Giants candidate Klint Kubiak ices game with excellent Seahawks 2-point call

The Giants don’t know how to finish or win.

Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak showed Thursday night that he could perhaps be the closest to prove New York right.

Kubiak, 38, son of Super Bowl-winning coach Gary Kubiak, worked with Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald and the Seahawks game management team to masterfully close out a 38-37 overtime victory 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 two-point conversion was perfect.

Kubiak should be a strong candidate for the Giants head coaching job. And what he showed on Thursday at the critical moment was a good start to making his point.

Seattle knew when they went to overtime that a tie wouldn’t help them beat the Rams in the NFC standings. They needed a win, both to clinch a playoff spot and to control their destiny for first place in the overall conference standings.

So Macdonald won the overtime 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 touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford and kicked the extra point to go up, 37-30, with 6:27 left. Then Sam Darnold and the Seahawks offense got to work.

Kubiak didn’t rush the offense. The Seahawks ran the ball three times in 10 plays and mostly regrouped. They also mixed it up in a quick no-huddle play after Darnold’s 21-yard rope to Cooper Kupp to keep the Rams defense off balance.

However, it was what Macdonald and Kubiak did in the first game and their goal from the fourth that stood out to viewers.

Kubiak had the Seahawks in 11 rosters — a running back, a tight end and three receivers — with two wide receivers left. Seattle got to the line quickly again for this play, so the Rams called a timeout.

Kubiak came back out of the timeout in 11, but bunched receivers to the right, motioned Rashid Shaheed from right to left and facilitated a 4-yard play-action TD pass from Darnold to leading receiver Jaxson Smith-Njigba with 3:13 left.

This is where the dynamism went from impressive to masterful.

The Seahawks haven’t had to make a decision yet on what to do. They already knew the issues. They had already talked about it and planned. They knew they wanted to win, because they had to, and they knew the small number of plays they wanted to call.

Macdonald was calm on the sideline, as was Kubiak, holding his play sheet to his mouth and explaining to Darnold how the Seahawks intended to win.

Seattle’s offense went for a 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 senior tight end AJ Barner lined up next to left tackle.

The Rams defense, coached by another hot candidate in this cycle, Chris Shula, saw Seattle’s look and called a timeout.

When the Seahawks came out of that timeout, they cut their formation down to 11, with three receivers and a tight end, and had Kupp move inside from the left slot to get a feel for the Rams’ coverage and take a snap of their formation.

Then Macdonald called a timeout.

And when the Seahawks returned to the field, needing to get the ball back, they had changed their formation to 12, with two tight ends. But this time, Seattle was in a trip formation, with Barner at tight end, Kupp and Smith-Njigba all clustered on the right.

Saubert was back on the field in the lineup next to left tackle, and running back Zach Charbonnet was wide to the left with Rams corner Emmanuel Forbes Jr. on him. The corner lined up over the running back told the Seahawks that the Rams were in zone coverage.

Then Seattle ran the Kubiak play. Perfectly.

Charbonnet moved to the backfield from the left flank, bringing Forbes Jr. near the line of scrimmage.

Barner, lined up at the line of scrimmage outside the far right formation, moved inside to his left. And Darnold snapped the ball.

Most of the action on the field took place on the right side of the field and deeper in the end zone.

Barner ran diagonally up the middle from left to right, drawing a linebacker and a safety toward him toward the top of the field. Smith-Njigba drove to the back of the end zone on the right side. Kupp ran quickly just beyond the goal line to the right.

As this developed, Charbonnet delayed and strafed towards the left flat. And Saubert, who was in line next to the left tackle, began double-teaming Rams rusher Jared Verse with his lineman.

With midfield opening and Rams linebacker Omar Speights chasing Charbonnet toward the left flat, Forbes found himself in no man’s land. And Kubiak’s play call took Saubert off the line to his stomach for an easy, wide-open catch by Darnold and the victory.

This is how you close a match with situational football, prepared coaching and good game strategies.

Kubiak wasn’t running the show. He was only part of it. But as the Giants prepare to interview him and other candidates, Thursday was encouraging evidence to put on tape that Kubiak knows what it looks like — and can execute with the game on the line.