‘It’s Just Football’: Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Not Sweating Stakes in NFC West Title Bout
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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) throws a pass against the Carolina Panthers during the fourth quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - Wrapping up a short week with an NFC West title and No. 1 seed on the line, even by his own even-keeled standards, Sam Darnold seemed more laid back than usual speaking on Thursday after the Seattle Seahawks final practice of the week preparing for a road trip to battle the San Francisco 49ers.
Stepping up to the podium inside Seattle’s indoor practice facility, drawing a few chuckles from reporters in the process, Darnold quipped, “How’s my hair?”
If Darnold sounds like he’s cool and comfortable gearing up for a pressure cooker, playing for a division title and a first round bye in the final week of the season isn’t something new for the veteran quarterback. In fact, when he takes the field at Levis Stadium on Saturday night, it will mark the second straight year he has faced such circumstances to close out the schedule, as he did so leading the Vikings against the Lions in Detroit last January.
That game unfortunately didn’t go anywhere close to plan for Minnesota, as Detroit dominated in a 31-9 win to clinch the NFC North and a first round bye, holding Darnold to 18 completions on 41 attempts and just 166 passing yards. One year later, there’s plenty of lessons the quarterback learned from that defeat that could come in handy on Saturday, but he isn’t planning to reinvent the wheel or divert away from what has gotten Seattle to this point with a 13-3 record either.
“I think going into this one, there's some things you can always learn from watching the tape and that experience that you have going against a similar team and similar scheme,” Darnold said. “But again, we're just going to do what we do and go about our process the same way.”
Just two weeks ago, after enduring two of the worst games of his career in losses to the Rams in the wild card round last January and in Week 11 at SoFi Stadium, Darnold got over the hump by orchestrating a massive comeback that culminated with a game-winning touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and two-point conversion pass to Eric Saubert in overtime. Finishing off a 38-37 win on Thursday Night Football, his efforts slaying a personal demon thrust the Seahawks into the driver’s seat to win the NFC West and earn homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.
Looking to close out a strong first season by leading the Seahawks to their first division title since 2020 and first No. 1 seed since 2014, Darnold has a chance to get another monkey off his back on Saturday night to cap off a 2025 season that has been full of breakthroughs.
After washing out of New York and Carolina in his first five NFL seasons and drawing the dreaded bust label, Darnold has reinvigorated his career in Minnesota and now Seattle over the past two years, throwing 60 touchdown passes with over 8,100 passing yards and earning a pair of Pro Bowl selections. Becoming only the fifth quarterback in league history to post back-to-back 13 win seasons, he has largely been masterful in the clutch, engineering nine game-winning drives during that span, including the aforementioned heroics to stun Los Angeles in prime time and seize control of the NFC West in Week 16.
But even with the victory at Lumen Field two weeks ago, Darnold has struggled to deliver under the lights in big games more times than not, as a lackluster performance against the Lions in last year’s finale coupled with a rough outing against the Rams in the playoffs left a stain on his resume that has yet to be fully bleached out. Albeit it with limited opportunities, he has never won a division-clinching game in his career and his lone postseason appearance proved to be a dud, leaving much left for the former No. 3 overall pick to prove.
Rather than dwell on those results, however, the unflappable Darnold has maintained the mentality of treating every game as the same, employing the same approach to his preparation during the week whether it’s a season opener or the Super Bowl. While he understands what will be at stake on Saturday night and the “gravity” of the rematch with the 49ers, he doesn’t feel giving in to that hype will benefit him or his teammates, and they simply need to play their game between the lines without putting too much energy into making the stage bigger than it needs to be.
“At the end of the day, it's just football,” Darnold commented. “I think that's the best part about it is people want to make it a little bit bigger than it is, but we're just going out there. We're playing against the Niners, a really good football team, a team that we're going to be prepared for. It's going to be great though, the fans are going to be into it, it's going to be a great atmosphere. But other than that, it's football and we'll be ready to go for it.”
As far as a clear pathway to Darnold getting over the hump and guiding the Seahawks to a division title this weekend is concerned, the quarterback sees it starting and finishing with limiting turnovers, which has been his one significant wart over the past two seasons during his career resurgence. He currently leads all NFL players with 20 turnovers, including 14 interceptions and six lost fumbles.
Looking back at last weekend’s 27-10 win over the Panthers in reflection, after losing a fumble and throwing a red zone interception, Darnold understands those numbers could potentially be worse as well. Carolina tipped multiple passes at the line of scrimmage, including on a bootleg rollout on the first play from scrimmage that deflected off the hands of defensive end D.J. Wonnum into the chest of cornerback Jaycee Horn. He later had another throw carrom off of Cooper Kupp’s hands as he got hit over the middle that defensive tackle Derrick Brown dove for and nearly picked off.
While coach Mike Macdonald has defended Darnold often over the course of the season and several of his interceptions did come off of unfortunate bounces off deflections, the quarterback isn’t interested in using those circumstances as an excuse. To be able to beat the best teams such as the 49ers with everything on the line, he knows he has to elevate his game and not be so careless with the football while balancing staying aggressive playing to his strengths as a downfield passer.
“I think turnovers, they're unacceptable. No matter how they come,” Darnold said. “Obviously tipped balls, some things like that, you would like to say, ‘Oh man, that's out of my control,’ but did I need to be in that position for that guy to tip that ball? So, I think that all turnovers are all plays where we can look at ourselves and be like, ‘Oh, man, I could have done better on that play.’ Which is almost every play if you think about it, you can always be a little bit better every single play. This team can continue to get better, and I look at that as me personally.”
If there was a week for Darnold to demonstrate his growth in that regard, San Francisco may ironically be the ideal opponent. With defensive end Nick Bosa and linebacker Fred Warner out for the season, the defense has stayed afloat with a bend, don’t break approach, managing to rank 13th in scoring defense.
But in the midst of a six-game winning streak, the absence of Bosa and Warner has been felt more as of late with regressing play on the defensive side of the ball. Over the past three wins, the 49ers have allowed at least 24 points, including 37 to the Bears last weekend, with season-long issues rushing the passer and creating turnovers rearing their ugly head. They only produced two sacks and two turnovers combined in those games, allowing Philip Rivers and Caleb Williams to carve them up in back-to-back weeks.
For the season, the 49ers rank 29th in the NFL with just six interceptions and without Bosa or first-round pick Mykel Williams, they sit dead last in the league by a wide margin with 18 sacks, eight fewer than the Jets. While defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has done a fantastic job given circumstances and an explosive offense has mitigated those issues putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, those glaring flaws would seem to bode well for Darnold to find success attacking San Francisco through the air on Saturday night.
Simply put, while the player isn’t going to occupy himself with worrying about his legacy, it’s a golden opportunity for Darnold, who could go a long ways towards rewriting the narrative surrounding him by slaying another giant in Santa Clara. A win for the Seahawks would undoubtedly alter the public perception of the quarterback moving towards the playoffs, providing further proof he can step up on the biggest of stages and lead his team to victory.
Whether that happens or not, however, revered by teammates and coaches for being the same person and player every day regardless of what happens, just don’t expect Darnold to be the one to make a big deal about it one way or the other.
