Welcome in Ben Villan, National NFL writer for the Boston Globe. He is joining us, I believe, still in Denver, still waiting to make his way back to the East Coast. Ben, thanks for joining us, man. We appreciate you waking up early. Yeah, good morning, guys, still in Denver, and not quite sure when I'm getting back to the East Coast. So it should be interesting today. Ben, when was your flight originally scheduled to come back? Well, so far, all good.

My flight's at 4.45 this afternoon, and I get home at 10.30 tonight. Okay. So we'll see. Boston, we're getting close to two feet of snow. So we'll see if they can clear the Logan runways in time. So currently the flight is still on schedule.

Yeah. So far, so good. Knock on wood. But I'm kind of expecting to be canceled to tomorrow.

And if I get home today, then that's all gravy.

Right. How bad was the weather leaving the stadium back to your hotel in Denver yesterday?

Yeah. Way worse than they said it was going to be.

When I got into the car after the game, I think it said it felt like negative 8 degrees.

So the temperatures dip way lower than what they were calling for, definitely more than just like a coating of snow. It was, I think that the

conditions in the second half were almost impossible to throw the ball, difficult to gain footing.

You saw Remandre Stevenson slipping on the field. A game like that is a great test of wills,

but it's not great football. You know, it's like that is a great test of wills, but it's not great football.

You know, it's the AFC championship game, and neither team can throw the football.

So that's, you know, to me, I think it's a little unfortunate when it turns to that,

but it's also a great test of toughness and will and execution.

And the Patriots definitely did the better of that on Sunday.

Remind us, Ben, take us back to sort of the preseason expectations for this team,

because I think you thought you had something in Drake May for sure.

You didn't think you'd have an MVP caliber season, though.

What were you personally thinking would be a good sort of successful season for them this year? Yeah, I think I fell on the

conservative side of things, and I expected eight wins. I predicted an eight and nine season

in the newspaper in August. And to me, that felt

good. Like, wow, you're doubling your win total from the last couple of years. That's a really good

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