'This one stings': Broncos' furious rally vs. New England not enough ...

DENVER — As the two-minute warning arrived at a frosty Empower Field at Mile High, the Broncos seemed to be yet another story of resilience.

Denver, which battled back from a 1-5 start to sit in the thick of the AFC wild-card race with three games to play, had again staved off certain defeat. Trailing by 16 points entering the fourth quarter, the Broncos mounted 83-yard and 78-yard touchdown drives and successfully executed both two-point conversion attempts.

The Broncos, in the waning hours of Christmas Eve, then forced a three-and-out to give themselves a chance at an unlikely win.

In the moments after a Marvin Mims Jr. fumble on a kickoff return that the Patriots returned for a touchdown, the Broncos held just a 1.6 percent chance of winning, according to ESPN Analytics. The fumble-return touchdown followed a Mike Gesicki touchdown that pushed New England's lead to 16-7 and gave the Patriots 14 points in a span of six seconds. The Broncos' playoff chances, at that moment, were on the verge of being extinguished.

"I felt like, personally, I blew it," Mims said. "… It cost us at the end. [I've] got to be better, I know that. At the end of the day — I mean, things happen — but I just know I got to be better."

And yet, following the three-and-out, the Broncos held a 70.4 percent chance to win and took over at their own 39-yard line.

It was as close as they would get to one of their largest fourth-quarter comebacks in team history.

"We thought that we were going to be able to win that game," quarterback Russell Wilson said. "I thought everybody battled. This meant a lot to us all. It didn't go our way."

Denver proceeded to go three-and-out, and the Patriots — after rushing attempts on their first two plays of the drive — used a 27-yard DeVante Parker catch on third down to help set up a game-winning 56-yard field goal.

In a moment, the Broncos' two late touchdown drives — which featured a 47-yard diving catch by Mims, a 3-yard jump-ball catch by Lucas Krull, clutch completions to Jerry Jeudy and a 21-yard touchdown throw to Brandon Johnson — were rendered moot. A pair of two-point conversions, which came via a screen pass to Johnson and a quick throw to Javonte Williams, were also negated.

With the 56-yard kick, the Patriots' Chad Ryland atoned for a missed 47-yard field goal and extra point and sent the Broncos' playoff chances to just four percent.

"Obviously a disappointing finish, a really frustrating game," Head Coach Sean Payton said. "We had a lot of opportunities, I felt, especially in the first half. Offensively, we struggled. Tip our hats to New England. We fought back in it. I said to the team [that] there were six or seven different situations in that game that any one of those play out a little differently [would have changed the outcome], but unfortunately, they didn't. Our margin for error right now is not what it needs to be, and we end up on the losing end of the game."