Sam Darnold’s ‘High-Powered Quarterbacking’ Silences Doubters, Vaults Seahawks Into Super Bowl
SEATTLE, Wash. - Becoming the first quarterback to lead two different teams to 14 regular season wins in successive seasons, Sam Darnold’s career renaissance reached another level in his first season with the Seattle Seahawks.
But despite continuing to be a key part of Seattle’s success rolling to an NFC West title and the No. 1 overall seed in the toughest division in the NFL, including orchestrating a stunning 38-37 overtime comeback against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16, questions persisted about Darnold’s ability to rise to the occasion in the NFC Championship Game against the same aforementioned division rival that has had his number the past couple of years.
Darnold can’t avoid throwing costly interceptions. Darnold can’t make crucial throws in key moments. Darnold can’t overcome pressure and seeing ghosts that have followed him since early in his career with the Jets.
Fortunately for Darnold, while he joked that he had “almost forgot” about his infamous ghosts comment, the Seahawks’ gunslinger did more than silence those remaining critics. He put his team on his back under the brightest spotlight, once and for all slaying the demon in a performance for the ages that wowed coach Mike Macdonald among others, throwing for over 300 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions in a 31-27 win over the Rams to punch a ticket to Super Bowl LX.
“Tell you what, I'm not a quarterback expert,” Macdonald gushed post-game, referencing a 14-yard touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba late in the first half where he absorbed a massive hit in the pocket and still threw a strike to the end zone. “But that's some high powered quarterbacking going on in that game by No. 14 for sure.”
Putting his name in the franchise history books, all after missing extensive practice time this week nursing and managing an oblique strain and partaking in an abbreviated pregame warmup routine for a second straight game, Darnold became the first Seahawks quarterback to throw for over 330 yards with at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions. Even Russell Wilson or Matt Hasselbeck never achieved that feat in 27 combined postseason games donning navy and green.
With a chance to now hoist the Lombardi Trophy in two weeks, reflecting on the trials and tribulations he has endured to reach this point and how he has grown since those lean years in New York as a once-failed top-three draft pick, Darnold’s mind drifted to the few plays he didn’t make on Sunday rather than boasting about the throws he did convert on.
“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,” Darnold said. “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.”
Sure, the always modest and humble Darnold has a point, to an extent. As just one example, he threw a third down pass to running back George Holani behind the receiver in the second quarter, along with a couple other throws that he would have liked to have back. Stat-wise, he wasn’t perfect completing 69% of his throws, and he took a trio of sacks that he would have loved to avoid.
But while the best players always find things to nitpick about, it can be argued Darnold not only turned in the best outing of his eight-year career in the biggest game he has played in up to this point, but executed an all-timer against an elite adversary.
Wasting no time proving his oblique injury wasn’t a detriment and showing no ill effects from not throwing much during the week, Darnold dropped back on the third play from scrimmage and launched a 51-yard bomb to speedy receiver Rashid Shaheed. One snap later, he let Smith-Njigba do the work on a quick dump off pass, turning it into a 16-yard pickup and setting up a Ken Walker III touchdown run that put the Seahawks up 7-0 less than six minutes into action.
Later in the half, sandwiched around a 27-yard Jason Myers field goal, Darnold again asserted himself taking a shot downfield against a Rams defense that intercepted him six times in two regular season matchups. Dropping the pass right in the bucket, he connected with Smith-Njigba - who posted a franchise record 115 receiving yards in the first half alone - for a 42-yard reception down the seam on a skinny post as the receiver held on through the ground after a bone-jarring hit from safety Kam Curl.
“Post route, Sam threw a great ball, I just had to go get it,” Smith-Njigba said. “Kind of felt the defender coming, so I just wanted to secure the ball.”
Four plays later, as referenced by Macdonald afterward, Darnold stared down the barrel as defensive end Jared Verse smashed him as he unloaded the football from the pocket, throwing an accurate ball to a wide-open Smith-Njigba in the end zone to help the Seahawks reclaim a 17-13 advantage less than a minute before halftime.
Coming out of the break, Darnold kept slinging the pigskin with great confidence to all levels of the field, maximizing on a massive mistake by the Rams on special teams after Seattle went three-and-out on its first possession of the third quarter.
Returner Xavier Smith - who botched a fair catch in the second quarter and fortunately recovered the loose ball - muffed another Michael Dickson punt and wasn’t so lucky this time, allowing receiver Dareke Young to recover at the Los Angeles 17-yard line and setting the quarterback up with pristine starting field position in the red zone. Going into attack mode immediately after the turnover, he read a corner blitz with two deep safeties and fired a dart to seldom-used receiver Jake Bobo for a 17-yard score, increasing the lead to 24-13 to the delight of a boisterous sellout crowd.
