All season, the Broncos had lived on the edge, often waiting until the fourth quarter to really turn things on and get a win.

But by the fourth quarter Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High, the field was covered with snow, and the Broncos were barely able to move the ball behind backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, who started for the injured Bo Nix in the AFC Championship Game against New England.

There would be no Broncos magic on this day as the Patriots eked out a 10-7 win, taking the lead for good on the final points of the game, a 23-yard field goal by Andy Borregales with 5:29 left in the third quarter. They advanced to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8 to face the Seattle Seahawks, who beat the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in the NFC Championship Game.

“Obviously disappointment,’’ said Denver coach Sean Payton. “You’re hurt for every one of those players in that locker room.”

Yes, the players were hurting.

“We were definitely the better team, but it just didn’t work out that way today,’’ said outside linebacker Nik Bonitto.

“Out expectations were to get past this game, so I don’t think we exceeded expectations,’’ tackle Mike McGlinchey said after the Broncos had gone 14-3 in the regular season, including 11-2 in one-score games, claimed the No. 1 playoff seed in the AFC and won an exhilarating 33-30 overtime game over Buffalo in a divisional playoff.

While the fourth quarter is usually must-see TV for the Broncos, the two plays that doomed them occurred in the second quarter.

After the Broncos had taken a 7-0 lead early in the first quarter on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Stidham to Courtland Sutton, they had first-and-10 at the Patriots 23 early in the second quarter. It was a chance for Denver to take control of the game.

On fourth-and-1 at the Patriots 14, Payton went for it. But Stidham rolled right and threw a short incompletion to running back RJ Harvey, and New England took over.

“I think the feeling was, ‘Man, let’s be aggressive,’’’ Payton said. “To get up by 14. … There are always regrets. … Yes, there’ll always be second thoughts.”

Instead of being up by 14 or by 10, had the Broncos instead converted a field goal, the game would have been soon tied.

On Denver’s next possession, with the Broncos facing third-and-4 at their 33, Stidham dropped back to pass. He was blasted by Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss, and the ball came loose when Stidham was trying to throw. It was first ruled intentional grounding, but the call was changed to a 21-yard sack by Elliss and a backward pass, with a fumble recovered by Elijah Ponder at the Denver 12.

Two plays later, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye scored on a 6-yard touchdown run to tie the score 7-7.

“Obviously, I can’t put our team in a bad position like that,’’ Stidham said. “I was trying to throw it away. … (Elliss) just got up on me real fast, and I was trying to get rid of it. … I probably should’ve just eaten the sack anyway and let Jeremy (Crawshaw) and the punt team punt it down the field.”

Stidham took over as the starter after Nix suffered a broken right ankle in overtime against the Bills and was lost for the season. Nix had surgery last Tuesday and watched Sunday’s game from a suite. He is expected to be out about three months, meaning he could return for spring drills.

Stidham completed 17 of 31 passes for 133 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The touchdown was set up by a 52-yard throw to Marvin Mims Jr. to the New England 7. The interception came on Denver’s last drive when he threw a wobbly pass on second-and-9 at the Broncos 33 that was picked off by Christian Gonzalez at the Patriots 36.

The temperature was 26 degrees at kickoff and conditions weren’t bad in the first half. But in the second half, with snow having covered the field by the fourth quarter, Stidham was just 5 of 10 for 10 yards.

Payton said Stidham “fought hard in tough conditions.” McGlinchey bristled when it was suggested that anyone might pin the loss on the backup quarterback.

“If anybody is going to put this on Stiddy, that’s (garbage),’’ McGlinchey said. “I think he had a good day, given the circumstances, obviously. It starts snowing and it’s windy and makes it impossible to kind of throw the ball forward. And that’s kind of a bummer about being behind down when (the snow) started.”

Payton said the Broncos failed to “capitalize” on having better field position in the first half, when they had 149 yards of offense to New England’s 72. He said, “It starts with the head coach.”

In the third quarter, before Borregales’ go-ahead field goal, the Patriots had faced fourth-and-1 at the Broncos 8. Maye ran one yard for a first down, and Payton challenged the spot. But the call was upheld.

With 11 seconds left in the third quarter, with the weather having turned, Borregales missed a 47-yard field goal wide right that could have put the Patriots up 13-7. He also missed a 63-yard attempt on the final play of the first half.

Lutz also missed two field goals. He was wide right on a 54-yard attempt with 20 seconds left in the first half, and he had a 45-yard attempt blocked by Leonard Taylor III with 4:42 left in the game that could have tied the score 10-10.

“The ultimate goal is to get to the Super Bowl here and this team fell short,’’ Lutz said. “Unfortunately, I played a part in that. … I’ve been an asset to this team all year. … Just tough conditions to deal with and I wasn’t able to come through.”

On the blocked kick, the line of scrimmage was the Patriots 28, which would usually have made it a 46-yard attempt.

“Unfortunately, couldn’t see the lines on the field and honestly I think we may have been a yard short on the snap,’’ Lutz said. “We had to kind of estimate.”

After they took the lead in the third quarter, the Patriots played it very conservatively due to the weather, Denver’s rugged defense and the Broncos having a backup quarterback. They ended up with 206 total yards, slightly more than Denver’s 181.

Maye completed 10 of 21 passes for 86 yards and was sacked five times, but he hurt the Broncos with his legs, carrying 10 times for 65 yards. He had a 7-yard run on third-and-5 with 1:57 left in the game that wrapped up matters due to Denver being out of timeouts.

“That’s the great thing about Drake,’’ said Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. “His ability to extend plays… We’’ll have to get a lot of things corrected, and we’ll have to play our best football game in two weeks if we want to finish as champions.”

The Patriots also got 71 yards rushing by Rhamondre Stevenson, giving them 141 for the game. The Broncos had a meager 79 yards on the ground.

Through it all, the Broncos almost played well enough on defense to win the game.

“We always have faith in our defense creating turnovers and obviously creating turnovers would have helped,’’ Broncos outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper said about not getting a takeaway.

As for the two plays on offense that doomed the Broncos, one was a turnover and the fourth-down stop might as well have been a turnover.

“That sequence of plays obviously was a big turning point in the game,’’ Sutton said. “Momentum is a dangerous thing and when you have it, you want to hold onto it as long as possible. … They capitalized on that situation. … It’s unfortunate because of how close we came. I know the heart and the fight of this team.”

Unfortunately for the Broncos, there was no fourth-quarter magic left in them Sunday.