Many fans and media people roll their eyes when, upon being asked the keys to the game, NFL coaches always list such things as turnovers and penalties.

“If we can win the turnover battle and limit penalties, we’ll have a much better chance to win,” they’ll say.

We live in a world of glitz, though, so we want to hear about something much cooler.

But even though we outside of the coaching profession don’t want to admit it, the guys with the ball caps, headsets and play sheets are right. It plays out that way all the time – the Browns were great examples of it this season – and it did so again in Sunday’s NFL conference championship games.

The Philadelphia Eagles routed the San Francisco 49ers 31-7 in the NFC and the Kansas City Chiefs edged the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the AFC because they both followed that plan.

The Eagles forced two fumbles from 49ers quarterbacks that they recovered, including one on a botched shotgun snap that led to Philadelphia scoring a touchdown and begin taking control of the game. The Eagles also had a scoring drive helped immeasurably by a series of San Francisco penalties.

The Chiefs intercepted quarterback Joe Burrow twice, ending his string of 177 pass attempts without an interception that helped the Bengals get red-hot in the second half of the season and surge to the AFC North title and into the playoffs. And on Kansas City’s frantic drive in the final seconds, Cincinnati carelessly hit quarterback Patrick Mahomes out of bounds after a first-down scramble, and the 15 yards from the resulting personal foul penalty made the game-winning field goal much easier to convert.

So, then, perhaps we should quit rolling our eyes.

Steve King