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# Seahawks’ Divisional Round Hopes May Rest on Sam Darnold’s Arm, Decision Making
- URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-seahawks-divisional-round-hopes-sam-darnold-arm-decision-making/
- Published: 2026-01-15T05:15:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T06:16:19.000Z
- Author: Corbin Smith
- Tags: Analysis, Features, Seahawks, Sam Darnold, Cooper Kupp, Ken Walker III, Zach Charbonnet, Grey Zabel

\[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="3600"\]

![  Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) drops back to pass against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images  ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/usatsi_27927076-format-original-2.jpg)

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) drops back to pass against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images \[/caption\]

RENTON, Wash. - NFL teams rarely play the same opponent in back-to-back games, but the Seattle Seahawks will do just that when they host the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round at Lumen Field on Saturday evening.

Only the second time in franchise history this has occurred, the Seahawks will be game planning for the same team they disposed of in a 13-3 prime time win less than two weeks ago at Levis Stadium, clinching an NFC West title and the No. 1 seed in the process. But as coach Mike Macdonald cautioned, that was January 3 and while there will be some carry over preparation-wise, what happened that night has little bearing on how things will play off in a grudge match between rivals with an NFC Championship Game berth on the line.

“There are things in the game plan that we didn't get to. I'm sure there are things in their game plan they didn't get to,” Macdonald said on Monday. “To use the whole game declaring itself type thing, you don't know how these games are going to go. So this game is going to play out about a 99.999% chance it's going to play out way different than the last one, and you got to do a great job recognizing it and making the adjustments and doing all that type of stuff.”

Defensively, the Seahawks suffocated what had been a red-hot 49ers offense in the season finale, holding coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad to just a field goal, tying the fewest points scored by the team during his tenure. Brock Purdy threw for just 47 yards before halftime and San Francisco’s lone red zone visit in the fourth quarter resulted in an interception by Drake Thomas, while star running back Christian McCaffrey couldn’t get untracked with 23 rushing yards on eight carries.

Trying to replicate such a dominant performance may be too much to ask given Purdy’s playoff pedigree and the return of All-Pro tackle Trent Williams, who did not suit up in Week 18\. Even with tight end George Kittle lost to an Achilles’ heel injury, it should be expected that Shanahan will have a much better game plan assembled to counter what Seattle did successfully in Santa Clara, making the task of slowing down a potent offense that much more difficult in a playoff setting.

At the same time, Macdonald’s crew headlined by All-Pro defensive tackle Leonard Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, and cornerback Devon Witherspoon has been playing with tremendous confidence and finished the season ranked first allowing 17.2 points per game, demonstrating their consistency grounding opponents both in the pass and run game. If there’s a group that has proven it can bottle up Purdy, McCaffrey, and company, the Seahawks have given up just 20 points to them in two games this season and excelled at adjusting in rematches against familiar opponents.

Meanwhile, on offense, the Seahawks grounded and pounded the 49ers into submission with 180 rushing yards on the night, rushing for 115 yards and 6.1 yards per carry in the first half alone. Leading the charge, Zach Charbonnet scored what ultimately ended up being the only touchdown in the game late in the first quarter, bouncing back against the grain on a duo run to the left and slipping through a tackle from Malik Mustapha to find paydirt. Ken Walker III added a scintillating 19-yard run for an unlikely 3rd and 17 conversion, finishing with a team-high 97 yards on just 16 carries.

“It stems from the coaches having an unbelievable game plan to be able to attack defenses at their weak spots, and then you got to give credit to the tight ends, wide receivers. They're blocking their asses off lately,” rookie guard Grey Zabel stated. “Running backs are unbelievable making plays. So kind of we're having a lot of fun the past three games being able to run the ball so successfully. If you want to be successful in the postseason you got to be able to run the ball. That's going to be the mindset moving forward.”

Looking towards Saturday’s rematch, Seattle undoubtedly will be looking to replicate that success in the run game behind an offensive line that should be back at full strength following the return of left tackle Charles Cross from a hamstring injury. After rushing for over 160 yards in each of their final three regular season games, the team has clearly found major momentum in Klint Kubiak’s scheme after being mired in a battle with consistency for the bulk of the 2025 campaign, an excellent development for winning games in January.

For Seattle to maximize its chance of advancing to the NFC Championship Game and potentially playing for a Lombardi Trophy, however, the ball lies in the quarterback’s court. Whether fair or not, nobody carries more pressure on that front than Sam Darnold, who has yet another demon left to exorcise as he tries to silence remaining doubters following a sluggish

Now in his eighth NFL season, Darnold had not even played in a postseason game until this time a year ago, and his first experience in a playoff environment could not have gone much worse. After guiding the Vikings to an unexpected 13-4 record while replacing an injured J.J. McCarthy and making his first Pro Bowl squad, his breakout campaign ended with an emphatic thud as the Rams swarmed him to a tune of nine sacks and intercepted him once in a 27-9 beatdown.