“Bobo ran a great route on the corner; ended up being that half player, and I just tried to put it in a position to where he could put himself in between the ball and the defender,” Darnold explained, lauding Bobo’s reliability.
Later in the quarter, Darnold linked up with Cooper Kupp twice for 25 yards on what wound up being the game-winning drive, putting an exclamation point on the possession when the veteran wideout barreled through two tacklers to find pay dirt for a 13-yard touchdown against his former team. Back up by 11, the Seahawks looked to be in complete command, only for things to get far closer due to key miscues on the defensive side of the football.
Matthew Stafford, who enjoyed a fantastic game in his own right with over 370 passing yards, nearly had a third down pass to Puka Nacua intercepted by Riq Woolen, and the Rams sent their punt team on the field near midfield. But the fourth-year cornerback didn’t heed warnings from officials and after barking relentlessly at the visiting sideline, he was flagged for taunting, gifting Los Angeles a new set of downs on a critical 15-yard penalty.
On the ensuing snap, Stafford went right after Woolen with the penalty still on the defender’s mind, hitting Nacua for a 34-yard touchdown that cut the deficit back to just four points. With the defense struggling to get stops and not playing with great discipline, the ball went back into Darnold’s court as the home crowd started to feel the anxiety mounting in a one-score game.
With the game on the line, however, Darnold didn’t let the moment or the limelight get the best of him. In fact, after two Devon Witherspoon pass breakups in the end zone turned the Rams away with no points from the six-yard line, he owned the moment by making two of his biggest throws as the Seahawks successfully dialed up four-minute offense with the goal of chewing up lock and forcing the opposition to burn their timeouts.
In most cases, teams would have tried to run out the clock and may not have been inclined to put the ball in the air at the risk of an incompletion or a turnover. But on 2nd and 6 at the Seattle 10-yard line, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak entrusted Darnold in the shadow of the Seahawks’ goal post to drop back and pass, and he found Walker on a short checkdown. The back did the rest, making a defender miss in space and turning a short throw into a 15-yard gain to provide much-needed cushion field position-wise.
Later in the drive, Darnold linked back up with Kupp in another high-leverage situation and the savvy vet held onto a contested seven-yard catch on 3rd and 7 to move the chains. Two plays later, with the Rams starting to use their timeouts desperate to save precious seconds before the two-minute warning, Kubiak dialed up a play action bootleg for his quarterback and Darnold hit Smith-Njigba for a 14-yard gain to move the chains once again.
“We practice these situations all the time,” Darnold said of Kubiak’s trust throwing the football with the game on the line. “We practice it every single day almost. So our coaches are really confident not only in myself, but in our entire offense to just go out there and execute whatever play is called, and they know in those four-minute situations that I'm going to take care of it and keep the clock running if I have to.”
Though the Rams did get the ball back for one last chance to pull off a comeback win, the damage had already been done in part because of Darnold extending Seattle’s final drive with clutch completions. Sean McVay and Stafford didn’t have any timeouts left and after two completions to Nacua, the clock expired and the celebration was on at Lumen Field.
Sporting an NFC Championship hat and shirt at the podium moments later while holding the George Halas Trophy, Darnold once again made it clear that he doesn’t worry about what skeptics have to say regarding his play in big games in the past. Since he first arrived in Seattle in March, that same message has been preached over and over again with the team coming first before any individual accolades and little - if any - concern being paid to narratives that may be out there.
Meshing well with the mindset of Macdonald, who bluntly told Hall of Famer Michael Strachan that “we did not care” in regard to the Seahawks being slept on prior to the season, Darnold and his coach have been a perfect pairing to steer the ship for a team featuring the ideal mix of proven veteran stars and young talent. As is always the case with teams that make deep playoff runs, countless players, coaches, and members of the organization have been vital to make it this far.
While he won’t take any of the credit on his own, however, Darnold has been as instrumental in the jump from 10 wins in 2024 to now being a Super Bowl team as anyone in the building, and his impact under center cannot be overstated. He isn’t simply a game manager. He isn’t a role player riding the coattails of a dominant defense. He isn’t an auxiliary player who the team wins in spite of.
As Macdonald proclaimed, the quarterback “shut a lot of people up tonight,” lifting up his teammates down the stretch to secure one of Seattle’s greatest victories.
Most importantly for the Seahawks, Darnold showed he can indeed win the big game, and with Sunday serving as further proof dispelling the national narrative, they will be banking on an encore in two weeks to take the franchise back all the way to the mountaintop.
