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Ram Darnold: Seattle's Quarterback Finally Exorcises Demons Against His Most Formidable Opponent

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Ram Darnold: Seattle's Quarterback Finally Exorcises Demons Against His Most Formidable Opponent

SEATTLE — Thursday night’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams was set as the most important game of the 2025 season to date. Both teams came into the contest with 11-3 records, and though the Rams had beaten Seattle 21-19 in Week 11 to have that small hold over their NFC West rival, the Seahawks nearly won that game despite a four-interception debacle from quarterback Sam Darnold that matched his career worst to date.

This time around, it was just as agonizingly close, but this time, it was in a 38-37 overtime win for the home squad. At first, it didn’t look as if things would go Seattle’s way. The Rams did what they have done to most opponents throughout the season — they upended them with a dynamic offense that can hammer you down however you’d like. Even Seattle’s top-ranked defense couldn’t keep up in this instance, though Mike Macdonald’s crew did its level best. Matthew Stafford completed 29 of 49 passes for 457 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 110.7.

The difference was Darnold in the end, but to start, this was third verse, same as the second and first. Darnold threw two more interceptions in this game, and until overtime came around, he looked very much like the same guy who had always seen ghosts against Chris Shula’s defenses.

There had been something about said defenses that has gotten quite a distance up Darnold’s nose, and this had become a problem. Over the last two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and the Seahawks, Darnold completed 595 of 891 passes for 7,473 yards, 57 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, and a passer rating of 105.1 against all opponents not named the Los Angeles Rams. In three games against those Rams, Darnold has completed 76 of 118 passes for 789 yards, three touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passer rating of 67.4.

But here, the regulation disasters didn’t matter. All that mattered was that in overtime, after the Rams had driven 75 yards in eight plays in overtime to go up 37-30, Darnold responded in the best way possible — by making four throws in a row that he absolutely had to make to win this game.

Everything that was needed, was accomplished. A 21-yard completion to Cooper Kupp, a five-yard pass to Barner, the four-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and the two-point conversion completion to tight end Eric Saubert to seal the deal.

After that, Lumen Field was as earthquaky as I’d ever seen it — and I was here for the Beastquake, the Fail Mary, and the 2014 NFC Championship game.

This was right up there.

“Yeah, I mean, I think for us it was just, for me especially I’ve had games like this in the past where I haven’t played necessarily my best football, and I turned the ball over,” Darnold told me of the overtime roll. “But at the end of the game, you see yourself on the other side. You know, it’s not great when you have interceptions and turnovers, you want to limit that. But all you can do is fight back. And for us, I was just going to continue to plug away and get the guy, you know, get the ball to open receivers, and go through my reads.”

Sam Darnold explains his recovery to beat the Rams on Thursday night (4:38)

Head coach Mike Macdonald never doubted his quarterback.

“You know, everybody else has different stories, but this is the guy that we watch every day. It’s the same guy every day, no matter the circumstances. He’s an ultimate competitor. He’s a phenomenal leader and just keeps fighting. We weren’t worried about one bit. So, that’s him.”

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald on his team’s amazing comeback against the Rams (12:59)

It was him, even when it wasn’t. Darnold’s ghosts came about on the two interceptions — the one to cornerback Josh Wallace with 6:44 left in the third quarter, and the one to defensive tackle Kobie Turner with 9:48 left in the fourth quarter. Per Next Gen Stats, the Rams had a 97% win probability after that second pick.

And then, the luck that Darnold never had against the Rams before kicked in. After he threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to wide-open tight end A.J. Barner with 6:23 left in the game to make the score 30-28 in L.A.’s favor, Seattle’s two-point conversion was a weird one for the ages. At first, it looked as if Darnold had simply thrown a wayward ball right at the helmet of Rams edge-rusher Jared Verse, and the pass was incomplete. Upon review, however, it was determined by referee Brad Allen and his crew (yes, you are always taking your chances with that guy) that it was a backward pass, and when running back Zach Charbonnet picked the ball up in the end zone, that was enough action for a successful two-point try, and a 30-30 tie score.

As Friend of the Program Kevin Clark once wisely Tweeted…

Pretty, it was not, and the Seahawks needed a lot of miracles to make this happen.

Per Next Gen Stats, the Seahawks were 0-172 in their history when trailing by 15 or more points in the fourth quarter before tonight. That’s now 1-172, thank you very much. They are also the only team in NFL history to win a game on an overtime two-point conversion, and they’re the only team ever to win a game in which they allowed a 450-yard passer (Stafford), a 200-yard receiver (Puka Nacua), turn the ball over three or more times, and receive no turnovers for themselves.

Due to in-game injuries, Seattle went into overtime without three of their most important defensive backs — cornerback Riq Woolen, and safeties Nick Emmanwori and Coby Bryant. In a game between two such closely-matched titans, and especially when the opposing quarterback is one Matthew Stafford, that can be all the death blows the Rams need.

And then, Darnold became precisely the quarterback the Seahawks desperately needed. Throwing two picks to a team that had already historically eaten your lunch would make a lot of quarterbacks dry up and blow away, but for Darnold, the moment was too important, and too much was at stake.

Receiver Cooper Kupp, whose fumble near the end of the first half turned a sure touchdown into a touchback for the opponent, couldn’t wait to endorse his quarterback.

“He’s just putting [up] more examples of what we’ve known him to be,” Kupp said of Darnold. “His resilience, his steadiness, his leadership, all these things that you want in a quarterback. You want to have a guy step in the huddle that’s going to lead you the right way. Regardless of what’s put on him and whatever adversity comes his way, his ability to overcome it, to go through it, and still be the same Sam Donald that we knew him to be. It’s very impressive. I mean, he’s done an unbelievable job.”

Now, the Seahawks control their own fate to the NFC’s one-seed. If they beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 17, and the San Francisco 49ers in Week 18, the conference playoffs will go through Lumen Field. But there are more demons on the horizon — the Rams are every bit the opponent they appeared to be, and if the 10-4 San Francisco 49ers beat the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday, the Chicago Bears in Week 17, and the Seahawks in Week 18, they will have the one-seed. Not to mention the fact that the Rams aren’t out of the picture completely.

After this performance, Darnold was all about what his team is capable of.

“We’re a very resilient, relentless group, and we just continue to go,” he said. “And there’s no quit. We’re always going to continue to fight. You know, there’s been games where we’ve won by a lot, and there’s been games where it’s been kind of like this… just up and down, you know, waves of emotion, kind of low, and then going back up, taking the lead, getting back down, and then taking the lead in the end.

“So, you know, we can win in all facets, and, again, I’m very proud of the guys in the locker room.”

You never know what might be the catalyst for a Super Bowl run. It could be a lot of little things along the way, or it could be a quarterback beating back the demons of old. All the Seahawks know for now is that when they needed him the most, Sam Darnold came through to take his team to the top… for the moment.

For right now, at least, the moment is enough.

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