Coffee & Cigarettes: Seahawks links for Monday

15-3.

Seahawks defense pounces on 49ers' lapses - Stats & Info Blog - ESPN
In earning their spots in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Seattle Seahawks (the NFL’s top scoring defense) and the Denver Broncos (the league’s top scoring offense) rode their strengths to victory in Sunday’s Conference Championship games.

Russell Wilson's fourth-quarter, fourth-down TD pass decisive vs. 49ers | Audibles - SI.com
Pete Carroll is not one to stand on convention, no matter how big the moment is.

FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Audibles at the Line: Conference Championships
For this year's playoffs, we have a modified format for our Audibles at the Line feature, combining our Twitter feeds with our e-mail discussion. Firstly, the arrival of the playoffs brings with it the return of our usual back-and-forth staff e-mail conversation. Secondly, every game will also have a selection of tweets from us and a few reader tweets we found particularly insightful. To follow these tweets live on Sunday, or to contribute your own thoughts or a question for the FO staff, you can use hashtag #FOAud. We discussed the new format in this post.

Super Bowl XLVIII preview: A look ahead to Seattle Seahawks vs. Denver Broncos | Audibles - SI.com
Considering how much effort teams expend during the regular season chasing the No. 1 playoff seed, the results do not often reward that pursuit. The last time both top seeds made the Super Bowl? During the 2009 season, when the Colts and Saints met. Before that? 1993, Buffalo and Dallas.

Super Bowl XLVIII odds: Denver Broncos favorite over Seattle Seahawks | Audibles - SI.com
The Denver Broncos are your Super Bowl XLVIII favorites … at least for now.

49ers’ Jim Harbaugh finally finds grace and humility in the agony of defeat | Audibles - SI.com
Jim Harbaugh is wired for success. In football, he’s gotten results wherever he’s gone. For the Michigan Wolverines from 1983 through 1986, he was one of the Big Ten’s best quarterbacks, leading the conference in yards per attempt in each of his last three seasons. He was selected in the first round of the 1987 draft by the Chicago Bears, and he threw for over 26,000 yards and 129 touchdowns for four different NFL teams. He gave the San Diego Toreros and Stanford Cardinal new winning identities as a college head coach, mixing a constant, tough-minded approach with his own thoughts on how to use the passing game with great success, no matter who his quarterbacks may have been.

Denver Broncos dominate Patriots in the trenches - NFL.com
The Denver Broncos outdueled the New England Patriots on Sunday by dominating in the trenches. The 26-16 victory yielded a seventh Super Bowl berth for Denver.

The Seattle Times: NFC Championship: Seahawks beat 49ers
seattletimes.com: Northwest news and information from the Seattle Times. Daily local news, sports, arts and entertainment, and classified ads.

Denver Broncos dominate Patriots in the trenches - NFL.com
The Denver Broncos outdueled the New England Patriots on Sunday by dominating in the trenches. The 26-16 victory yielded a seventh Super Bowl berth for Denver.

What pressure? Peyton Manning steps up vs. Patriots - NFL.com
Peyton Manning played out of his mind all season. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that he was at it again against the New England Patriots in Sunday's AFC Championship Game.

Colin Kaepernick on 49ers' loss: 'I cost us this game' - NFL.com
Colin Kaepernick remains a quarterback with immense promise for the San Francisco 49ers. But he's far from a finished product, a reality on display in the fourth quarter of the NFC Championship Game.

Eleven takeaways from NFL's Championship Sunday - NFL.com
Peyton Manning's historic Broncos offense proved its mettle. The Seahawks' defense is one of the best we've seen in over a decade. Here's what we learned from Sunday's conference title games.

Colin Kaepernick's Meltdown Must Become Learning Experience for 49ers QB | Bleacher Report
San Francisco 49ers news, rumors, scores, schedules, predictions, picks against the spread, free agent updates, power rankings, mock drafts and more

49ers vs. Seahawks: Takeaways from Seattle's 23-17 Win over San Francisco | Bleacher Report
Seattle Seahawks news, rumors, scores, schedules, predictions, picks against the spread, free agent updates, power rankings, mock drafts and more

‘You’ve got to love that game’ | HeraldNet.com - Sports
SEATTLE — The ball hung in the air, longer than a football ought to, a trip to Super Bowl XLVIII literally up for grabs. But when the dust, and ...

Whether we believe it, Peyton Manning has SB XLVIII weather issue - CBSSports.com
The Super Bowl weather and Peyton Manning. Get used to it, because this 'narrative' is not going away. The Broncos are and their better-in-fair-weather QB are up against a Seahawks team to whom weather does not matter.

Seahawks-49ers wrapup: Colin Kaepernick falls apart in 4th quarter - CBSSports.com
San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick turned the ball over three times in the fourth quarter as the Seahawks came back to beat the 49ers 23-17 in the NFC Championship.

Sorting the Sunday Pile: Broncos-Seahawks rare battle of No. 1's - CBSSports.com
Sorting the Sunday Pile looks at the biggest stories from the NFL week that was. This week? The Broncos and Seahawks are a rare battle of No. 1 teams.

