How the Patriots, Seahawks won NFL conference title games - ESPN

We saw two very different one-score NFL playoff games in Sunday's conference championship round.

The Patriots outlasted the Broncos in the snow to win 10-7 in the AFC Championship Game, while the Seahawks slid past the Rams in a high-scoring NFC Championship Game, winning 31-27. The result: The Patriots and Seahawks are going to Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8.

Did the Patriots simply benefit from Bo Nix not being in the Broncos' lineup, or was this a statement game for the defense? Did Sam Darnold exorcise his Rams demons and prove he can win the big game? And were coaching decisions to blame for both the Broncos and Rams?

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I'm going to sort through all of that and try to make sense of the two conference title games and what they mean. Let's start in the NFC.

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NE-DEN | LAR-SEA

Sam Darnold finally came through. Regardless of what happens in the Super Bowl, Darnold has officially completed the rewrite of his career and gone from disappointing draft pick and journeyman to a meaningful part of a great team. And now, after definitively conquering a Rams team that seemed to have carved out a home in Darnold's head, he's one win away from a Super Bowl title nobody could have expected.

Even as Darnold rose from the depths of the time he spent with coaches Adam Gase and Matt Rhule on hopeless teams, it was always easy to qualify his successes. He was playing in a dream situation with the Vikings in 2024 given the coaching staff and playmakers, and advanced metrics saw him as something closer to an average quarterback. His brutal end to that season against the Lions and Rams in consecutive weeks convinced the Vikings that they were better off moving forward with J.J. McCarthy as a