Championship Sunday gave us a brutal snowstorm in Denver, the return of the NFL’s ‘evil empire’ to the big game, the latest installment of a pulsating three-game series between the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams, as well as a crowning moment in Sam Darnold’s redemption story.

Here are the winners and losers from the 2025 Conference Championships…

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME SCORES

Sunday:

(#2) New England Patriots 10 @ 7 Denver Broncos (#1)
(#5) Los Angeles Rams 27 @ 31 Seattle Seahawks (#1)

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New England Patriots 10 @ 7 Denver Broncos

Winner: New England’s defense

What a slog that turned out to be. The AFC Championship saw very little offense, as both Denver and New England struggled to unlock the opposing defense — even before the onset of a driving blizzard at Mile High.

In a defensive slugfest, it seems only right to call out the winning side’s dogs for edging the contest. The Patriots have looked re-energised by the return of Milton Williams in the postseason, as they continue to work overmatched interior offensive lines with the former Eagle rotating with Christian Barmore and Khyiris Tonga to devastating effect. In three games, the Pats have conceded just 26 points and bagged two turnovers.

Even after Jarrett Stidham appeared to take to the AFC Championship Game with minimal fuss in what was just his fifth career start, dicing up Christian Gonzalez and Co. on a 75-yard drive that was capped with a Courtland Sutton six-yard score, the Pats re-grouped, stifling the Broncos’ passing game and bottling up R.J. Harvey in the snow.

Loser: Sean Payton

You almost feel like this moment was exactly the scenario Payton would build for himself. Never one to shy away from the notion of his own genius, missing his starting quarterback, facing a surging New England defense and trying to cope with a snowstorm is the kind of adversity Payton thrives in. It gives him the chance to show off his immense knowledge of the game.

I can’t help but feel he fell short, however.

This is the man who called an onside kick to open the second half of a Super Bowl. This is a guy that built a myriad different ways to use his Swiss army knife, Taysom Hill. Where was the trickeration? The ingenuity? Where was something other than moribund and predictable playcalling?

Josh McDaniels got the memo. With both offenses struggling to generate much of anything in the inclement weather, he went into his bag for a flea flicker for 31 yards. Granted, it took a perfect throw from Drake Maye to hit a covered Mack Hollins, but it was still one of the six explosive plays generated by the Pats offense according to TruMedia.

Payton dialled up a steady supply of runs up the middle and play action rollouts that, more often than not, were quashed by Williams et al with minimal fuss.

The conservatism didn’t match with Payton’s aggressive call on the Broncos second drive. Boasting a seven-point lead and sitting inside the Pats’ red zone, Payton opted to go for it on 4th-and-1 rather than build a two-score lead in a game that was defined by the spectre and eventual arrival of the snow. The pass play to spring Harvey in the flat was blown up by immediate pressure in Stidham’s face. Safety Craig Woodson almost stepped in front of Harvey for what could have been a pick-six. It was the last genuine scoring chance the Broncos generated in the game, as Will Lutz missed two long-range field goal attempts. In a three-point game, it will be hard for Broncos fans not to play back their coach’s decisions in their minds during the long off-season to come.

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Los Angeles Rams 27 @ 31 Seattle Seahawks

Winner: Sam Darnold

In the immediate aftermath of the Seahawks NFC Championship victory, Sam Darnold was grabbed for his obligatory post-game interview. Beaming from ear-to-ear, the journeyman signal caller, now on his fifth team in eight seasons, wanted to talk about his team-mates. When he was pressed to reflect on his own path to the Super Bowl, Darnold was coy.

“I haven’t really thought about it that much,” he said.

We’re all going to be thinking, and talking about it, over the next two weeks. Drafted by the New York Jets with the third overall pick in 2018, Darnold’s entry to the league couldn’t have been much worse. A slew of turnovers, blighted by one of the NFL’s worst-run franchises and hounded by the city’s bear-pit media market, he was shipped off to Carolina, not too long after the infamous ‘seeing ghosts’ utterance caught on camera during a beatdown at the hands of the New England Patriots.

