Broncos head coach Sean Payton likely will replay one sequence from Sunday’s AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots over and over in his head.

The Broncos had a chance to take a stranglehold of the title bout early in the second quarter, but it turned into a game-altering play that swung momentum in the Patriots’ favor en route to a 10-7 victory at Empower Field at Mile High and a berth in Super Bowl LX.

Already leading, 7-0, Payton gambled when he kept the Broncos offense on the field for a fourth-and-1 at New England’s 14-yard line. Jarrett Stidham’s pass on the play fell incomplete and the chance to put crucial points on the scoreboard in a clear defensive battle was wasted away by the Broncos.

“There’s always regrets, you know,” Payton told reporters in Denver. “Look, I felt like, ‘Here we are, fourth-and-1.’ We felt close enough. It’s also a call you make based on the team you’re playing and what you’re watching on the other side of the ball. So yeah, there will always be second thoughts.”

Patriots cornerback Marcus Jones’ all-out hustle to stop a Stidham scramble just short of the first-down marker set up the fourth-down decision for Payton and the Broncos. The Broncos thought things over and called a timeout. Payton said they were initially going to run the ball but ultimately went with keeping the ball in the hands of Stidham, who came into the contest having not thrown a pass in an NFL game since 2023 and finished 17-for-31 passing for 133 yards with one touchdown and two turnovers.

Stidham faked a handoff on the play and immediately had Patriots star defensive tackle Milton Williams in his face. Stidham got off a hurried pass into the flat, but Patriots safety Craig Woodson was there and nearly picked it off.

“Actually there was a clock stoppage, so we had a nickel-run called,” Payton said. “It’s a slipper-naked that we run pretty well. They played a 6-1 front with kind of a two-deep shell. So hindsight, the initial sub-run thought was the better decision.”

Payton’s decision was curious in the moment given the way his defense dominated in the first half. The Patriots totaled just 12 yards on 12 plays in the first quarter and didn’t pick up their second first down of the game until midway through the second quarter.

And with a swirling snow falling in the second half which made scoring near impossible, the Broncos needed to grab points when the situation arose. But Payton went against that and it proved very costly in a game decided by three points.

“I just felt like we had momentum to go up 14,” Payton said. “I felt like we had a good call. I think the feeling was, let’s be aggressive. I was just watching the way our defense was playin. … There will be a number of things when we watch the tape I’ll look at and critique and pay close attention to. It was a hard-fought game and we didn’t do enough to win it.”