That Wild Card round dud came on the heels of a dreadful regular season finale where Darnold failed to complete 50% of his passes and threw for just 166 yards as Minnesota got smoked by Detroit 31-9 in an NFC North title game, having to settle for the fifth seed and make a trip to Glendale with wild fires ravaging Los Angeles at the time.

To Darnold’s credit, he amended for that dreadful performance in the finale last season in Santa Clara two weeks ago, playing clean football without any turnovers while completing 20 out of 26 passes for 198 yards to guide the Seahawks to their first division title since 2020\. This came two weeks after he overcame his previous woes against the Rams, orchestrating a game-tying and game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter and overtime as his two-point conversion completion to tight end Eric Saubert secured a once-improbable 38-37 win in front of the raucous 12s.

Looking back at his outing in Week 18, per Pro Football Focus charting, Darnold played the role of caretaker or the often unfairly characterized “game manager,” not making mistakes that hurt his team while also not being as aggressive attacking downfield as he has been for most of his first season in Seattle. In part due to decent pressure from San Francisco speeding up the clock in the pocket, he attempted just one throw that traveled 20-plus yards and only six passes of more than 10 yards, relying primarily on the short, quick passing game with 18 of his attempts coming within nine yards or behind the line of scrimmage.

For added context, excelling at hitting All-Pro receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba in particular, north of 11% of Darnold’s pass attempts during the Seahawks’ first 16 games traveled more than 20 yards, and his lone attempt in Week 18 equated to a 3% rate. He barely hit 10% on throw rate behind the line of scrimmage prior to the finale and that number ballooned to 23.1% against the 49ers, demonstrating a clear emphasis on getting the ball out fast and taking check downs.

“Sam did a great job extending plays today, and that really helped us win the game,” Macdonald told reporters post-game, referencing specifically a 24-yard completion to Cooper Kupp on the final drive that helped eat nearly nine minutes of clock in the fourth quarter.

Given how well Seattle chewed up yardage on the ground that night, such an approach paid dividends for Darnold, as his ability to unload the ball quickly and extend plays to throw outside of the pocket generated just enough chunk plays to complement Walker and Charbonnet. But if San Francisco adjusts accordingly by altering scheme and personnel tactics as a means to slow down the run in Saturday’s rematch, the onus will fall on the quarterback to be able to capitalize and make smart decisions while at the same time being more of an aggressor seeking downfield shot plays.

According to TruMedia, the 49ers employed nickel packages on 21 of their 34 first half defensive snaps in the finale, mixing in two-high safety looks such as Cover 4 and Cover 6 at a 25% clip and blitzing on 25% of their 16 plays against Darnold drop backs. Allowing just 65 rushing yards after halftime, the biggest changeup for defensive coordinator Robert Saleh stood out at the safety position, where the team mostly abandoned two-high looks and dropped the second safety into the box at a much higher rate with one-high coverage looks such as Cover 3 and Cover 1 at a 63% rate and two-high looks dropping down to 17%.

Without diverting into specifics, Zabel anticipates there’s a good chance San Francisco will build off of some of the things that worked later in the second matchup with eyes on a better game plan to counter the Seahawks ground attack as well as keep everyone from the offensive line to Darnold on their heels.

“You got to expect they might change some things up. Might bring a little more blitzes. Might play certain formations differently. So at the end of the day they're going to have a plan for us,” Zabel said. “They got a really good defensive coordinator that's going to have something schemed up for us. We're going to maybe have to take one or two on the chin to understand what the game plan is going to be and continue to move forward.”

Interestingly, San Francisco leaned more heavily on two-deep schemes in its win over Philadelphia in the Wild Card round last weekend, compensating to an extent with a blitz rate approaching 30% on dropbacks. It’s possible that after handling Saquon Barkley fairly well on the road that Saleh will emulate much of that approach, believing his defense will be better prepared to deal with Seattle’s ascending run game without making potentially risky adaptations moving an extra safety in the box more often.

But considering how much better the 49ers handcuffed Walker and Charbonnet after halftime two weeks ago, at least from a yards per carry metric, it would be a surprise if Saleh doesn’t switch things up with a palette that matches more closely to those final two quarters with more safety help to defend the run while also implementing a bit more aggression sending extra defenders after the quarterback.

If that happens out of the gate or as an early adjustment and the 49ers find a way to keep Walker and Charbonnet at bay, the Seahawks will need Darnold to deliver as more of a playmaking focal point for the offense in the heat of a win or go home playoff game to advance. While that doesn’t mean he must throw for over 300 yards as he did against the Buccaneers and Commanders earlier in the season, he will have to show he can be a bit more than a game manager, creating explosive opportunities downfield without being nipped by the turnover bug, as a pick parade would be a surefire way to a one-and-done playoff exit.