The 2018 NFL season’s crooked road branched off into a thousand potential paths Sunday, but the football gods blazed a trail that led us all to gaze in astonishment of Sean McVay’s rising star and simultaneously wonder how a 41-year-old Tom Brady and his eternally angry escaped Skeksis of a head coach are still able to do this. The Rams and Patriots were the clear winners of Conference Championship Sunday as they head on to Super Bowl 53.
The Saints and Chiefs were their counterpart on the unhappy side of the ledger, with their dreams of a championship slipping from their grasp.
But there were far more winners and losers beyond the 106 active roster players who start their winter breaks on Monday. Sunday’s games were a sloppy, glorious mess that filled the gaps between plays with unrealistic expectations and crushing anxiety. So who came out of the conference title games smelling like roses? And who actually smells like poo-poo-oo (yeah)?
Let’s dive in.
Loser: You and me
For having to watch the Patriots in another Super Bowl.
At least the Patriots have always given us exciting Super Bowls, so there’s hope for a great game on Feb. 3. But unless you’re a Patriots fan, you’ve had enough of their smug faces in the biggest game of the year. Give me a total snoozer of a Super Bowl if it means the Patriots aren’t going to be there. Something like the Seahawks-Broncos Broncos blowout? I wish! Or the Broncos defense dragging a decrepit Peyton Manning to his second Lombardi Trophy against an overmatched Panthers squad? IN MY DREAMS.
By the way, those are the only two Super Bowls since 2014 that haven’t featured the Patriots. If only.
Winner: You and me
We just experienced an incredibly fun season in the NFL and an exhilarating Conference Championship Round. The Super Bowl will probably be excellent. Every Super Bowl with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in it is.
Even if the teams in the final game of the season aren’t the two we wanted to see there — or at least one of them — that shouldn’t take away from one hell of a season. When the product is as good as it was this year, it’s easy to remember why we love this game so much.
In just his first year as starter, Mahomes exceeded every wild expectation heaped upon him. He threw passes we didn’t know were physically possible. He’ll win league MVP. He was a huge reason why this NFL season was such a blast.
He won’t make it to the Super Bowl, not this year. Maybe he could have if he had a chance to win the game for the Chiefs, but the Patriots started with the ball in overtime and that’s all it took to send them on to Atlanta.
We would have liked to see him try, but he was more zen about it than most fans probably were:
Mahomes on not winning the OT coin toss:
“Sometimes that’s just the way the coin tosses”
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) January 21, 2019
How can you not love this guy?
Thank you #ChiefsKingdom
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes5) January 21, 2019
This hurts now but we will be back love y’all for y’alls support!
You WILL be back; this is only the beginning of your journey into football’s hall of the immortals.
Winner: Tom Brady
Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are headed to their ninth Super Bowl together, which is twice as many times as any other QB-coach duo in NFL history. They’ve won five. Brady, who owns an obscene number of playoff records, has four Super Bowl MVPs.
So you’re not alone if you did a sitcom-style spit take when Brady referred to the Patriots as “underdogs” and said the “odds were stacked against” them. But you know what? Whatever motivation they needed worked. Brady, who didn’t have a great game statistically with two picks and 77.1 passer rating, did his best work with the game on the line.
The Patriots took the lead with 39 second left on a drive that saw Brady complete three passes for 10+ yards — he also threw a pick, but it was wiped out due to Dee Ford’s offside penalty. The football gods love Brady, we know this.
Then in overtime, he helped engineer a 13-play touchdown drive to win the game. Brady didn’t have to do it all himself — Rex Burkhead scored both of those final two touchdowns — but he once again showed why he’s the GOAT. And that he’s adding to his legacy at 41 is still unbelievably believable.
Loser: The referees this weekend
The referees missed a huuuuuuge call toward the end of the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship that very likely decided the game. Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis was going out to catch a pass from Drew Brees when he got absolutely leveled by Nickell Robey-Coleman.
That no-call stopped the Saints from being able to score a potential touchdown on the drive — or at least run the clock down and kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. Instead, the game went to overtime and the Rams won.
Sean Payton was incensed after the game. Robey-Coleman even admitted that he HAD committed DPI. It didn’t matter: the Saints were left dealing with another heartbreaking playoff loss.
