Will It Lead to a Win? I’m Not Sure, But I do Believe Sam Darnold Will Play the Best Game of his Career on Sunday

I genuinely can’t believe the NFL expects me to wait all the way until Sunday night for this. The Seattle Seahawks, my Seattle Seahawks, are taking on the Los Angeles Rams with a trip to Super Bowl LX on the line, and I honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to handle the next few days. There are going to be a lot of blog posts coming, most likely all centered around this game and previewing it from every angle.

A lot of the talk all week has been about how the Rams and Seahawks have been the two best teams in the NFL all year. And honestly, on paper, if you take away the quarterback position, the Seahawks probably do have the better overall roster. The problem, and the question that always comes up, is Sam Darnold.

Will Sam Darnold show up in the biggest moments, in the biggest games, especially against the Los Angeles Rams?

Because history says that has been an issue.

Darnold has really struggled against this team. Last year against the Vikings, he went 0-2, including getting sacked nine times in the postseason. Then this year against the Rams, it wasn’t much better.

In the first matchup, he threw four interceptions. In the second matchup in Week 16 on Thursday Night Football, even though he finally got the monkey off his back and beat the Rams, he still threw two interceptions. In two games this season against Los Angeles, Darnold threw two touchdowns and six interceptions.

That is simply not good enough.

If Darnold starts turning the ball over again on Sunday, the Seahawks are going to have a very hard time winning this game, even with that elite defense.

Now, this is just my opinion. I might be wrong. I am not guaranteeing a win. But I genuinely think Darnold is going to play the best game of his career in the most important spot of his career.

Why do I think that?

First, he finally got the monkey off his back. He won a playoff game. A lot of people doubted whether he could even do that, and he did it while injured. He was a game time decision last week with that oblique injury that came out of nowhere on the injury report.

The Seahawks did not ask him to do too much, but when they did, he was efficient. And in the two biggest games of the season over the last two weeks, both against the San Francisco 49ers, he has played clean football. No turnovers. No chaos. Just mistake free football, and the Seahawks have been winning because of it.

That Week 16 game against the Rams matters more than people realize. I truly believe that game gave Sam Darnold real confidence. It showed him that he can beat this team.

That fourth quarter and overtime he was brilliant, and at the time, it was the biggest spot of his career. If the Seahawks lose that game and do not make that comeback, none of us as fans would have believed in Darnold heading into this postseason. But he stepped up. He got the job done.

Now, he can play a little more freely. He has a playoff win under his belt. He has proven to the Seahawks organization, and to the rest of the NFL, that he is a quarterback you can go on a deep playoff run with if you put the right supporting cast around him. And that is exactly what Seattle has done.

I also just do not think the Rams defense has been very good over the last few weeks. Yes, they shut down the Chicago Bears last week, but I put a lot of that on the freezing weather in Chicago. And even then, they still gave up a miraculous play to Caleb Williams at the end of the game.

I know Williams has done that to teams all year, but giving up a touchdown in that spot, when you are pushing the quarterback back to the 40-yard line, just is not acceptable.

Their secondary is brutal.

I think Sam Darnold is going to sling it downfield a few times. I like the matchups for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rashid Shaheed. I think Cooper Kupp is going to be that safety blanket this week, especially against his old team. And I think Kenneth Walker is going to have a massive day, just like he did against the Rams in Week 16.

Darnold got the monkey off his back. He has a playoff win. He has played this team before. And even when he has played his worst against them, the defense has had his back.

I do not think he is going to be as brutal as he has been in past games against the Rams. I truly do not.

Do I know if the Seahawks are going to win this game? No. Matthew Stafford is that good, and that offense is that good. But Bryce Young diced this defense up in the playoffs. I like Darnold's odds.

I think Sam Darnold is going to ball out on Sunday. And even if it does not lead to a win, I think we are going to walk away from this game saying that Sam Darnold is one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL, and that when the lights are the brightest, he will show up.