police on Sunday morning used social media to tell residents to stay home as the danger of being outside was too great. Local utility crews were also pulled from their jobs during the overnight hours.

“Due to life-threatening conditions, Oxford Utilities has made the difficult decision to pull our crews off the road for the night,” the utility company posted on Facebook early Sunday.

“The situation is currently too dangerous to continue,” it said. “Trees are actively snapping and falling around our linemen while they are in the bucket trucks. We simply cannot clear the lines faster than the limbs are falling.”

Icy roads also made travel dangerous in north Georgia.

“You know it's bad when Waffle Hou Associated Press se is closed!!!” the Cherokee County Sheriff's office posted on Facebook with a photo of a shuttered restaurant. Whether the chain's restaurants are open — known as the Waffle House Index — has become an informal way to gauge the severity of weather disasters across the South. Associated Press

Brumback reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Kristin Hall and Jonathan Mattise reported from Nashville, and Jeff Martin contributed from Kennesaw, Georgia.

A person walks across a street during a winter storm in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A plow clears snow in front of the U.S. Capitol, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A person walks across a street during a winter storm in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Workers with Architect of the Capitol shovel snow near the U.S. Capitol, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A worker shovels snow during a winter storm in Philadelphia, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Two people walk along the National Mall as snow falls, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)