Not that the officials were one-sided. They also missed a couple of facemasks that the Saints committed.
The referees weren’t much better in the AFC Championship Game. They called a weak roughing the passer penalty on Tom Brady that helped get the Patriots into scoring position late in the game.
Earlier in the game, Mahomes didn’t get the same call.
Loser: Anyone who wanted to see the Chiefs and Rams score a million points again
We rated it our No. 1 potential Super Bowl matchup back in the Divisional Round. The Chiefs and Rams put together the greatest Monday Night Football game of all time and scored more points than all but two other NFL games in history in the process. We were a coin flip away from running it back.
Thanks for ruining that, Tom Brady.
Greg Zuerlein cemented himself as a kicking legend when he hit the 57-yard game-winning kick to punch the Rams’ ticket to Super Bowl 53.
Zuerlein made all four of his field goals and both of his extra point attempts, accounting for 14 of the Rams’ 26 points on the day. He kicked the field goal that sent the game to overtime and the one that sent his team to the Super Bowl.
That makes him a (game) winner in our book.
Winner: Dante Fowler
Dante Fowler has to be feeling good right now. This time last year, he was a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars coming off of an AFC Championship game loss to the New England Patriots. In that game, Fowler balled out with two sacks and three quarterback hits, but it wasn’t enough as the Jaguars lost 24-20.
Now, as a member of the Los Angeles Rams, Fowler made the play to help them get to the Super Bowl.
Fowler spun around Saints tackle Ryan Ramczyk to get a solid hit on Drew Brees as he was throwing the ball. The ball landed in John Johnson’s hands for an interception.
Incredible play by both Dante Fowler and John Johnson, who is allowed to interfere here w/Michael Thomas because the ball was tipped pic.twitter.com/C8h88gZpjF
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) January 20, 2019
A few plays later, Zuerlein made the kick that sent Los Angeles to the Super Bowl.
Griffin had just one reception in a three-year NFL career that had seen him go undrafted in 2016 and waived by the Saints on three separate occasions. He wasn’t supposed to get much playing time in the NFC Championship, but Ben Watson’s appendicitis and Josh Hill’s head injury pushed the third-string tight end into the lineup. He didn’t let the opportunity slip by unnoticed.
Griffin emerged with his first NFL touchdown catch when Rams defensive back Marcus Peters picked his own man to spring the Air Force alum in the end zone. He’d finish his game with two receptions for 12 yards and a score — not much, but all career highs.
Tony Romo didn’t get the chance to go to the Super Bowl when he was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, but he’ll be there this year as part of the CBS broadcast crew.
And we can’t wait.
Romo is a delight in the booth, as we’ve known since last season when he made his announcing debut. He’s also a bit of a wizard. His ability to predict plays before they happen — especially when it’s the Patriots — will make the Super Bowl more bearable:
And thankfully, Jason Witten will be far, far away.
Loser: Eardrums
It’s not breaking news that the Superdome is loud as hell, but the Saints fans really brought it for the NFC Championship Game. Not only were the Saints fans loud enough to shake the press box, but there was also someone whistling loud enough for the cameras to pick it up.
The whistler is a guy that goes by “Whistle Monsta.” Somehow he has perfected whistling to the point that it interfered with an actual NFL broadcast.
One good aspect of the Saints not reaching the Super Bowl: we won’t have to hear from the so-called Whistle Monsta.
Loser: The “Rob Gronkowski is cooked” theory
Gronkowski had only one reception in New England’s Divisional Round win over the Chargers and had the fewest receiving yards per game since his rookie season back in 2010. But when Tom Brady needed someone to make a play with the game on the line, there was Gronk — chugging past Eric Berry and making the All-Pro safety look like an overmatched high school kid in the process.
Gronk finished his day with six catches for 79 yards. 40 of those yards came on the two scoring drives that put the Patriots in the lead in the final minute of the game and then won it in overtime. And when he wasn’t catching passes, he was keeping opposing linebackers and defensive backs the hell away from his runners.
Loser: Everyone in the flyover states
ANOTHER championship game between LA and Boston? We just saw that a few months ago between the Dodgers and Red Sox in the World Series. What’s next, a Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals?
Well, probably not this year. But maybe a Celtics-Warriors one.
There’s a silver lining, at least. Finally, the two coasts will get some national attention. That never happens.
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