Pete Carroll brings many along for his wild ride to the Super Bowl - CBSSports.com
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has had a crazy path to get to the Super Bowl and he's brought a lot of folks he couldn't be at CenturyLink Field along for the ride.

Peyton Manning makes doubters pay with another money performance - CBSSports.com
Can you believe there are still those that doubt Peyton Manning? No one -- not Tom Brady, Bill Belichick or anyone else -- was going to keep Manning from winning another AFC title on this day.

Thiel: Wilson, the Seahawks’ indomitable man | Sportspress Northwest
After a major blunder to start the game, QB Russell Wilson remained undaunted, coming up with a 4th-and-7 TD pass that will live forever in Northwest sports history.

Colin Kaepernick, Michael Crabtree can’t quite complete 49ers’ comeback | Seahawks | The Seattle Times
Colin Kaepernick’s end-zone pass to Michael Crabtree gets intercepted, leaving the 49ers just short of a second straight Super Bowl appearance.

Rookie lineman Alvin Bailey helps pave way for Marshawn Lynch | Seahawks | The Seattle Times
Alvin Bailey, a rookie offensive lineman, played about a dozen snaps in the second half, lining up as a sixth lineman for the Seahawks. He made a key block on Marshawn Lynch’s 40-yard touchdown run.

The coaches speak: Carroll/Harbaugh | Seahawks Blog | Seattle Times
Here’s what Seattle coach Pete Carroll and 49er coach Jim Harbaugh had to say after the Seahawks’ 23-17 win Sunday:

Seahawks’ Doug Baldwin proves to be a cut above “average” | Seahawks | The Seattle Times
Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, motivated by criticism of Seattle’s receivers, caught six passes for 106 yards and returned a kickoff 69 yards in Seattle’s 23-17 victory Sunday over the 49ers.

Losing was never option for this audacious, bodacious team | Jerry Brewer | The Seattle Times
It wasn’t graceful, but it was typical. The Seahawks aren’t floating to the Super Bowl as if on a cloud. They’re stomping. They’re dancing. They’re sticking their chests out and declaring that, in the most rugged test this young team has faced, they’ve shown champ

Quick Take: Denver Broncos vs. Seattle Seahawks - ESPN
Five nuggets of knowledge about Super Bowl XLVIII, in which the Denver Broncos face the Seattle Seahawks on Feb. 2:

Game in Review: Seahawks 23, 49ers 17 - 710sports.com
It wasn't easy.

Another 49ers' season ends bitterly - NFC West Blog - ESPN
Can anything surpass the pain of a Super Bowl loss?

Seahawks' win validates Pete Carroll's approach - 710sports.com
The formula worked.

In a classic title game, the Seattle Seahawks prevail - ESPN
Championship games don't get any better.

Kam Chancellor makes his presence felt in title game - 710sports.com
Kam Chancellor laughed and smiled from ear to ear as he answered questions about the win that punched the Seahawks' ticket to the Super Bowl.

Instant reaction: Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl | Seahawks Draft Blog
Seattle is going to the Super Bowl. And they managed it with a second half display that won’t get enough credit. 20-7

Postgame | Joe Blogs
Priest Holmes, the superb running back for the Kansas City Chiefs in the early 2000s, would shake his head every time we talked about postgame interviews. The whole thing just didn’t make any sense to him. Holmes was no taller than 5-foot-9, by midseason he probably weighed 200 pounds, he wasn’t exceptionally fast by football standards. He had blown out one knee, blew it out again, got his hip knocked out of joint and had been hit so hard he was not sure how he made it to the sidelines.*

49ers vs. Seahawks: The big game that lived up to the hype - Al Saracevic
Big games rarely live up to expectations. Somebody chokes. The better team emerges. Things don’t go as expected.

Seahawks' Sherman: I'll be hard on 49ers' Crabtree 'for the rest of his career'
"I ain't getting into that," said Crabtree, who shoved Sherman in the face after being offered a handshake following the interception. "He knows what time it is. When we were on the field, he isn't doing nothing."

Lynch’s Third-Quarter Blast Breaks Pacific Northwest Logjam - NYTimes.com
The showdown between Beast Mode and the Inconvenient Truth, the nicknames for Marshawn Lynch and Frank Gore, the star running backs of the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, was one of many subplots expected to emerge from the N.F.C. championship game.

Bad idea to throw at Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman - ESPN
Richard Sherman wasn't playing. Michael Crabtree wasn't going to make a play on him, not on this night, not ever, not when a trip to the Super Bowl was on the line.

After opening as underdogs, Broncos now slight Super Bowl favorites | ProFootballTalk
It didn’t take long for the first Super Bowl XLVIII point spreads to emerge from the sports books of Nevada, and it’s the AFC-champion Broncos who are getting the early support.

Competition Committee will consider Bowman play in offseason | ProFootballTalk
Per a league source, the Competition Committee will consider in the offseason whether to expand the replay rules to include the recovery of a loose ball in the field of play.

Andrew Luck added to Pro Bowl roster | ProFootballTalk
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck has been added to the Pro Bowl roster, the club said Sunday night. He replaces Russell Wilson, the starting quarterback for the NFC-champion Seahawks and a third-round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.

NFP Sunday Blitz | National Football Post

Smokescreens and double-talk? Yep, draft season has officially arrived.