‘We’ve Got His Back’: Seahawks Support Sam Darnold After Rough Outing in 21-19 Loss to Rams
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Winning seven of their first nine games prior to Sunday’s road trip to Los Angeles, Sam Darnold had 17 touchdown passes and led the league with 9.9 yards per attempt, proving vital in the Seattle Seahawks’ fast start.
In the aftermath of one of his worst performances as an NFL quarterback by throwing four interceptions in a 21-19 loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium, veteran linebacker Ernest Jones didn’t mince words making sure anyone and everyone outside of the locker room understood that he and his Seahawks teammates had Darnold’s back just as he had theirs in many games over the course of the season, having a little bit of four-letter English roll off the tongue for good measure.
“Sam’s been balling. If we want to try to define Sam by this game, Sam’s had us in every f——- game,” Jones told reporters. “So for him to sit there and say, ‘it’s my fault,’ no it’s not. It was plays defensively that we could have made, opportunities where we could have gotten better stops. It’s football, man. He’s our quarterback. We’ve got his back, and if you’ve got anything to say, quite frankly, f—- you.”
From a statistical perspective, while Jones would be correct that poor gap integrity against the run helped lead to most of the Rams’ offensive production in the first half and better play in that regard could have changed the story significantly on Sunday, it would be easy - if not completely warranted - to point the finger at Darnold, who didn’t have any fluky interceptions on Sunday afternoon as he tied a career-high in a category quarterbacks hope to avoid like the plague.
Unlike some of the unlucky picks Darnold threw earlier in the season that either were deflected up in the air by a hand in the passing lane or bounced off the helmet of a teammate or opposing defender, poor decision making ruled the day for the gunslinger as he paid dearly for being too aggressive throwing into tight windows over and over again, starting on Seattle’s very first drive.
“Can’t turn the ball over as much as I did today,” Darnold said afterward. “I’ll learn from it, watch the tape, grow from it. Gotta give the credit to the Rams, obviously they’re a good defense and a good team. But I gotta be better personally.”
After the Seahawks came up with a huge fourth down stop in the red zone to kick off the contest with Matthew Stafford’s fourth down throw to tight end Tyler Higbee hitting the turf for an incompletion, Darnold tried to air it out to Cooper Kupp, who was playing in his first game as an opponent against the Rams, on a crossing route. But he didn’t see safety Kamren Kinchens dwelling underneath and the second-year defender undercut the throw for an easy pick, returning it all the way back to the Seahawks three-yard line to set up a Kyren Williams touchdown run.
Fast forwarding to the beginning of the second half, with the Seahawks only trailing by five after a two field goals late in the second quarter closed the gap, Darnold’s mistake-laden outing hit another bump in the road with a failed chance to draw even closer on the scoreboard. Trying to squeeze the ball in to Jaxon Smith-Njigba along the sidelines on a comeback route, cornerback Cobie Durant read the route like a book for another interception and returned it to the Seattle 35-yard line.
Already down 11, the game appeared to be teetering on the verge on getting out of hand early. Still, teammates such as Jones continued to come to Darnold’s side as he walked to the sideline, offering encouragement even as his miscues kept stacking up and putting the defense in a difficult situation.
“Our guys love each other,” Macdonald remarked. “We're connected and we got each other's backs. We've had games where the offense has picked us up on defense and vice versa.”
Fortunately, in that case, Jones and the defense did more than just encourage the scuffling offense, promptly returning the favor two plays after Durant’s interception, as safety Coby Bryant punched the ball out of receiver Puka Nacua’s hands for a fumble and linebacker Drake Thomas recovered, erasing the magnitude of the second pick. Minutes later, another short field goal by Jason Myers trimmed the deficit to 14-12, hanging tough even though their quarterback wasn’t anywhere close to on his A game.
But Darnold’s nightmarish performance continued to put Seattle in a dire spot. Only two plays after the defense forced a punt, he again got baited into throwing into double coverage with Kinchens registering his second pick of the day on an ill-fated throw to tight end Elijah Arroyo, once again setting Los Angeles up with fantastic starting field position as the safety returned the turnover to the 25-yard line. Unlike the previous interception, Matthew Stafford made the visitors pay with a short touchdown pass to tight end Colby Parkinson, increasing the lead to 21-12 early in the fourth quarter.
On the ensuing series, Darnold gifted the ball to the Rams yet again, this time trying to make magic happen on 3rd and 3 with the pocket closing down around him as multiple rushers zeroed in, only for the desperation dump off jump pass to Arroyo to get intercepted by cornerback Darious Williams and returned to midfield. With the clock melting away, that final mistake felt like a dagger in the Seahawks’ coffin, leaving the quarterback to question his own processing.
“Those are self inflicted wounds,” Darnold explained, crediting the Rams for doing a quality job disguising their coverages and pass rush. “Turn the ball over like that and sometimes, you know, it's better just to try to throw the ball away or even take a sack when nothing's there.”
Continuing to pick up the slack for the quarterback, however, the Seahawks’ defense came through again with their backs against the wall to force back-to-back punts on consecutive three-and-out possessions, a sequence that ended up being crucial in the closing moments. And, to Darnold’s credit, he stayed even-keeled and put that assortment of mistakes behind him when many players would have folded, understanding that the game wasn’t over and time remained to make an improbable late rally.
Staying poised under pressure, with Seattle beginning its latest drive at its own 16-yard line, Darnold found his rhythm with the offense playing at a faster tempo. Starting with a short completion to Ken Walker III that turned into a 23-yard catch-and run, he completed seven straight attempts to march the offense down to the goal line, including a 13-yard completion to Jaxon Smith-Njigba to set up 1st and goal, setting the table for Walker’s one-yard touchdown to trim the deficit to just two points with 2:23 to go in regulation.
Given the chance to pull off a stunning win, Darnold and the offense returned to the field after a beautiful Rams punt that went out of bounds at the one-yard line, creating an incredibly challenging scenario to work down the field. But starting with a third down completion to tight end AJ Barner to move the chains, he completed four of his next five passes and after a couple quick incompletions, Smith-Njigba drew a pass interference penalty and Rashid Shaheed caught a six-yard pass to put the Seahawks right in at the edge of Myers’ range for a 61-yard attempt.
While the kick ended up falling well short of the crossbar as well as wide right to seal a disappointing loss, Macdonald loved how Darnold and his entire football team responded. Playing far from their best game, the Seahawks somehow had a chance to win in the final seconds even with all of the turnovers coupled with one touchdown on four red zone trips.
Of course, that doesn’t completely absolve Darnold of blame either, and the quarterback’s increasingly turnover prone tendencies should be a concern looking beyond Sunday and as he attested multiple times post-game, he must do a better job in the ball security department for this team to play to their full potential. After throwing the four picks against the Rams, he sits tied with Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa with 14 turnovers and has done so on fewer than 300 passing snaps, far from the direction Macdonald wants his offense going with seven games left to play.
Still, though not a moral victory, the fight and resiliency proved the Seahawks belong against the best of the best along with confirming much room for improvement remaining in front of Macdonald’s young squad to reach their goals, and Darnold will be at the forefront of that journey. Acknowledging that they will get at least one more crack against Los Angeles along the way with other noteworthy adversaries, with Jones and everyone else standing firmly behind him, the coach has only four words of advice for his quarterback as he aims to bounce back starting in Nashville next week.
“Keep ripping it, man.”
