Sam Darnold's Crucial Response After Worst Seahawks Performance

Sam Darnold's Resilience Amid a Challenging Game

Sam Darnold's consistent and unchanging demeanor—whether during good times or bad—has left a lasting impression on his teammates during his debut season with the Seattle Seahawks. However, this doesn't mean he was completely unaffected by his worst game yet for the team last weekend. The eighth-year veteran threw four interceptions, which ultimately doomed his team in a 21-19 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. This defeat caused the Seahawks to drop out of the NFC West lead.

Two of Darnold’s four picks resulted in touchdowns for the Rams, with L.A. scoring on drives of 3 and 25 yards. After the third and fourth interceptions, which occurred on consecutive possessions late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, Darnold trudged to the sideline. Each time, he more slammed than placed his helmet onto its holder on top of the bench. For Darnold, these moments count as mini-outbursts.

Despite the setbacks, Darnold came back late in the game to complete 6 of 9 passes from his own 1-yard line, attempting to rally the Seahawks. However, their quest for a win fell short when Jason Myers' desperate 61-yard field goal on the final play was well short of the uprights. The Rams (8-2), not the Seahawks (7-3), took over the division lead.

On Wednesday morning, during this week's first walk-through practice for Seattle's game against Tennessee, Darnold got upset with his coach. "I just called a sack in (a) 2-minute (drill)," said coach Mike Macdonald, "and he wasn't very happy about that. In a walkthrough." So, he added, "Nothing's really changed."

Yes, the coaches are saying that Darnold remains the same competitive quarterback this week, even after his worst game as a Seahawk. He was leading them to a 7-2 start as the NFL's most efficient and best deep-ball thrower.

"I think that's why he's had such a really good season," said offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. "Because he's the same guy every day. Whether it's having success or it's not going as good, he's always the same. He's really impressive on the sideline, and ready to move on. That's why he is who he is. And that's how most great quarterbacks are. They just stay the same."

That's what the Seahawks are counting on over these final seven games of the regular season, then what they now expect will be a run through the playoffs in January.

Eyes and ears are on Darnold this week. Inside and outside Seahawks headquarters, teammates, coaches, critics, and fans are watching to see how he's responding to one of his three worst interception games of his career. He also threw four interceptions in 2018 and again in 2017, in his first two seasons in the league with the New York Jets. Darnold has 14 turnovers (10 interceptions and four fumbles) in 10 games. That's tied with Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa for most in the league.

"It's unacceptable," Darnold said. "I have to be better protecting the football."

It's because of Seattle's strong, at times dominant defense that the Seahawks have a turnover differential of minus-7, tied for 28th in the 32-team league, yet are 7-3. They hold the top wild-card playoff spot, one game out of the division lead with games still against the Rams and 49ers again.

"Way too many turnovers," said Kubiak. "Back up to a couple games ago, (Darnold) struggled, interceptions (54.8% completions, one touchdown, one interceptions while Seattle beat Houston). Game after that, bad play selection, bad execution. Just things you can't do and win. Our defense has been playing great. And a game like the last one, where you have four turnovers, normally (it's) not that close. But our guys did a great job of fighting back all the way to the end and gave us a chance to win. I also think when the bad stuff happens things can go one of two ways, and I thought our guys really responded well. So I was very pleased with that."

The belief around the Seahawks is if the offense—if Darnold—can eliminate the turnovers, this team can win the division and have home playoff games for the first time since 2020.

How can the most veteran Seahawks receiver tell if his quarterback has moved past his mistakes and multiple interceptions in L.A.? "Are they saying things that they normally don't? What's their messaging like? What's their energy like going up and down the sidelines?" the 32-year-old Kupp said Thursday. "When that demeanor starts to change...you can tell there's something, and there's a response happening to whatever went on. Sam's just been steady. He's the same as he was on drive one as he was right there at the end of the game. And that's a hard thing to do."

Darnold says that's who he is. "Yeah, my demeanor, I hope it doesn't change," he said. "I'd like to think it doesn't change, at all. You have to have a mentality of moving on to the next play, because there's nothing that I can do once I throw an interception or fumble. So it's about moving on as fast as I can."

Sam Darnold's View of the Interceptions

Of course, Darnold, Kubiak, and the Seahawks offense can't just forget the four interceptions as if they never happened. He, they, have to learn from the Rams' switching safety looks and interior pressure past the offensive line that contributed to Darnold's crushing mistakes at Los Angeles.

