Remarkably, Payton found a way to lose a no-lose situation. His Broncos lost, 10-7, and Broncos fans are furious that Payton went for it on fourth and 1 in the second quarter instead of kicking a 32-yard field goal to go up by 10 points.
Get Starting Point
It wasn’t a terrible decision in a vacuum — a 14-point deficit would have been nearly insurmountable for the Patriots. But Payton knew (or should have known) that bad weather was coming in the second half, and shouldn’t have gambled an opportunity to score 3 easy points.
“There are always regrets,” he said. “There will always be second thoughts.”
⋅ Meanwhile, Sean McVay made two questionable game management decisions that cost the Rams in their 31-27 loss to the Seahawks. The one that was more of a toss-up was the decision to go for it on fourth and 4 from the 6-yard line with about five minutes left, which Matthew Stafford threw incomplete.
The analytics said it was an obvious “go for it” decision. But the Rams still had all three timeouts, and kicking a field goal would have drawn them within 1. At the end of the game, the Rams would have needed only a field goal instead of having to drive the entire field.
The more questionable decision was why the Rams didn’t attempt a 2-point conversion on either of their third-quarter touchdowns. Both scores drew the Rams within 5, yet McVay took the extra point each time instead of trying to cut the deficit to 3.
McVay wasn’t asked about any of those decisions postgame, but said the Seahawks “lucked out” on the fourth-down play when two defenders mistakenly covered running back Kyren Williams, who was the intended target.
“I know that can’t be part of their design,” McVay said. “Fortuitous bust by them.”
The Seahawks may have been lucky, but McVay’s decisions were costly.
⋅ As for the ill-fated fourth-and-1 play for the Broncos, an incomplete pass by Stidham, Payton said the original call was a run, and he wished Stidham had stayed in it.
“They ended up playing a 6-1 front with a two-deep shell,” Payton said. “In hindsight, the initial sub run was a better decision.”
Jarrett Stidham and the Broncos had momentum in the first quarter before an ill-fated fourth-and-1 play.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
⋅ The snowy conditions made it tough to see the markings on the field, and it may have led to the second-biggest play of the AFC Championship game, the partially blocked field goal by the Patriots’ Leonard Taylor late in the fourth quarter.
The ball was spotted on the Patriots’ 28, and it should have been a 46-yard attempt since holders usually line up 8 yards behind the line of scrimmage. But the kick was attempted from 45 yards.
“Unfortunately, you couldn’t see the lines on the field, and honestly I think we might have been a yard short on the snap,” kicker Wil Lutz said. “But you can’t see the lines on the field and we had to kind of estimate. Guy comes through and it gets blocked.”
Because of the snow, the Broncos may have lined up a yard closer to the line of scrimmage for their field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, which was blocked by the Patriots’ Leonard Taylor.David Zalubowski/Associated Press
⋅ Last year, Sam Darnold took nine sacks and threw an interception as his Vikings got crushed by the Rams in the wild-card round, 27-9. Sunday’s game was a nice bit of redemption, with Darnold throwing for 346 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions in the Seahawks’ 31-27 victory.
Darnold, who played through an oblique injury, had been 1-3 with five touchdowns and seven interceptions against Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula before Sunday’s win.
“Guy barely practiced all week,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “Every time they went and scored he came back, made some big-time throws on third down, two-minute drive, four-minute drive. Just been a rock for us the whole year, so just really happy for him.”
⋅ Special teams have been the Rams’ weakness all season. They lost to the Eagles because of two blocked kicks, they swapped out kickers and long snappers, and they fired their special teams coordinator after Week 16, after allowing a punt return touchdown to the Seahawks.
So it was only appropriate that the Rams lost because of a special teams gaffe — a muffed punt by Xavier Smith in the third quarter. The Seahawks recovered and scored on the next play to make the score 24-13.
A muffed by the Rams’ Xavier Smith led to a touchdown for the Seahawks.Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press
“That was a tough one where we get a great stop coming out of the second half,” McVay said. “You feel like you’ll be able to get some good momentum. Then they score on the very first play after we turn it back over to open it up to an 11-point lead.”
Quick hits
⋅ The Patriots’ 54 points in the playoffs are the fewest by a team that played in three games and reached the Super Bowl, breaking the previous low by the 2000 Ravens.
⋅ The Patriots’ 10 points were also the second-fewest by a winning team in a conference championship game. In 1979, the Rams defeated the Buccaneers, 9-0.
⋅ The Broncos got back center Luke Wattenberg for Sunday’s game after he missed the last three with a shoulder injury, but he struggled against the Patriots’ defensive tackles. Milton Williams led all defenders in both games with four pressures Sunday, including one that forced the incomplete pass on fourth and 1. Williams had three “quick” pressures in less than 2.5 seconds, despite being double-teamed on 40 percent of snaps. Christian Barmore finished with two pressures and a sack.
⋅ The Patriots went jumbo in the snow, using an extra offensive lineman on 42 percent of snaps in the second half, compared with 19 percent in the first. Though the Patriots gained just 3.8 yards per play in their jumbo set, they held the ball for 21:06 in the second half, keeping it away from the Broncos.
⋅ Drake Maye (23 years, 162 days old) will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, trailing Dan Marino by 35 days. Maye is the youngest quarterback ever to win a conference championship game on the road.
⋅ Mike Vrabel is the eighth coach, and first since Gary Kubiak in 2015, to lead his team to the Super Bowl in his first season.
Mike Vrabel is the eighth coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl in his first season.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
⋅ The Seahawks’ John Schneider became the first general manager to reach multiple Super Bowls with the same organization, but with a new head coach and no players from the previous Super Bowl team.
⋅ The Seahawks are now 4-0 in conference championship games.
⋅ Conversely, Rams receiver Davante Adams is 0-5 in conference championship games, trailing only former Rams and Chargers running back John Cappelletti, who went 0-6.
Ben Volin can be reached at [email protected].
