The NFL is famously dubbed as a “game of inches”, but it’s also a game where just one good, bad, weird, confusing, or whatever adjective you want to use, coaching decision can play a big role in the final outcome.

The Seattle Seahawks faced one such scenario on Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams: Should they go for two to win the game after scoring a touchdown in overtime or play it safe and kick the PAT to tie it up?

“It was an option,” Mike Macdonald told reporters after the game when asked if they thought about kicking the PAT. “(We started) that drive thinking about how we were going to handle that, [and] I made up our decision how we were going to handle it.”

Macdonald ultimately made the right call and now the Seahawks sit atop both the NFC West and the NFC, as a whole. The fact he quickly made up his mind also gave Klint Kubiak plenty of time to plan out his strategy for the final play, as well, which obviously made a huge difference.

Macdonald gets aggressive and it pays off for the Seahawks

Scared money don’t make money. Seattle’s first half offensive performance, in the face of 4 interceptions for Sam Darnold in the first matchup against the Rams, reminded us all of that. This time around? The Seahawks cut it loose in the second half — and put the ball in Darnold’s hands in overtime for an all-or-nothing call.

Seattle got it all and now owns the path to the NFC’s No. 1 seed. What happened?

On the game-deciding 2-point attempt in overtime, Seattle positioned Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and TE AJ Barner to Darnold’s right in a bunch. The receiver duo ran a switch release concept to try to create a rub against a possible man coverage assignment — but LA’s trio of defenders passed the pair off. Barner, who went in motion at the snap, ran a cross that serves as the next progression for Darnold. As his eyes swept from right to left and eyes Barner, Rams safey Kam Curl cut Barner’s cross while LB Nate Landman played his inside hip and was playing in-phase.

Five defenders for three eligibles — we’ve probably got one-on-ones on the back side of this play. Indeed that was the case. But TE Eric Saubert was in a chip release before leaking out into a checkdown overtop of the ball. Because he didn’t release into his route immediately, Rams corner Emmanuel Forbes simply squatted in space. There’s your opportunity, which Darnold found.

In the film room, it’s probably fair to say the Rams will lament the pass rush opportunity here, too. Darnold worked the full field progression from right to left before finding the second tight end on a delayed leak. The rush threats for the Rams, included Jared Verse, Kobie Turner and Byron Young. No one got home to Darnold. Darnold sent the Rams home with an ‘L’ instead.

It was actually a pretty obvious decision to go for it

Yes, Macdonald deserves for following through, but this was an obvious call to make from the start.

The Seahawks would not have overtaken the NFCW or the NFC if they successfully kicked the PAT and the game ended in a tie. In that scenario, the head-to-head records between both teams would’ve favored the Rams, who would’ve had a 1-0-1 H2H record against the ‘Hawks, compared to Seattle’s 0-1-1 record.

I’m no math wizard, but it’s clear the Rams’ Week 11 win would give them the better head-to-head record which is the first playoff tiebreaker among divisional opponents. Therefore, it made all the sense in the world to go for two as opposed to kicking the PAT.

“I knew that we’d go for two,” tight end AJ Barner told reporters after the game. “I feel like in that situation, you have to go for two. So, no doubts that we were going for two.”

It’s the first time overtime has ever been decided by a successful two-point conversion, which only adds to the gravity of Macdonald’s decision.

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