The NFC Championship Game and the AFC Championship Game are now behind us, with the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks advancing to Super Bowl LX. With 13 days until the Big Game, and people still dealing with the fallout of yesterday’s action, let's look back at Championship Weekend and discuss the four things we learned from Sunday’s games.
Matthew Stafford will win the NFL MVP award.
For the last two months, the conversation surrounding the MVP award has almost entirely been centered around two names: Drake Maye and Matthew Stafford. Though Trevor Lawrence, Christian McCaffrey, and Josh Allen all were named finalists for this award, that just feels like a formality. NFL fans and members of the media have all seemingly agreed that the 2025 MVP will be either Stafford or Maye. After Championship Weekend, though, it's clear that Stafford will be taking home the hardware.
Matthew Stafford has been nothing short of sensational in the postseason. He has thrown for 936 passing yards in the playoffs, 318 more yards than the next closest quarterback. He leads all passers with six touchdowns through the air compared to just one interception. Stafford has also had more pressure put on him than any other QB, leading all passers in attempts this postseason with 119 (29 more than the second-ranking quarterback).
Yesterday perfectly encapsulated why Stafford should be the MVP over Drake Maye. Stafford threw for 374 passing yards and three TDs against the best scoring defense in the NFL. Drake Maye failed to throw for more than 100 yards against the league's second-ranked scoring defense. Championship Weekend ended all debates about who should be the NFL MVP; it’s Matthew Stafford.
Wins are not a quarterback stat.
Speaking of quarterbacks and MVP awards, it's once again time to remind everybody that TEAMS win games, not individuals. Therefore, anybody who considers wins to be a quarterback stat is a buffoon who should be disregarded.
Let's just look at the numbers of two of the quarterbacks who played this weekend: Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye.
Drake Maye's statline in the AFC Championship Game:
10 of 21 passing for 86 passing yards
Ten carries for 65 rushing yards and one touchdown
Five sacks taken
58.8 passer rating
Win
Matthew Stafford's statline in the NFC Championship Game:
22 of 35 passing for 374 passing yards and three touchdowns
Two carries for 16 rushing yards
One sack taken
127.6 passer rating
Loss
If you ask any unbiased NFL fan, they would sign up for Matthew Stafford's statline over Drake Maye's statline in a heartbeat. Yet, Matthew Stafford lost his game, while Drake Maye won his. So Drake Maye is the better quarterback because he won, right? HELL NO. Stafford clearly played better than Maye, but Maye's team was better overall and made fewer mistakes, so they're in the Super Bowl.
We all need to stop pretending that wins can be used to assess a quarterback. QBs obviously play a huge part in whether their team wins or loses. But to say Drake Maye won his game and Matthew Stafford lost his is preposterous. The Patriots won their game. The Rams lost their matchup. Saying anything else shows a lack of football intelligence.
Sam Darnold can win the big game.
After the disappointing playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams last season, there seemed to be a near universal concensus that Sam Darnold was a nice quarterback, but you can't trust him to win you a big game. That's why he was cast off by the Minnesota Vikings. Now, a year has passed, and Sam Darnold just helped his team advance to the Super Bowl. And he didn't just ride the coattails of a dominant defensive performance (like a certain quarterback in the AFC). His performance on Sunday is actually one of the main reasons why the Seahawks are in Super Bowl LX.
In the Divisional Round, Sam Darnold didn't have to do much for Seattle to beat the San Francisco 49ers. The Seahawks slaughtered the Niners on a day when Darnold only threw for 124 passing yards and a touchdown. But yesterday, the Seahawks asked Darnold to help lead them to a victory, and he delivered. With very little help from the rushing attack, Darnold put up elite numbers, throwing for 346 yards and three TDs while recording zero turnovers. Time and time again, Darnold answered the call on Sunday. When Seattle was trailing in the second quarter, he threw a 14-yard touchdown before the end of the half to reclaim the lead. After LA cut the game to one score in the third, Darnold responded with another TD pass. And on Seattle's final drive of the day, Darnold helped pick up three first downs to run the clock down and basically leave the Rams with no time to stage a comeback.
