The last time Sam Darnold faced the Los Angeles Rams, he had a flashback to his "seeing ghosts" days, tossing four interceptions for the first time since 2019 with the New York Jets.
In the Seahawks' 21-19 Week 11 loss, Seattle outgained L.A. 414 yards to 249 and 26 first downs to 12, but the four Darnold INTs caused the loss. Despite the performance, Darnold isn't putting any additional weight on Thursday’s massive rematch.
"It's just another opponent," he said Tuesday, via the team’s official website. "Obviously, it's a divisional game, and I would just leave it at that."
With both teams sitting at 11-3, Thursday's game is massive for the NFC West lead and could decide who gets the first-round bye in the conference. Per Next Gen Stats, the Rams enter the tilt with a 59 percent chance to earn the No. 1 seed, and Seattle sits at 25. The next closest is San Francisco at 12 percent, and no other division-leader has more than a 3% shot entering Week 16.
"It's the best, that's the kind of football you want to be playing in December, meaningful football," Darnold said. "We take that head on in the locker room and we love it."
Last year, Darnold was playing meaningful December football, but the bottom fell out when the calendar turned to January. He ended his run with the Minnesota Vikings with back-to-back dreadful performances. With the No. 1 seed on the line in Week 18, he completed 43.9 percent of his passes in a defeat to Detroit. He then followed that up by struggling in a blowout loss to the Rams in the Wild Card Round, which included taking nine sacks.
The history, particularly against the Rams, isn't making coach Mike Macdonald or the Seahawks nervous entering Thursday night. Since the four-INT game against L.A., Darnold has just one interception in four games.
"I think Sam's making really smart decisions," Macdonald said when asked about the decrease in turnovers. "I thought he played a good game (vs. Indianapolis)."
Per NFL Research, the only players over the last 15 seasons to throw four INTs against an opponent in one game and then defeat them later that season are Joe Burrow (vs. Steelers in 2022), Ryan Tannehill (vs. Texans in 2021), Andy Dalton (vs. Ravens in 2017) and Tom Brady (vs. Bills in 2011).
Darnold would like to join that list.
"I want Sam to play like I want our football team to play, which is decisive, shocking, and relentless," Macdonald said. "Have it be really clear on what you want to do in the game and in that play, so he can go rip it. Shocking is like, 'Hey, it's the execution. It's the beauty of the details. It's all the preparation that feeds into those basic fundamentals that make it come to life, and then just stick at it.' We're just not going to stop, and Sam's demonstrated those things."
