A Grip on Sports: Storylines abound as Seahawks earn another Super Bowl berth by surviving the tension and the Rams

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Piece of cake. That cliché is supposed to indicate something is easy. A sure thing. No stress, no worry. Sunday’s 31-27 Seahawk NFC title win over visiting Los Angeles was none of that. But I was thinking of a cake as the game wound down. One made entirely of tension. One you could cut with a knife.

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• That’s how my mind works when stress kicks in. Hopping from cliché to cliché, trying to find the right one to land on. A mental strategy to survive the pressure. Tough going, the tough getting going and that sort of junk. Which is what the Seahawks did. The Rams too, which was no surprise. The Super Bowl before the Super Bowl. Two evenly matched teams which ended up being separated by one bounce off a shoulder pad. Among a couple other things.

• Is a muffed punt a turnover? Sure. Even more so than the crushing “turnover on downs.” Funny, both happened Sunday. And both proved critical.

The muff, actually the second punt L.A.’s Xavier Smith bobbled, came as the Rams’ Matthew Stafford was preparing to lead his offense onto Lumen Field for its first second-half possession. It bounced off a falling Smith’s shoulder pad, sat on the turf and was recovered by Seattle’s Dareke Young. It gave Sam Darnold and the Hawks their first extra one. And resulted in the 17-yard touchdown pass to Jake Bobo. A touchdown that was ultimately the difference.

The fourth-down failure? That came later. With the game’s outcome still in doubt. Time running low. Sean McVay saw the Hawks winning the fourth-and-4 play as a byproduct of luck. Mike Macdonald? Not sure but it’s easy to assume he thought Julian Love’s decision not to continue a seeming blitz but to double primary receiver Kyren Williams in the flat, as a veteran move.

Or a winning move, if you prefer. Stafford had to look elsewhere. Challenge lockdown corner Devon Witherspoon on the other side. And fail.

• There was one more turnover Sunday. A rare one. A key third-down stop thanks to Riq Woolen’s hands and feet, as the corner knocked down Stafford’s pass to Puka Nacua. And a penalty-caused first down courtesy of Woolen’s mouth, as he taunted the Rams’ bench to earn a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty. A Stafford-to-Nacua 34-yard touchdown followed on the next play, with Woolen the defensive back undressed en route.

The immediate aftermath? Woolen and Nick Emmanwori facing off on the sidelines. The long-term one? Probably a 100,000 words in the leadup to the Feb. 8 Super Bowl with underdog New England. And little else.

• Speaking of 100,000 words, that will be one day’s worth concerning Darnold’s redemption story between now and then. I’m not adding more. Except to say it’s not over. And won’t be until late that Sunday night. It is still riding on the outcome of the Seahawks’ latest Super Bowl appearance.

• One last thought from Sunday. It just seemed odd the AFC title game featured two franchised intertwined with the Hawks’ Super Bowl history so intimately. The Broncos and Seattle’s lone title. The Pats and their most-crushing loss.

If Sean Payton had opted for a first-half chip-shot field goal, the matchup in Santa Clara might be different. Instead, it’s time for a new generation of Seahawks to avenge the last generation’s agonizing defeat.

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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the Washington men ended their losing streak to Oregon that has spanned a couple years and, at the same time, extended the current Ducks’ losing streak to six games, their longest in 15 years. … Tonight’s the night. No. 1 Arizona puts its undefeated season on the line in Provo. AJ Dybantsa and 13th-ranked BYU will try to post the upset (6, ESPN). … Speaking of upsets, USC’s Chad Baker-Mazara went off from beyond the arc and the Trojans fought back to win in Wisconsin. … San Diego State bounced back with Saturday’s 11-point win in Las Vegas. … The Cal women earned a split of their season series with rival Stanford, winning 78-71 in Berkeley. … Washington’s game with Rutgers was postponed due to the awful weather. … Colorado and Oklahoma State played in Boulder, with the Buffs winning. … I accidentally had the UCLA game with Northwestern in the wrong section yesterday. The third-ranked Bruins rolled. … USC gave No. 7 Michigan a late run but fell short.

• In football news, Jon Wilner explains the foundation of Indiana’s rise to national champions began with the near-doubling of the school’s spending on football. … John Canzano covers the same ground but from a different time zone, zeroing in on the Pac-12 and its new teams. … Oregon State has added a running back to its roster. … Colorado is fining players for infractions. And they are still not classified as employees? 

Gonzaga: It’s Monday morning, which means it’s time for Theo Lawson to look back at Saturday’s Zag game. A win, as it has been for all but one of these next-day summaries this season. But this one, like the GU lineup, is a bit different. It features the exploits of freshman forward Davis Fogle. … Will the Zags drop out of the top 10 when polls are released later today?

Kraken: Not sure anyone was paying a lot of attention except maybe those in Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday’s early afternoon, but Berkly Catton scored another goal and Seattle went on to a 4-2 victory over New Jersey.

Seahawks: “I’ll take ‘Words That Have Legs’ for $2,000, Alex.” Legendary. Legends. Legos. “What are three things that are built over time?” That’s the right answer according to our buddy Dave Boling in his column from Lumen Field. And that work is worth a lot more than a couple grand. … The rest of the S-R report, other than the pressure-cracked TV Take I produced on deadline, Jacob Thorpe’s game story, Colton Clark’s look at players with local ties that played in Sunday’s two title games – including Cooper Kupp and his contributions against his former team – and Amanda Sullender’s Spokane-based fan story are from either the Seattle Times or The Athletic. I linked a bunch of them above, along with stories from national writers and L.A.-based reporters and columnists. What I didn’t link there I link here. If you have to skip them because you are working today, I feel your pain. And am so glad I don’t have the same issue anymore. … Hey, there are always grades. … Can’t forget the coverage of the Patriots win in Denver, a win that crushed my longest-tenured friend’s hopes for a Super Bowl rematch with the Hawks on his 70th birthday. … One more story to pass along with a personal bent. An appreciation of my dad’s favorite quarterback, John Brodie, written by my old – I use that word two ways – co-worker Mike Sando.

Mariners: The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal has a story on an old college teammate. Brady Anderson and I were never on the same UC Irvine team, as he came along about seven years after me. But we were teammates once in an alumni game.

Golf: A great way to cut anticipatory tension Sunday? Watch golf. More specifically, watch Scottie Scheffler golf. And win. It’s entirely possible 2026 will be his best season yet. And move him up the ladder of the game’s all-time greats. It started well in the California desert over the weekend.

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• Everything in pro sports is quantified these days. Without hardly trying, I was able to find out Sunday what the Rams’ record had been in the seven games with Clay Martin as the referee. Heck, even when he was an umpire for three others, before he began wearing the white hat. Let’s just say it was surprisingly one-sided. And not as much anymore. Until later …