Denver's dominant defense collected five takeaways against Buffalo. What will it do for an encore against New England?

A free, family-friendly Denver Broncos fan rally is set for Saturday afternoon at Larimer Square, giving fans a chance to relive history and build excitement ahead of Sunday's AFC Championship Game at Empower Field at Mile High.

Of course, the reason the Patriots are favored is because the Broncos won't have Bo Nix, who injured his ankle in Denver's divisional round playoff win over the Bills. With Nix out, the Broncos will be turning the starting quarterback job over to Jarrett Stidham, who hasn't thrown a pass in an actual game in two years.

Backup QBs Bubby Brister (4-0 in 1998) and Brock Osweiler (5-2 in 2015) stepped up to help the Broncos on their way to Super Bowl wins.

The New England Patriots franchise legend provided the spark which started their historical run of success for two-plus decades.

Steve Young 's warning to Broncos backup QB Jarrett Stidham: "He’s needs to be very, very careful that he’s not the reason they lose…'

Broncos OLB Jonah Elliss will face off against Patriots LB Christian Elliss on Sunday. The loser of the brother matchup "will be reminded forever."

Finally, all that pressure paid off for Nik Bonitto and the Denver defense. Finally, the Broncos produced what’s been missing all season — takeaways.

The Denver Broncos are decided underdogs going into Sunday’s AFC championship game against the New England Patriots, and they’ll need a lot of things to go right to win and advance to the Super Bowl.