The best game of the regular season was the Rams visiting the Seahawks. The same was true in the postseason as well.
In the NFC championship game, Seattle bested Los Angeles, 31–27, with Sam Darnold throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns while Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 10 passes for 153 yards and a score on 12 targets.
Matthew Stafford did all he could, accounting for 374 passing yards and three touchdowns. The Rams also ran for 112 yards on 5.2 yards per carry but were undone by a porous secondary and a crushing muffed punt by Xavier Smith in the third quarter, resulting in a touchdown.
Meanwhile in the AFC, what’s old is new again. The Patriots are going back to the Super Bowl.
In a snow globe that was Empower Field at Mile High, New England went on the road and beat the Broncos, 10–7, giving the Patriots their 12th Super Bowl appearance, extending their own record.
New England primarily won on the back of its defense, which held Denver and backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham to 181 total yards and 11 first downs. The Patriots notched only 206 yards themselves but will advance to Super Bowl LX regardless, undoubtedly as an underdog in Santa Clara, Calif.
The Seahawks and Patriots met in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium in 2015, when Malcom Butler intercepted Russell Wilson with 20 seconds remaining to secure a 28–24 victory for New England.
But we start with the NFC title game, where Seattle punched its ticket to the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl.
Good: John Schneider made all the right moves to get here
Schneider has been the Seahawks’ general manager since 2010. He built the Legion of Boom, drafted Russell Wilson and traded for Marshawn Lynch. He had already won a Super Bowl and reached another.
But this build might be his best work yet.
Without the benefit of high draft choices or a complete teardown, Schneider built another machine in Seattle. He hired Mike Macdonald as a first-time head coach and, this offseason, signed Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal after trading away an established starting quarterback in Geno Smith and a star receiver in DK Metcalf.
Over the past few years, he’s amassed a home-grown secondary in Nick Emmanwori, Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen and Coby Bryant. He shored up the offense around Darnold with a trade for Rashid Shaheed after signing Cooper Kupp, providing complementary pieces to the shining star that is league-leading receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Schneider’s draft chops are also evident on the offensive line (Grey Zabel, Charles Cross, Abe Lucas) and in the backfield (Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet), giving Seattle a complete team and likely a Super Bowl favorite.
Scanning the league, find the current general managers who have built a Super Bowl–winning team. Now find one that’s done it twice. The only comparisons are Philadelphia’s Howie Roseman and Kansas City’s Brett Veach, bringing two iterations of a team back to Super Sunday. Not bad company for Schneider, who is one win away from having a phenomenal Hall of Fame résumé.
Bad: An MVP season for Matthew Stafford goes for naught in L.A.
At 37 years old, how many years does Stafford have left? More to the point, how many does he have left like this?
Stafford began the year with uncertainty in the summer due to a disc issue in his back. However, the future Hall of Famer rebounded to throw for 4,707 yards and a league-best 46 touchdowns with only eight interceptions. Barring a surprise, he’ll walk away with both first-team All-Pro honors and his first MVP award.
Still, the Rams couldn’t parlay that into a Super Bowl appearance. Los Angeles ended up as the fifth seed primarily due to poor special teams play that cost it dearly in regular-season defeats to the Eagles, 49ers and Seahawks. And in the NFC title game, a muffed punt by Xavier Smith was the biggest mistake in another one-score defeat.
Stafford is signed through 2026, along with other main cogs in the Rams’ offensive machine, including receivers Davante Adams and Puka Nacua, and running back Kyren Williams. But nothing is ever guaranteed in pro football, especially another great year from an aging player at the sport’s most demanding position.
Ugly: Rams’ secondary exposed once again by the Seahawks
All season, the Rams have been haunted by bad special teams play. But if they had another Achilles heel throughout 2025, it was a back seven that talented offenses could expose.
In Week 16 against the Seahawks, the Rams gave up 270 yards and two touchdowns to Sam Darnold, while also relinquishing a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter.
On Sunday, the focus of Los Angeles’s game plan was to keep Seattle from hitting explosive plays again. In that regard, the Rams succeeded, surrendering only two in the air. However, Darnold averaged 9.6 yards per attempt and amassed 346 yards.
The front four of Jared Verse, Kobie Turner, Byron Young and Braden Fiske was inconsistent, notching two sacks and six quarterback hits. But none of it was enough to stop Seattle from moving the ball at will, specifically through the air, to send the Rams home for the winter.
