When the Seahawks take the field at Lumen on Sunday for the NFC Championship, all eyes will be on Sam Darnold. And for good reason. The veteran quarterback has been at the heart of Seattle’s playoff push-but he’s also been the lightning rod for questions about whether this team can really go the distance.
The matchup? The Los Angeles Rams.
A familiar-and frustrating-foe for Darnold. The Rams have had his number in recent meetings, and the history goes back to last postseason, when Darnold was still with the Vikings.
In that game, he was sacked nine times in a brutal loss to L.A. Fast forward to this season, and the struggles continued: four interceptions in Week 11, two more in Week 16.
On paper, it’s not a pretty picture.
But here’s where it gets interesting: despite the turnovers, Darnold kept giving the Seahawks chances to win. That Week 11 game?
After a rough start, he engineered an 84-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, then drove Seattle from its own 1-yard line to set up a potential game-winning 61-yard field goal. Jason Myers missed it, and the Rams escaped.
But Darnold had put them in position.
Week 16? More of the same.
Darnold rallied the Seahawks with a game-tying drive in the fourth, then delivered again in overtime-capping it off with a walk-off two-point conversion. That’s not just resilience.
That’s clutch.
Trey Wingo, longtime NFL analyst and host of the “Straight Facts Homie!” podcast, took notice. Speaking on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, Wingo pointed to Darnold’s ability to bounce back mid-game as a reason for optimism heading into Sunday.
“The last time they played, he was awesome after a shaky start,” Wingo said. “And before that, he was terrible-but still did the hardest thing to do in football: play poorly and still give your team a chance to win.”
He’s not wrong. That Week 11 game at SoFi Stadium was about as rough as it gets for a quarterback.
But with the game on the line, Darnold locked in and led a drive that gave Seattle a shot. Myers’ 61-yard attempt missed, but it was well within his range-he’s hit from that distance before.
And Darnold made sure they had the opportunity.
Wingo drew parallels to some of the NFL’s most memorable comebacks. He brought up Russell Wilson’s infamous 2014 NFC Championship performance against the Packers-four picks, a nightmare outing, until it wasn’t.
Wilson flipped the switch late, leading a furious rally capped by a walk-off touchdown in overtime. He also mentioned Tom Brady’s legendary turnaround in Super Bowl LI, when the Patriots clawed back from a 28-3 deficit against the Falcons.
Brady struggled for most of that game, but once the momentum shifted, he was unstoppable.
“That’s the hardest thing in the world to do,” Wingo said. “To be terrible and then course correct in the game.
And we’ve seen that from Sam on a couple of occasions against the Rams. I think that has to give you optimism.”
It’s a fair point. Quarterbacks can have bad games.
Great ones find ways to win anyway. And Darnold, for all the heat he’s taken, has shown flashes of that mental toughness-the ability to reset, stay composed, and deliver when it matters most.
Wingo also highlighted something that’s easy to overlook from that Week 11 loss: the Seahawks, as a team, showed serious grit. Despite giving the ball away multiple times, they still nearly stole the win.
“The Rams got all those turnovers and they barely held on,” Wingo said. “That’s a sign of a really good team. If you lose the turnover battle like that, you should get blown out.”
Instead, Seattle was right there until the final whistle. That speaks to more than just Darnold’s resilience-it speaks to a team that doesn’t flinch, even when it’s not playing its best.
Now, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the stage is set for Darnold to flip the script. The Rams have been a thorn in his side, no doubt. But if he can channel the version of himself we’ve seen in crunch time-calm, confident, and in command-Seattle just might have the edge it needs.
One thing’s for sure: Sunday’s going to tell us a lot about Sam Darnold. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll be the game that reshapes the narrative.