Welcome back to The MMQB newsletter. It all comes down to this: The Patriots and Seahawks will face off in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8 in a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX. Can Seattle exact revenge on New England 11 years after that fateful Super Bowl loss? Before we look ahead, let's first rewind and unpack how each team got to this point. Matt Verderame broke down all of Sunday's action in his good, bad and ugly column, including how the snowy weather made for compelling television and shifted the momentum of the AFC title game. On the losing side, Conor Orr highlighted an early decision by Sean Payton that may have cost the Broncos a trip to the Super Bowl, while Gilberto Manzano explained why it's not all doom and gloom for the Rams after a disappointing loss in the NFC championship. But we start first with what Patriots' star players, including DT Milton Williams and center Garrett Bradbury, told Albert Breer about this team and their coach, Mike Vrabel, after New England's gutsy win. |
Championship Weekend Takeaways |
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By Albert Breer With the wind still whipping, the snow still falling, and the stage from which the Patriots took their 12th Lamar Hunt Trophy still set up, big-ticket DT Milton Williams had a few things to get off his chest. I'd asked him, as we walked off the frozen grass at a hollowed-out Empower Field at Mile High, if he felt like the style of game New England had played said something about who his team had become. But he had something else to address first. "I mean, we've been hearing about that [Denver] O-line all week," Williams yelled. "Nobody gave us a chance. Nobody believed in us. Everybody was talking about what we can and can't do. I want to hear something about that today. We're going back to the Super Bowl, and them boys are going home." Unbelievably, inexplicably, that's the truth. Only a few months ago, no one believed in the Patriots, and rightfully so. The roster had been in decay for years. The team went 4–13 in Bill Belichick's final season, and 4–13 again in Jerod Mayo's only year in charge. Mike Vrabel's arrival brought hope, sure, but by any reasonable premise, something like this was going to take time. Until it didn't. Until the Patriots ran off a 14–3 regular season. Until the Patriots' young quarterback, Drake Maye, ascended to an MVP level. Until the Patriots batted much closer to 1.000 on player acquisition in the offseason than any team should expect to. And until Vrabel galvanized the entire organization in a way few could. |
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By Conor Orr All at once they were inside a snow globe; this entire little world of 76,000 people here in Denver, whipped up in a cyclone of powdery fluff. In the gap between the south end zone and the start of the west stands that usually offers a window into the universe beyond, there was no visibility. The sky took on the color of stagnant pond water and offered as much visibility as a thick hotel privacy curtain. And what a place it became. Snow blowers on the field revealing lines that would be covered again in seconds. The chorus of Bohemian Rhapsody blaring through the stadium speakers. A digital billboard at Mile High advertising skiing in the Swiss Alps, as if the action wouldn't have been better on the slick and slushy exit ramps out of the stadium.
Sadly for the Broncos, the postgame press conference room after a 10–7 AFC championship game loss to the Patriots was a different kind of world altogether. Similarly isolating but drastically different in tenor. The reason this wasn't a Broncos party—the reason Mike Vrabel was another 75 yards down the corridor, walking through the locker room with a crushed Miller Lite can between his paws while one of his offensive linemen stuffed extras in his hand warmer for safe keeping—came down to a few moments of regret. |
By Greg Bishop The Seahawks, considered a middling team by so-called experts when the season started, 3–2 after five weeks, doubted and daring and powered by The Darkness, slowly and surely and without much advanced warning, became inevitable, anyway. Funny how that worked. In an NFL season with no favorites, parity absent any parody, Seattle found its formula: Believe in Sam Darnold, run the ball, minimize his mistakes and imprint, with physicality, creativity and verve, an elite defense and the best special teams unit in pro football. The result was surprising—and not surprising at all.
The Seahawks are headed back to the Super Bowl for the first time since their last potential dynasty fell apart on that specific stage. Almost everything—and everyone—is different now. And it sure looks like another potential dynasty is on the verge of forming. |
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By Gilberto Manzano It was understandable that Rams coach Sean McVay second-guessed himself on multiple occasions in the final minutes of Sunday night's drama-filled NFC championship game against the Seahawks. McVay sprinted toward the end zone before a critical fourth down as if he contemplated calling a timeout, before ultimately riding with Matthew Stafford regardless of what he noticed on the field. Stafford's pass was broken up by cornerback Devon Witherspoon to keep it a four-point game with five minutes left in regulation, but at least McVay had all his timeouts after trusting what he had seen countless times—the future Hall of Famer coming through in the clutch.
However, McVay didn't show the same restraint a few minutes later, didn't lean on what he already knew about his suspect secondary and doubted himself one too many times in the 31–27 loss that sent their NFC West rivals to the Super Bowl. |
Jamie Schwaberow/Sports Illustrated |
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By Matt Verderame Twenty-four years ago, the Patriots were a surprise entrant in the Super Bowl. They had a second-year, baby-faced quarterback. A defensive guru coached them. They were supposed to get crushed by the NFC representative. Nobody thought they could win. Until they did. If Drake Maye and the 2025 Patriots are going to follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady and the '01 team, they'll need their 23-year-old quarterback to play like the MVP candidate he was during the regular season. Maye was sublime, throwing for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He ranked first in EPA at +151.2 and had a league-best CPOE of +9.1. Maye was the driving force behind an offense that was third in yards and second in points, helping New England win 14 games and the AFC East, and earn the No. 2 seed. Things have been far different in the playoffs. |
Kevin Jairaj/Imagn Images |
By Conor Orr
Candidate A is 62 years old and in his second act as an NFL head coach. Before arriving at his current location, he was with his previous team from 2006 to '21, amassing 152 wins over 15 seasons, eight playoff appearances and one Super Bowl, which he won alongside a shoo-in Hall of Fame quarterback. Candidate B begins his third stint as an NFL head coach today. He is 62 years old, and in his 16 seasons coaching between 2006 to '21 (the same time frame as candidate A, who lost a year due to a league suspension), he logged 155 wins, 11 playoff appearances and one Super Bowl, which he won alongside a shoo-in Hall of Fame quarterback.
The reception to candidate A's hiring was one of unanimous praise. An immediate assurance that he would turn his current team around—a notion that has been proved correct. Quickly, the team turned over the quarterback position, loaded up a defense, made quality coordinator hires and dug the team out of the divisional basement. The reception to candidate B's hiring on Saturday has been nearly unanimous confusion, even though both candidates have roughly identical winning percentages, total wins, playoff success and a track record of turning teams around. |
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By Matt Verderame 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. |
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