Good: Playoff games being held in the elements
If you enjoyed this game being played in the snow, soak it in. These moments are going to be few and far between in the future.
In the coming years, the Broncos, Chiefs, Commanders and Browns are all planning to move indoors, either with fixed or retractable roofs. The Bears might soon join them depending on whether they end up staying in Chicago, moving to Indiana or going to the suburbs in Arlington Heights.
In the second half in Denver, snow began to fall, changing from flurries to blizzard conditions to turn the field into a blanket of snow. CBS initially went to its yard-line overlay on the field, and then made the correct call to ditch it. For the last hour or so, viewers and the announcers themselves were left to guess what yard line the ball was on. It was beautiful.
The snow also added an element of strategy. In the fourth quarter, Broncos coach Sean Payton was clearly trying to score via field position, only to see Wil Lutz have his 45-yard field goal blocked. Meanwhile, New England played conservatively, rushing on 14 of its 16 fourth-quarter plays.
Luckily, Kansas City and Denver will play outdoors at least through 2030. The Bills’ new stadium has a roof covering the fans but not the field. The Patriots, Steelers, Packers, Ravens and others remain outdoors.
But soon, there will be fewer opportunities to see games like this.
Bad: Sean Payton had a tough hand to play, but made a huge error
The Broncos should have had 10 points in the first half. In fact, they should have been up 10–0.
In the second quarter, Denver had all the momentum. Stidham had electrified the crowd with a 52-yard bomb to Marvin Mims Jr. before finding Courtland Sutton for a touchdown on the Broncos’ second drive. The defense was playing lights out, holding New England to 12 yards on 12 plays with a single first down across three drives.
Then, facing fourth-and-1 from the Patriots’ 14-yard line, Payton decided to gamble. In a game certain to be a low-scoring affair, he eschewed an easy field goal (before the snow) and had Stidham throw for the first down. The result was immediate defensive pressure and an incompletion.
On the Broncos’ remaining eight drives, their longest march was 17 yards. The only serious scoring threat came after the Patriots shanked a punt in the fourth quarter, but Lutz couldn’t capitalize when his 45-yard field goal attempt was blocked.
In an era where teams are going on fourth down more than ever, Payton could typically be forgiven for the decision. But with his defense playing great, his team playing at home and his starting quarterback sidelined with a broken ankle, giving up an almost-sure three points was a horrific choice.
Ugly: NFL officiating is a disaster
All postseason, so much of the conversation has been about officiating. That’s once again the case coming out of the AFC championship game.
Last week in this same building, the Broncos benefitted from a controversial call when Josh Allen’s pass to Brandin Cooks was ruled an interception by Denver corner Ja’Quan McMillian, essentially taking a game-winning field goal attempt away from Buffalo in overtime. Of course, the Broncos ended up winning, 33–30.
This Sunday, the officials took a sure touchdown away from the Patriots in the second quarter when Stidham staggered around behind the line of scrimmage and clearly threw a backward pass in his own territory. New England recovered and ran into the end zone, but the ball was initially blown dead as an incompletion. Then, with help from replay review, the call was changed to a backward pass and a Patriots recovery, but without advancement.
The Patriots scored two plays later on a Drake Maye run to tie the game, 7–7, but the mistake could have easily cost New England at least four points in a defensive ballgame.
Then, in the third quarter, New England faced fourth-and-1 at the Denver 8-yard line with the score still tied. Maye attempted to sneak forward but appeared short of the line to gain. The side judges came in short. Then, the back judge went into the pile and signaled first down. The call was reviewed following Sean Payton’s challenge, but the call stood with inconclusive evidence. Four plays later, the Patriots kicked what ended up being the game-winning field goal.
On May 31, the deal between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association will expire. The NFLRA should push heavily for full-time status. If the NFL is smart, it will finally make the leap and require such status from officials.
With legal gambling more prevalent than ever before, high definition video, and the legion of camera angles we all see the game from, it’s time for the NFL to make sure every call is correct if possible.
Currently, the league is falling short in that effort.
More NFL on Sports Illustrated
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- Cooper Kupp Shared Sweetest Moment With Matthew Stafford After Seahawks’ Win
- Sean McVay Had Fiery Response to Question on Matthew Stafford's Rams Future
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Good, Bad and Ugly, Championship Sunday: Seahawks, Patriots Punch Super Bowl Ticket.
