SEATTLE — Even as Sam Darnold was helping the Seattle Seahawks win a franchise-record 14 games during the regular season on their way to the NFC’s No. 1 seed, questions persisted about his big-game ability and whether he could avoid the costly mistake.
Wonder no more.
In the biggest game of his eight-year NFL career, Darnold answered those questions resoundingly, throwing three touchdown passes with zero turnovers to power Seattle to a 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday night at Lumen Field.
Darnold can win the big game — despite playing at less than 100 percent, and even on a night when Seattle’s elite defense didn’t have its best stuff. The quarterback has his team in the biggest game of all, with the Seahawks set to play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
“You can’t talk about the game without talking about our quarterback,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. “He shut a lot of people up tonight, so I’m really happy for him.”
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Darnold was playing his second straight game with a left oblique injury he suffered in practice Jan. 15. When the Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers 41-6 in the divisional round two days later, he had to attempt only 17 passes before he was pulled with about nine minutes left and the game all but over.
The Seahawks needed much more from Darnold on Sunday night against a Rams defense that has been his nemesis, and Seattle’s Pro Bowl quarterback delivered. He completed 25 of 36 attempts for 346 yards, playing aggressively without putting the ball in harm’s way. He has gone three straight games without a turnover.
Darnold was particularly effective in the deep passing game. Per ESPN Research, he completed seven attempts thrown 10-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage, including five to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 96 yards and a touchdown. In the two regular-season meetings with the Rams, he had eight such completions with three interceptions. In those meetings, he had six total interceptions and two touchdown passes.
The Rams won the first meeting 21-19 at SoFi Stadium in Week 11. Seattle prevailed 38-37 in overtime at Lumen Field in Week 16. Darnold led the Seahawks to a win in Round 3 despite limited participation in practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as he continued to manage an injured oblique. Darnold received a pain-killing injection pregame, as he did last week, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“To come out [and play] the way he played, barely practicing, barely throwing the ball, it was really incredible,” Macdonald said. “It should go down as one of the best performances in playoff history, I would imagine. It’s hard to stack it, but I can’t imagine anybody playing any better.”
Darnold, who secured another $500,000 in incentives with the win, said he “felt good” and that he wasn’t concerned about his lack of reps leading up to Sunday.
“I think middle of the season, Week 9 or 10, it might have been a bigger problem,” he said. “But with all the reps that we’ve accumulated throughout the season and throughout training camp, OTAs, all that stuff, I wasn’t really concerned about timing or anything like that on certain routes.”
Smith-Njigba, who led the league in receiving yards during the regular season, had 10 catches for 153 yards and gave Seattle a 17-13 second-quarter lead when he caught the first of Darnold’s three touchdown passes. Darnold also threw TD passes to former Rams receiver Cooper Kupp — the MVP of Los Angeles’ Super Bowl LVI win — and reserve wideout Jake Bobo.
“I’m rolling with Sam all day,” Smith-Njigba said. “We believe in him. The building believes in him. The city believes in him. It’s awesome to run out onto the field with him.”
Kenneth Walker III took on a larger role after Zach Charbonnet’s torn ACL last week, and Seattle’s new primary back stepped up again. After finishing with three touchdowns in the divisional round, he scored Seattle’s first TD on Sunday and accounted for 111 yards on a season-high 23 touches — eight more than he averaged during the regular season while splitting time with Charbonnet.
“He’s just worked, that’s all he’s done,” Macdonald said. “Now, he has an opportunity to really carry the load, and he’s doing a great job. We’re going to need him for one more game.”
Earlier this week, the Seahawks’ social media department posted a video with clips of Macdonald telling his players to imagine hosting the NFC Championship Game on a wet and windy day in Seattle, and about how they’d become “a team that won’t die, that won’t quit.”
He was prescient about everything but the weather.
The Seahawks fell behind 13-10 in the second quarter Sunday before answering with Darnold’s touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba. They led for much of the game despite their top-ranked scoring defense again struggling to contain Puka Nacua, who caught nine passes for 165 yards and a touchdown, with 44 of those yards coming on a first-quarter catch over Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Witherspoon gave up another big play by Davante Adams. But with the game on the line, Witherspoon broke up Matthew Stafford’s pass intended for tight end Terrance Ferguson in the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 4 with just under five minutes remaining.
“That’s Devon Witherspoon,” Macdonald said. “That’s him. We actually didn’t even execute that play well on the fourth down, but he just covered his guy forever and just refused to let his guy catch the ball. That’s who he is. That’s who he is every day. … Incredibly proud of him.”
The Rams finished with 479 total yards.
Adams beat cornerback Riq Woolen for a 34-yard touchdown late in the third quarter that trimmed the Rams’ deficit to four points. That was part of a disastrous sequence for Seattle’s fourth-year cornerback. He momentarily got Seattle’s defense off the field by breaking up Stafford’s pass on third down, but he was flagged for taunting, giving the Rams 15 yards and a fresh set of downs. Adams scored on the next play.
“Riq’s done a tremendous job for us,” Macdonald said. “Yeah, you’re frustrated in the moment about what’s happening. But he just made an emotional decision. But we’ve got to pick him up. That’s not the time to get all upset. You’ve got to go play the next play. I know they scored the next play and you’ve got to go rebound and come back. Riq came back and played well the rest of the game.”
Darnold, signed by the Seahawks in March after they traded Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders, became the first player in NFL history to win at least 14 games in consecutive seasons with different teams. Darnold made his second straight Pro Bowl despite leading all players with 20 turnovers during the regular season.
He threw four interceptions in the Seahawks’ loss to the Rams in Week 11, after Darnold ranked first in Total QBR over the first 10 weeks of the season. After that game, linebacker Ernest Jones IV passionately defended the quarterback, saying Darnold had been “balling” and that he shouldn’t be defined by one bad performance.
“Everything that I said, I stood on it,” Jones said Sunday while holding a victory cigar in his right hand. “Sam’s a baller, like I said. Doubt Sam if you want to. Sam’s going to show up every time. That’s what we’ve known, and that’s why I stood on that knife for him, and I’ll do it all over again.”
The Seahawks will play in the Super Bowl for the fourth time in the franchise’s 50-year history. They’ll get a rematch of their loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass at the goal line to end Seattle’s hopes of winning back-to-back titles.
Darnold has his own history with the Patriots. While playing for the New York Jets in 2019, his second NFL season, the mic’d up quarterback was heard telling coaches he was “seeing ghosts” during a 33-0 loss to New England on “Monday Night Football.”
“I almost forgot about it, so thanks,” Darnold said with a laugh when the moment was brought up postgame Sunday. “No, you’re good. I think for me, there was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game. There is a lot of stuff that I can get better from today even. I feel like I missed some throws out there that I shouldn’t miss. There were some things offensively that I feel like we can do better. So, we’re always looking to get better. I’m always looking to get better. That’s the great part about this game is you win an NFC championship and you win games throughout the season, but there is always ways that you can look to get better.”
As the understated Darnold spoke humbly about his performance against the Rams, his teammates and coach were happy to revel in his narrative-busting performance.
“Everyone wants to make a narrative about this guy, but he’s been the same guy since he walked in the door,” Macdonald said. “You don’t want me writing the stories because I would not write the narratives that are out there. It’d be really boring. It would be like, this guy’s the man and his teammates love him and he’s competitive as crap and he’s tough and he’s really talented, and he’s a winner. That would be the story.”
