Sound Smart: 5 Observations from NFL Championship Sunday

Lumen Field (Seattle) — You saw that the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will play in Super Bowl LX. You saw the blizzard that rolled into Denver and rendered the Broncos and New England Patriots’ offenses useless. You saw the shootout where Sam Darnold kept pace with — and ultimately surpassed — Matthew Stafford.

So let's try to spin it forward, dive deeper and think outside the box about what we witnessed in the conference championship games. This is "Sound Smart," where we prepare you for Monday morning with observations from the penultimate round of the postseason. If I do my job, you’ll be fluent in the NFL’s playoff action.

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak called a better game — and outcoached Rams coach Sean McVay and defensive coordinator Chris Shula.

In practice this week, there was one play where Jaxon Smith-Njigba found himself wide open. Unbelievably open. The star receiver lined up in the backfield in a two-back set and broke for the back right corner of the end zone, where he found what every receiver craves: no coverage.

"Am I going to be that open in the game?" Smith-Njigba remembered wondering.

Yup.

During Sunday's NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams, the Seahawks wideout did exactly what he’d practiced. And it worked out exactly as they’d practiced — with nobody near him when he hauled in the touchdown pass. It put the Seahawks ahead to end the first half, but more importantly, it marked a strategic advantage for the Seahawks.

It takes a special play to throw an invisibility cloak over arguably the best receiver in the NFL. But that’s what Seattle's OC did.

"I got to give credit to coach Kubiak. He called a great plan," Smith-Njigba told