A two-year tenure marred by injury and yet more turnovers, turned into a backup role to Brock Purdy in San Francisco. Then came the breakout year in Minnesota. Some 4,000 yards passing, 35 touchdown passes and a 102.5 passer rating; his fairytale season earned him the Comeback Player of the Season award. However, the story would have an unhappy ending; a crushing 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 18 consigned the Vikings to the Wildcard Round, where Darnold suffered nine sacks and coughed up two turnovers in a demoralising 27-9 defeat. Again, Darnold was left to look for another job, landing in Seattle on a two-year deal, with many pundits questioning whether he was a tangible upgrade over the departing Geno Smith — another signal caller whose career was banjaxed by Gang Green.

Now here we are. Another season with MVP-like stats, this time with the potential for the happiest of endings. Darnold was outstanding in the Seahawks’ 31-27 win over the Rams on Sunday, completing almost 70 percent of his passes for 346 yards and three scores. He saved his best for the most important moments, registering a 60 percent success rate on third-down dropbacks. When the Rams sold out to stop Darnold’s best target in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, his obvious first read on key downs, Darnold was able to progress through his reads, finding targets like Cooper Kupp, Jake Bobo and A.J. Barner for clutch completions.

That success on third down was vital; the Rams converted just one of their eight third downs, while Seattle kept the chains moving with a 54 percent pick-up rate. JSN still did damage on early downs, too. Nine of his 10 catches came on either first or second down, with many of those snags coming out of the backfield as he logged another 100-yards-plus game.

Darnold has not completely ironed the mistakes out of his game — he led the NFL in turnovers during the regular season. Rather than question himself for those mistakes, however, he seems to have accepted them as part of his game, and doubled down on his ability to lead fearlessly and humbly, while also backing his own talent.

Loser: Sean McVay

The Rams and Seahawks have given us untold entertainment in their three matchups this season. Both coaching staffs have prepared their teams in almost every facet of the game. However, the Rams have found themselves short in a couple of key areas.

Special teams have been an Achilles heel for L.A. all season. Two blocked field goals in Philadelphia cost them an early-season tilt at the top of the NFC. In Week 16 in Seattle, the Rams missed a field goal and allowed a Rashid Shaheed punt return to the house. That score sparked the turnaround that ultimately meant the Championship Game would be played in the Pacific Northwest. While coordinator Chase Blackburn was given his marching orders in December, the rot had already clearly set in. Xavier Smith muffed two Michael Dickson punts, with the second whiff setting Darnold up inside the Rams’ 20. That led to JSN’s touchdown, allowing the hosts to build an insurmountable 11-point lead.

The Rams finished 26th in special teams DVOA. The Seahawks were second. In a tight matchup, the Seahawks attention to detail in the kicking game proved a true difference maker.

McVay’s in-game management requires some scrutiny, too. His playcalling was fantastic, don’t get me wrong. The Rams averaged 8.3 yards per play with a 52 percent success rate according to TruMedia. They were balanced enough between run and pass to allow Matthew Stafford the time to hit seven passes of more than 20 air yards.

However, calling the plays is just one part of the job. His decision-making in crunch situations was somewhat lacking. McVay passed on the chance to cut Seattle’s lead to three on what would turn out to be the game’s final score in the third quarter, as he opted to kick an extra point rather than pursuing a two-point conversion. Leaving the lead at four points meant the Rams then had to go for a fourth-down on their next red zone trip. They failed to convert, after struggling on third down all day. Then, when the Seahawks were trying to run out the clock, he failed to use his final timeout to challenge Cooper Kupp’s catch and conversion on a crucial third down with a little over two minutes left on the clock. Given the zebras application of the catch rule against Brandin Cooks and the Bills last week, Kupp’s inability to corral the ball as he spun to the ground would surely have warranted a second look.

Instead, the Rams had to try and traverse 90+ yards with no timeouts and around 30 seconds left to save their season. Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua, again, gave it everything, but they were always struggling to get anywhere near a genuine shot at the come-from-behind victory. Instead the Rams are again lamenting what could have been, thinking about the razor-thin calls and strategic missteps that swung this exhilarating three-game series between the standout teams in this season’s NFC.

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