Jarrett Stidham laments putting Broncos in ‘terrible spot’ with critical turnover

Denver Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham had a near impossible job on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.

Having not thrown a pass all season, Stidham was tasked with filling in for the injured Bo Nix and attempting to lead the Broncos to the Super Bowl.

He got off to a hot start, hitting Courtland Sutton for a touchdown early to give Denver a 7-0 lead. Unfortunately, Denver wouldn’t score the rest of the way in a heartbreaking 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots.

One of the critical moments was when Stidham fumbled the ball with the Broncos up 7-0 in the second quarter. On third-and-four he could’ve taken a sack, but instead attempted to get rid of the ball.

The officials took some time, but eventually ruled it a backwards pass. The Patriots picked it up and QB Drake Maye scored a few plays later to tie things 7-7.

It was a massive moment, one Jarrett Stidham addressed multiple times postgame.

“Obviously, I can’t put our team in a bad position like that. I was trying to throw it away to (Tyler Badie), he was in the area, and yeah the pressure he just got on me real fast. And I was just trying to get rid of it and like I said I just can’t put the ball in a position like that. So, that was completely on me,” Stidham said.

It’s solid accountability from Stidham, but it doesn’t change the result. If he takes the sack, the Broncos season might still be alive. He was then asked if he thought it was a forward pass.

“I thought I had thrown it forwards and obviously the replay or whatever said differently,” Jarrett Stidham said. “Probably should’ve just eaten the sack anyway and let Jeremy (Crawshaw) and the punt team punt it down the field and flip the field. But like I said I can’t do that.”

The Broncos defense played out of its mind. They held New England to three points outside of the Stidham fumble combined with New England only having to go 12 yards for the touchdown.

“I just felt like whenever I gave them the short field, really hard for me to swallow that one, cause I just put them in a terrible spot,” Stidham said.

Obviously, the contest could’ve gone a different way if Bo Nix was Denver’s QB. That’s the way things broke and Jarrett Stidham battled his hardest, but a key turnover hurt the Broncos in a massive way.

He owned it postgame, though, which is something fans will appreciate.

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