Super Bowl LX= Seattle vs New England

SEATTLE (AP) — Sam Darnold threw for three touchdowns, the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense came up with a critical fourth-down stop, and Seattle advanced to the Super Bowl, beating the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 in an electrifying NFC championship game on Sunday.

Led by second-year coach Mike Macdonald and Darnold — an eight-year veteran playing for his fifth team — the Seahawks (16-3) reached the fourth Super Bowl in franchise history and first in 11 years. Seattle lost that most recent appearance to New England, its opponent in two weeks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

With Los Angeles (14-6) facing fourth-and-4 at the Seattle 6, coach Sean McVay elected to go for it and Matthew Stafford’s pass was broken up in the end zone by Devon Witherspoon. The Rams didn’t get the ball back until there were 25 seconds left, and Puka Nacua was tackled inbounds near midfield on the final play.

Meantime, Drake Maye scored New England’s only touchdown on a 6-yard keeper, propelling the Patriots to their 12th Super Bowl with a 10-7 win over the Denver Broncos. Christian Gonzalez intercepted Jarrett Stidham, starting in place of an injured Bo Nix, at the New England 36 with 2:11 remaining and the Patriots iced their first playoff win in Denver when Maye ran for 7 yards on third-and-5 from his 41. In Mike Vrabel’s first season as coach, New England became the third team in the Super Bowl era to win a conference championship with 10 points or less. The Broncos finished one step shy of fulfilling Sean Payton’s preseason prediction of a trip to Super Bowl 60.

Super Bowl LX will be played at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, February 8, 2026.

Patriots are heading to their 12th Super Bowl, seeking an NFL-record 7th victory

Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel and a stifling defense have the New England Patriots back in the Super Bowl for the first time since Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their sixth ring together seven years ago. The Patriots beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 on Sunday in the AFC championship game to advance to their 12th Super Bowl. They’ll face the winner of the NFC championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. Either way, it’ll be a rematch.

Sean Payton has second thoughts about passing up easy field goal in Broncos’ AFC title game loss

DENVER (AP) — Sean Payton says he’ll have second thoughts about his decision to pass up an easy field goal, as well as the play he called instead. The Denver Broncos and their fans now have the entire offseason to argue over which part of that critical fourth-and-1 play was worse. Payton decided not to kick a chip-shot field goal for a 10-0 lead in good weather in the first half of Sunday’s AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. As a result, the Broncos ended up needing to make a kick once the blowing snow and wind rolled in after halftime. The decision played an integral role in Denver’s 10-7 loss.