FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It's fairly clear who the winners and losers were on Saturday. It's rare to see a professional team as despondent as the Bills were Saturday night, a stunning bit of news like Bo Nix's season-ending broken ankle, or a postseason whipping as thorough as the one the Seahawks inflicted on the 49ers. Sunday's games -- which saw the Patriots beat the Texans and the Rams defeat the Bears in overtime -- added a bit more nuance. While we await the conference championship games, here are the outcomes that should be celebrated and scored from the second day of divisional weekend.
Winners
1) Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel: Two years removed from being fired by the Tennessee Titans, an organization that is currently looking for its second head coach since then, Vrabel is headed to the AFC Championship Game in his first season with New England. After two consecutive four-win campaigns, the Patriots are back on top and the culture is a reflection of the touch Vrabel has brought to the job: He is tough, physically and mentally, but he also makes clear his love for his players, making sure to greet each of them after every game, jumping into practices as if he is still a linebacker and even reveling in the bloody lip Milton Williams gave him with a head butt. Drake Maye said he still hasn't figured out his sarcasm, but Vrabel is a leading Coach of the Year candidate this season, and it doesn't look like it will be the last time.
2) Patriots quarterback Drake Maye: In miserable conditions, he fumbled the ball four times, losing two, and certainly can't be that loose with the ball that often. But he also threw three touchdown passes, including a 32-yard beauty that Kayshon Boutte caught with one hand and another that sliced through defenders to find Stefon Diggs' fingertips. All in all, Sunday's effort was a mature, controlled performance, which showed what has made Maye an MVP candidate -- a strong arm and even stronger decision-making.
3) Patriots defense: The unit played like it was tired of hearing how great Houston's defense was -- something Vrabel didn't deny postgame. "Our guys are prideful men," Vrabel said. They had C.J. Stroud confused all night, picking him off four times and hitting and harassing him throughout the game. And they stuffed the Texans' running game -- which Houston had used to beat Pittsburgh on Wild Card Weekend -- holding them to an astonishing 8 yards in the first half. Maye and the offense have gotten all the headlines this season, but the defense kept them in this game. The Patriots have been able to play complementary football because of the D; in two playoff games, the team has allowed just 19 points. "They're playing well together," Vrabel said. "Turnovers are created by more than one guy."
4) Patriots run game: They finished with 105 yards, and while they averaged just 3.3 per rush, Vrabel pointed to a fourth-quarter drive in which the Patriots ran on eight of 10 plays from scrimmage and bled six minutes off the clock. Vrabel is justifiably proud of how he got contributions from every part of his roster. This was a prime example of how complete a team the Patriots are taking to Denver next weekend.
5) Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr.: The Texans defender is an All-Pro for a reason, and if you didn't know him before, you do now. He was everywhere Sunday, a disrupting terror to New England's offense. He finished with three sacks and two forced fumbles. He is the cornerstone of a defense that is the backbone of the Texans' renaissance. They lost Sunday, but they will likely go into next season as a Super Bowl favorite, largely on the strength of that defense.
6) Rams special teams: Go figure. The unit that has been a headache for L.A. all season -- one special teams coordinator was fired during the season -- sent the team to the NFC Championship Game, with Harrison Mevis, who wasn't on the Rams when the season started, kicking a 42-yard field goal in overtime for the victory. "A lot of confidence in him," Sean McVay said. "I was very confident he would make that."
7) Rams defense: They intercepted Caleb Williams three times, the final one in overtime by Kamren Curl to end the Bears' final drive. Curl read what Williams intended better than Williams' intended receiver, DJ Moore, who never broke on the pass. The Rams' pass rush didn't sack Williams, but the interceptions ended a drive in the red zone on the first possession of the game and, in the third quarter, gave the Rams the ball at midfield before saving the season in overtime.
8) Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford: In overtime, he threw a 12-yard pass to the left sideline for Davante Adams that Adams caught as he dragged his feet just past a diving defender and just inches from the boundary. Stafford is a first-team All-Pro and might be the league's MVP this season, and that may have been his best pass of the season. Stafford didn't have the cleanest game -- he fumbled twice, but lost neither -- but he also did not turn the ball over in difficult weather conditions.
9) Rivalry games: The rubber match of a division rivalry will just happen to determine who goes to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks and Rams split their regular-season series, with the two games determined by a total of three points. The top-scoring offense versus the top-scoring defense. Sign us up.
Grade withheld
1) Bears quarterback Caleb Williams: It's hard to put Williams in this category when he was brilliant for a stretch. Under a heavy pass rush on fourth down, drifting 26 yards all the way back to the 40-yard line, with 21 seconds left, off balance, Williams heaved a fadeaway jumper to the end zone, where Cole Kmet got free from a defender at the final moment to catch the game-tying touchdown pass in a play that immediately joined Bears (and playoff) lore. That score sent the game to overtime. Williams possesses a dazzling combination of fearlessness and the physical skills -- what an arm! -- to execute the derring-do that Chicago has needed all season. Alas, it doomed the Bears not long after. In overtime, with the Bears in rhythm and about 20 yards from field-goal range to win the game, Williams threw an entirely unnecessary pass on second down. It was intercepted. Hero ball had turned to disaster. Williams made a bad decision at the worst time, but the Bears would have been nowhere near where they are now without Williams' bravado and talent. He is the reason Chicago will go into next season as a threat to win it all.
Losers
1) Ball security: Yes, it was sleeting during most of Texans-Patriots, but this game is going to show up on some teaching tapes about stripping the ball and where not to throw it. There were eight total turnovers. Maye credited the Texans defense for his four fumbles (two lost) and interception, and said he has to be more careful with the ball when he takes off and runs. Still, everyone, let's not repeat this.
2) Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud: He had another nightmare playoff game, throwing four interceptions (one on a tipped ball) in the first half -- including one that was returned for a touchdown after Stroud inexplicably threw the ball up in the air just as a defender closed in on him -- and looking so out of sorts that you wondered if the Texans would have been better off going to backup Davis Mills after halftime. They struck with Stroud, but the Texans will spend the offseason examining the QB's recent decline and poor decision-making. Against the Steelers, he fumbled five times and threw an interception, but Houston's stellar defense bailed him out. The unit couldn't do that again, though, and Stroud played exactly the opposite of how a quarterback with an all-world defense should be playing. Stroud has been inconsistent all season, and he has never rediscovered the excellence he had as a rookie. Stroud is eligible for an extension in the offseason, but the Texans have to consider how much money to commit to a quarterback whose career started with an Offensive Rookie of the Year award but has been decidedly more up and down since then.
3) Texans rushing attack: The Texans ran for 164 yards against the Steelers, helping them overcome Stroud's turnovers in that wild-card victory. But the running attack was ineffective Sunday, placing all the burden for the offense on a shaky Stroud. The Texans ran for just eight yards in the first half and, even though they committed to the run at the start of the second half, they finished with just 48 yards at a clip of 2.2 yards per rush. That wouldn't have been good enough under the best of conditions, and Houston's offense certainly didn't experience those.
