The winners and losers on Championship Sunday are, at least on the surface, fairly obvious. If you're going to play in the Super Bowl in two weeks, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, you are definitely a winner. But there's a lot of nuance to even the most binary of outcomes, and that's what we're focused on from the penultimate Sunday of the season.
Winners
1) Patriots quarterback Drake Maye's legs: Maye ran 10 times for 65 yards, but those runs had an outsize impact on the 10-7 win over Denver. Five of them went for first downs, one -- a 6-yard quarterback draw -- was the Patriots' only touchdown, and the final one, with just under two minutes to go and the Patriots trying to run out the clock, was a bootleg that required Maye to change direction on the only visible patch of grass and went for 7 yards, essentially ending the game. It was a miserable day for throwing the ball -- he completed just 10 passes for 86 yards -- but Maye's legs are a weapon not to be overlooked.
2) The weather in Denver: The game started in clear conditions and devolved, by the fourth quarter, into a blizzard. The kickers missed four field-goal attempts -- two each. Players slipped, passes hung up in the wind, and visibility declined. Some will say a game this messy is a good argument for domed stadiums. Nope. Figuring out how to manage in any conditions is part of the game and part of what the Patriots did better on Sunday.
3) Patriots defense: The Broncos had just 181 yards of offense, and that was the continuation of a dominating Patriots defense. The Patriots have defeated three playoff teams that had top-five total defenses (Chargers, Texans and Broncos) on the back of that unit. The Patriots offense has averaged just 18 points per game this postseason, but New England has allowed just 26 points total in three games.
4) Patriots organization: A lot of people around the country dreaded this, but a tip of the cap to a team that was a dynasty for nearly two decades, went through a miserable two-year stretch in which it won four games each season, fired two coaches, drafted a quarterback and have now executed a staggering turnaround, going to the Super Bowl in Mike Vrabel's first season at the helm. When other teams fire their coaches, this is what they hope will happen to them.
5) Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold: He simply played the game of his life in the 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions, often with pressure in his face. That it happened a year after a playoff meltdown ended his time with the Vikings -- after the Jets, Panthers and 49ers had also given up on him -- will undoubtedly be revisited in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. And that it happened against the team that picked him off four times in a game earlier this season should have finally answered the question that has dogged Darnold his entire career: No, he will not mentally unravel, and yes, he can win the big game. Now, he's on to the biggest one of his career.
6) Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III: The Seahawks running back is on an expiring contract, and with teammate Zach Charbonnet out with a torn ACL, this was a showcase opportunity to show what a dual threat he is. Walker delivered, running for the Seahawks' first touchdown and going off tackle for a tough 6-yard run to get the game to the two-minute warning with the Rams having no timeouts remaining. In all, he had 19 rushes for 62 yards and four catches for 49 yards.
7) Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba: One play he was turning around a defender on a post route, another he was lined up in the slot for a screen, and the other he was getting himself to the end zone with the defense somehow losing him. Smith-Njigba was all over the offense, and the Rams had no answer for him no matter where he was on the field. He finished with 10 receptions for 153 yards and one touchdown -- six more receptions than any other Seahawk -- and sent a message to the Patriots: Lose Smith-Njigba at your own peril.
8) Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford: He, too, was superb, throwing for 374 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. This season began with questions about when and how Stafford would perform with a bad back, evolved into an MVP-level campaign and concludes with questions about how many more years he can play.
Losers
1) Going for it on fourth down: Sean Payton will be thinking about his decision on the first drive of the second quarter to pass up a chip-shot field-goal attempt -- with a seven-point lead, a backup quarterback and clear conditions -- to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Patriots' 14-yard line. The pass was incomplete. It was already apparent that it would be a low-scoring game and Payton was aggressive, perhaps to show confidence in Jarrett Stidham, perhaps just because that's how he's wired. But as a result, his team did not take a two-score lead when it had the chance. As the weather deteriorated and it became more and more difficult to move the ball or make a kick, that decision loomed even larger. It will cast a shadow over the memory of this season.
2) Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham: He hadn't thrown a meaningful pass in two years and he had some very good ones Sunday. But he made two big mistakes and that was enough to turn the game. The first, in the second quarter, came with the Broncos deep in their own territory and Stidham under duress on third down. Rather than taking the 19-yard sack and letting the Broncos' excellent punter Jeremy Crawshaw try to pin the Patriots as he did multiple times during the game, Stidham tried to throw the ball away. It was a backward pass, which is a fumble, and it was recovered by the Patriots, who converted it two plays later into their only touchdown of the game. The other, just before the two-minute warning and with both teams struggling in the weather, essentially ended the Broncos' chances. On second down and again under pressure, Stidham heaved the ball up into the wind. Christian Gonzalez merely had to wait for it to come down. Stidham gave a valiant effort in relief of Bo Nix, but you wonder what this game would have looked like if Nix were healthy.
3) Patriots pass protection: The Patriots have two weeks to figure out how to better protect Maye, who has been sacked 15 times, five in each game, in the playoffs. He was sacked 47 times during the regular season, an average of 2.76 times per game. The Patriots have survived because their own defense is superb, and Maye did protect the ball against the Broncos after fumbling six times in the first two postseason games, but there's no way the Patriots want Maye getting hit this much.
4) Seahawks pass rush and tackling: The No. 1 defense is going to the Super Bowl, but it was at its sloppiest Sunday. That unit gave up 479 yards to the Rams, the second-most all season (Seattle gave up 581 yards to the Rams in Week 16), sacked Stafford just once and had just three quarterback hits. The Seahawks had a huge stop when the Rams had a 14-play, 79-yard drive that yielded no points in the fourth quarter. The Patriots don't have Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, but they do have a mobile quarterback who has also been sacked 15 times in the playoffs -- getting him down will be critical for Seattle.
5) Rams special teams: They have bedeviled the Rams all season, so much so that Sean McVay fired his special teams coordinator during the regular season. That unit also may have cost them a trip to the Super Bowl. With the Seahawks leading by four early in the third quarter, Xavier Smith muffed a punt and it was recovered by Dareke Young. One play later, Darnold threw a 17-yard touchdown pass that gave the Seahawks an 11-point lead. The Seahawks were the No. 1 seed instead of the Rams in some part because the Rams missed a field goal in the second game of their regular-season series. For much of the regular season, the Rams looked like the best team in the league, but that problem they could not solve was enough to sink them.
