The Giants don’t know how to finish or win.
Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak showed on Thursday night that maybe he can be the closer who makes New York right.
Kubiak, 38, the son of Super Bowl winning coach Gary Kubiak, collaborated with Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks’ game management team to masterfully close out a 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night.
Their preparation and poise approaching the goal line for a touchdown and two-point conversion to win was excellent. The play call on the walk-off two-point conversion was perfect.
Kubiak is expected to be a serious candidate for the Giants’ head coaching vacancy. And what he showed in crunch time on Thursday was a good start to making his case.
Seattle knew when they went to overtime that a tie would not help them vault over the Rams in the NFC’s seeding. They needed a win, both to clinch a playoff spot and to control their destiny to the conference’s No. 1 overall seed.
So Macdonald won the overtime coin toss tied, 30-30, and elected to kick and defer possession. That way Seattle would know exactly what it needed to do on offense to win.
The Rams scored on a 41-yard Matthew Stafford touchdown pass and kicked the extra point to go up, 37-30, with 6:27 to play. Then Sam Darnold and the Seahawks offense went to work.
Kubiak did not rush the offense. The Seahawks ran the ball three times in 10 plays and mostly huddled. They also mixed in a no-huddle quick snap after Darnold’s 21-yard rope to Cooper Kupp to keep the Rams’ defense off balance.
It’s what Macdonald and Kubiak did on 1st and goal from the 4 on, though, that jumped off the TV screen.
Kubiak had the Seahawks in 11 personnel — one running back, one tight end and three receivers — with two receivers wide to the left. Seattle got up to the line quickly again for that play, so the Rams called timeout.
Kubiak came back out of the timeout in 11 personnel but bunched the receivers to the right, motioned Rashid Shaheed from right to left and facilitated a Darnold 4-yard play action TD pass to top receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba with 3:13 remaining.
Here is where the drive went from impressive to masterful.
The Seahawks did not have to make a decision in the moment about what to do. They already knew the stakes. They’d already talked about it and planned for it. They knew they were going for it to win, because they had to, and they knew the small selection of plays they wanted to call.
Macdonald was composed on the sideline and so was Kubiak, holding his play sheet over his mouth and telling Darnold how the Seahawks intended to win.
Seattle’s offense came out for the two-point conversion in 12 personnel — one back, two tight ends, two receivers — and had backup tight end Eric Saubert lined up in the left slot with top tight end AJ Barner in-line next to the left tackle.
The Rams’ defense, coached by another hot candidate in this cycle, Chris Shula, saw Seattle’s look and called timeout.
When the Seahawks came out of that timeout, they switched their formation back to 11 personnel, with three receivers and one tight end, and had Kupp motion inside from the left slot to seek a tell on the Rams’ coverage and take a picture of their formation.
Then Macdonald called timeout.
And when the Seahawks came back onto the field, needing to snap the ball, they had changed their formation back to 12 personnel, with two tight ends. But this time, Seattle was in trips formation, with Barner the tight end, Kupp and Smith-Njigba all bunched up wide to the right.
Saubert was back on the field in-line next to the left tackle, and running back Zach Charbonnet was out wide to the left with Rams corner Emmanuel Forbes Jr. on him. The corner lining up over the running back told the Seahawks that the Rams were in zone coverage.
Then Seattle executed Kubiak’s play. Perfectly.
Charbonnet motioned into the backfield from the left flank, bringing Forbes Jr. in tight toward the line of scrimmage.
Barner, lined up off the line of scrimmage on the outside of the far-right trips formation, motioned inside to his left. And Darnold snapped the ball.
Most of the action on the field was happening on the right side of the field and deeper in the end zone.
Barner ran diagonally through the middle from left to right, drawing a linebacker and a safety to him upfield. Smith-Njigba went to the back of the end zone on the right side. Kupp ran a quick out just across the goal line to the right.
As this developed, Charbonnet delayed and strafed out to the left flat. And Saubert, who was in-line next to the left tackle, began double team blocking Rams edge rusher Jared Verse with his lineman.
With the middle of the field opening and Rams linebacker Omar Speights chasing Charbonnet to the left flat, Forbes found himself in no-man’s land. And Kubiak’s play call leaked Saubert off the line right up the gut for an easy wide-open catch from Darnold and the victory.
That’s how to close a game with situational football, prepared coaching and good playcalling.
Kubiak wasn’t running the show. He was just a part of it. But as the Giants prepare to interview him and other candidates, Thursday was encouraging proof to put on tape that Kubiak knows what it looks like — and can execute with the game on the line.
