The path to Super Bowl LX was snowy, frigid and electric as the Conference Championship round showcased two vastly different NFL games. The AFC Championship, where the top-seeded Denver Broncos hosted the New England Patriots, displayed few total points. At the same time, the NFC one-seed Seahawks topped divisional rival and offensive powerhouse, the Los Angeles Rams, in a shootout.
AFC Champions: New England Patriots
In the first Championship game, NFL fans watched as Mike Vrabel led his New England squad to the Super Bowl in just his first year as head coach of the Patriots. With this gritty, low-scoring 10-7 road win in Denver, Vrabel successfully secured a spot at Super Bowl LX, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
This past regular and postseason, Vrabel reached several milestones. First, he became the eighth head coach in NFL history to lead his team to a Super Bowl in his first season with a new team. Also, he tied the league’s record for the best one-season turnaround after recording 14 wins to last year’s four.
Although Vrabel is in his first season coaching the Patriots, he’s no stranger to the historically successful New England organization. He played the majority of his NFL career with the Patriots, where he won three Super Bowls as a dual threat on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
If Vrabel wins the Super Bowl in two weeks against the swarming Seattle defense led by nine-year coaching veteran and defensive coordinator Aden Durde, he has the chance to become the first person in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach for the same organization.
Second-year quarterback Drake Maye will also be looking to win his first Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. Maye, a former UNC quarterback, was the third pick in the 2024 NFL draft. In just his second season, Maye not only led the Patriots to the Super Bowl but is an MVP candidate behind Matthew Stafford.
NFC Champions: Seattle Seahawks
In the later evening Championship game, veteran quarterback and former Super Bowl Champion Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams came up short to divisional rival and 14- win Seattle Seahawks led by quarterback Sam Darnold.
Despite Stafford’s elite 374-yard, three-touchdown performance, it was not enough to advance to the Super Bowl. The strong-armed Seattle defense outlasted Stafford and head coach Sean McVay late in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship game, winning 31-27.
During their two regular season matches, the Rams and Seahawks split the series 1-1. In the first game, the Seahawks fell short to the Rams at SoFi Stadium as Darnold threw a disastrous career-high four interceptions with a QBR of 24.8, leading to a sloppy 21-19 loss.
In their second match and regular-season finale, the Seahawks won in an OT thriller despite Stafford throwing for over 450-yards and three touchdowns, two of which to star wide-out Puka Nacua, who also recorded 12 receptions for 255-yards.
Down a touchdown in overtime was no tough challenge for Seattle as head coach Mike MacDonald and Darnold drove 65 yards, scoring a touchdown with 3:13 left in OT and successfully converting the 2-point conversion to seal the victory. The final score was 38-37 Seahawks.
The high-scoring Super Bowl berth-clinching win against the Rams in their third meeting this season meant everything to the Seahawks, who have not been to the NFL Championship game in over a decade. Ironically, they played and lost to the Patriots in that game in heartbreaking fashion. In Glendale, Arizona, at the 2015 Super Bowl, the last time these two opposing sides met, the Patriots outlasted the Seahawks. The Pats ended the Seahawks’ season with the infamous Malcolm Butler game-sealing interception on the 1-yard line with 24 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIX.
The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will face off in Super Bowl LX in a classic matchup with two defensive-minded head coaches with a lot to prove. Seattle is favored to win the Super Bowl by 4.5 points in this 2015 Super Bowl rematch.
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