Even after the Seahawks' Divisional Round win, there were still questions about how important Sam Darnold was to Seattle's success. People argued that almost any quarterback would've won that game because of how dominant the Seahawks' defense and special teams were. In the NFC Championship, though, Sam Darnold put the team on his back and showed that he can not only win a big game, but he can also play well doing so.
Sean Payton is an arrogant ass.
This was my biggest takeaway from Championship Weekend. Anybody who follows me on Twitter (@gideonsportnews) already knows how I feel about the way Sean Payton coached on Sunday. But for those of you who have a life and choose not to participate in the toxic social media space that is Twitter, I would like to tell you all that Sean Payton is an arrogant ass.
In the week leading up to the AFC Championship Game, Sean Payton continuously heaped praise on backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham. Payton said things like we don't see how Stidham performs daily behind closed doors, that Stidham was "elite," and that he was going to "rip it" against the Patriots. Payton spoke highly of his backup, which convinced some fans that he was the preferred starter over Bo Nix! In the first quarter of the game, it looked like Payton was right. Stidham completed a 52-yard pass that eventually led to a touchdown. He even led the Broncos on multiple sustained drives. But everything changed with a single decision.
Early in the second quarter, the Broncos found themselves facing a 4th and 1 on New England's 14 yard line. Since they were already up by seven points, the sensible choice would be to kick a field goal to go up by two scores. But Sean Payton, in his arrogance, did not kick the chip-shot field goal. Instead, he asked his BACKUP QUARTERBACK STARTING HIS FIRST GAME SINCE JANUARY 2024 TO CONVERT A FOURTH AND SHORT THROUGH THE AIR! He didn't ask Stidham to turn around and hand the ball off, which Denver had done somewhat successfully up to that point. He didn't want Stidham to try a Tush Push, which has become a staple play for numerous NFL teams in short-yardage situations. He asked Stidham to throw the ball. Instead of going up 10-0, Stidham's pass attempt was knocked away, and the Patriots' offense took possession of the football. You can go up by multiple scores in the AFC Championship, but you choose to go for it on fourth down?! That might be the single dumbest decision made during the 2025-26 NFL season.
The questionable coaching didn't end there, though! After the snowstorm began in the second half, Sean Payton decided to send out his field goal unit with around five minutes to go in the fourth quarter to tie the game. Because Sean Payton didn't take that second-quarter field goal, he is now trotting out his kicker to attempt a 45-yard field goal in a blizzard! Had he not been so thick-headed earlier, that field goal attempt would have allowed the Broncos to take the lead in the fourth quarter! In the end, the kick was blocked, so it ended up being inconsequential, but it's possible that things would've played out differently, and the defense would have lined up differently if they were attempting to block a go-ahead field goal rather than a game-tying one.
A day of horrendous coaching concluded with a horribly designed play on offense. With under three minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Jarrett Stidham threw an interception to all but guarantee a victory for the Patriots. While Stidham's choice to throw to a wide receiver in double coverage was awful, the play that Sean Payton chose in that moment was just as bad as the pass. The play called for Denver's three wide receivers to run past the first down marker and for the running back to stay in to block, leaving Jarrett Stidham with nobody to check the ball down to. The tight end did eventually get open in the flat, but Stidham didn't know he would be open because the play called for the tight end to stay in to block first before releasing off the pass rusher and getting himself open. There was no shot that Stidham was going to have success on this play. There were no underneath routes that he could dump the ball off to, so he had no choice but to throw the ball deep downfield, resulting in the game-losing turnover.
In almost every moment where Sean Payton had an opportunity to win this game, he made the wrong decision. The fourth-quarter play call he made was terrible. His choice to attempt a 45-yard field goal in a blizzard was insane. But worst of all, he didn't take the points early in the second quarter. Had everything else gone exactly the same, that field goal would've at least sent this game to overtime because New England only scored ten points yesterday. Sean Payton looks like a jackass. He has nobody to blame but himself for this loss because that was a completely winnable game. I’m not going to blame Jarrett Stidham, who was making his fifth NFL start, for the loss. I’m going to blame the 18-year, former Super Bowl-winning head coach for this loss.
