The Patriots are headed back to the Super Bowl, but their AFC Championship victory over the Broncos on Sunday will be remembered as much for officiating confusion as for execution on the field. A pivotal second-quarter sequence in Denver swung momentum New England’s way, and even the officiating crew later acknowledged that the situation was mishandled in more ways than one.
The controversy centered on a play in which Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham, under heavy pressure, attempted to get rid of the football. On the field, referee Alex Kemp initially ruled the play an incomplete forward pass and flagged Stidham for intentional grounding. Moments later, after discussion among the officials, the call was reversed. The pass was ruled backward, and the Patriots were awarded possession after recovering the loose ball.
What fans quickly noticed — and what became even more troubling after the game — was that the play had been whistled dead even as a New England defender scooped up the ball and ran it into the end zone. That apparent touchdown was wiped away, leaving viewers confused about what exactly was reviewable and what was not.
Asked postgame whether there had been an inadvertent whistle, Kemp confirmed there had. “The whistle stopped the play, but it was after the New England player picked up the ball,” he explained. That timing mattered. Had the whistle not blown, the Patriots’ touchdown by linebacker Elijah Ponder would have stood, and replay officials would then have been able to correct the ruling by declaring the play an incomplete pass instead of a backward one.
#Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham commits an intentional grounding penalty. The call is overturned. The #Patriots defense turns the ball over. pic.twitter.com/sNmloPk8oC
— New England Sports Fellow (@_JosephManning) January 25, 2026
Because the play was blown dead, officials awarded New England possession without allowing any advance, a procedural limitation Kemp outlined in detail. In other words, the officials found themselves boxed in by their own mechanics. The initial incorrect ruling of a forward pass led to a sequence of administrative steps that prevented a cleaner correction once additional information came in.
Despite the chaos, the Patriots capitalized. They scored shortly afterward to tie the game at 7–7, then added a field goal in the third quarter to take a 10–7 lead they never surrendered. That score held up as the final margin, sending New England to its first Super Bowl since 2019.
Stidham, who replaced an injured Bo Nix, acknowledged after the game that he believed the pass was forward but admitted the safer option would have been to take the sack and punt. That small decision, combined with officiating errors, proved costly.
Now the Patriots move on, set to face the Seahawks in Super Bowl 2026 on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara. The debate over that second-quarter whistle will linger, but the result is final — and New England is back on the sport’s biggest stage.