On the first interception, on his second pass of the game, the Rams showed two-deep safety coverage before the snap. Then safety Kamren Kinchens ran down "into the box" nearer the line of scrimmage as Darnold got the snap. Darnold didn't appear to expect or see Kinchens up closer to be in front of Kupp 13 yards down the field in the left slot. Kinchens stepped in front of the turning Kupp, intercepted Darnold's pass into double coverage and returned the ball 31 yards, to the Seahawks 3. That's how Seattle trailed 7-0 even after the defense had held L.A. on fourth down inside the 10-yard line.

The second interception came on the third play of the third quarter, with Seattle surging down 14-9. As he was throwing late outside right to NFL receiving leader Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Darnold got hit from the front by Byron Young. The Rams' top pass rusher ran free on an inside stunt Seattle right guard Anthony Bradford failed to pick up. Cobie Durant intercepted the pass Darnold shouldn't have thrown, not there.

The third interception came with 1:15 left in the third quarter and Seattle trailing 14-12. Rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo kept running down the right-side seam while Darnold's throw was trying to lead him to the center of the field. Kinchens stepped up again and intercepted the pass when it appeared Darnold never saw him as the second, deep safety.

The fourth interception came when Darnold acknowledged after the game he was preoccupied with not taking a sack while on the edge of long field-goal range down 21-12 with 11 minutes left. Darnold stepped up and ducked pressure on both sides. Then he tried a jump pass over the line to Arroyo. The QB never saw L.A. defensive back Darious Williams standing in front of Arroyo just beyond the line. That's because the Rams' Jared Verse was standing between Darnold and Arroyo, blocking the quarterback's view of Williams. "I've got to dirt that one," Darnold said after the game, meaning throw it into the ground incomplete for fourth down and the field-goal try.

Thursday, Darnold summarized all his interceptions in Los Angeles as stemming from one issue. "I've got to go through my progressions. Listen to my feet. And just be able to not necessarily get stuck on one or two guys, and just be able to move on with progression," he said. "I feel like they did a really good job of disguising. For me, it's just about keeping my eyes down the middle of the field, and just moving from there...seeing the shell (coverage, two safeties deep) a little bit better."

The News Tribune followed up on him "getting stuck on one or two guys," asking Darnold how often that's happened this season and why did it against the Rams. Smith-Njigba is leading the league by a ton with 1,146 yards and on pace to break Calvin Johnson 1,964 yards receiving in the 2012 season. So it's understandable Darnold would be stuck on throwing to Smith-Njigba, as he was on the second interception. "Just having a better understanding when the ball's snap what the coverage is," Darnold said. "When a guy's going to come open and when he's not. When I say get stuck on a progression I mean just seeing on one side of the field and feeling like there's a chance someone's going to get open over there, rather than just moving on and clicking on a progression as I normally do."

So, the Rams and L.A. defensive coordinator Chris Shula tricked him with their disguised and changing coverages. Every other team on Seattle's schedule has that Rams-Seahawks game tape to review and try to mimic what L.A. did to Darnold.

Ernest Jones' R-rated Support of Sam Darnold

Since the end of their second loss in nine games Sunday afternoon in Inglewood, California, teammates have made a point to publicly support Darnold. None more colorfully than Ernest Jones. "Man, Sam's been ballin'," Jones said. "If we want to try to define Sam by this game, Sam's had us in every (frickin') game. So for him to sit there and say, ‘Oh, that's my fault,' no, it's not. There were plays that defense, we could have made plays. ... He's our quarterback. We've got his back. You got anything to say, quite frankly, ‘f*** you.'"

Four days later, Darnold appreciated that. "The reason that it sucks for me is, I feel like I'm letting those guys down," Darnold said Thursday. "And I feel like a lot of guys in the locker room feel the same way. So that energy, and the things that he said, that meant a lot to me, just for a guy to have my back like that. But I know that the guys are just going to fight, no matter what, no matter what the case is. I know I'm going to do everything that I can to put my best forward and execute at a high level."

Darnold has played for the Jets, Panthers, 49ers, Vikings, and now Seahawks. Is this Seattle locker room unique in that way, having each other's backs? "Yeah, it's not every locker room that's like that," he said. "I've been around some really good locker rooms, some locker rooms that aren't necessarily as close. I would say this locker room is at the top, for sure, just the way that everybody comes together, just the way we fight for each other. I think it's very evident in the way we play football on Sundays."