SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, Calif.) – Sam Darnold is the Seattle Seahawks‘ guy.
Defensive leader Leonard Williams made that quite clear after his team’s disappointing 21-19 loss to their NFC West division rivals, the Los Angeles Rams, at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
“For sure,” Williams told me when asked if he still has confidence in Darnold. “After any interception, I’m like, ‘Just keep playing ball.’ We trust Sam Darnold. We know what type of player he is, what type of leader he is.
“At the end of the day, football is not a perfect game and we all make mistakes, have plays out there we want to take back. We’re always going to trust our guy.”
Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones was even more blunt in his support for Darnold.
“Sam’s been balling,” Jones said. “If we want to try and define Sam by this game, man, Sam’s had us in every f—king game. So, for him to sit there and say, ‘Yo, that’s my fault,’ no, it’s not. There were plays defensively we could have made plays, or opportunities where we could have got stops.
“This is football. He’s our quarterback and we’ve got his back. And if you’ve got anything to say [about it], quite frankly, f—k you.”
Williams and Jones voiced their support after Darnold had his worst performance in Seattle’s biggest game so far this season. Darnold completed 29-of-44 passes for 279 yards without a touchdown pass and four interceptions for a season-low 45.5 passer rating.
Defensive back Kam Kinchens finished with two interceptions for the Rams, while Cobie Durant and Darius Williams were responsible for the other two. Los Angeles turned Darnold’s miscues into 14 points offensively, taking advantage of the short fields.
Kam Kinchens (No. 26) celebrates his first interception on Sunday. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
Entering Sunday’s contest, Darnold had been one of the best deep passers in the NFL. However, the Rams’ secondary didn’t allow many deep shots. According to Next Gen Stats, Darnold finished 3-of-12 for 61 yards on throws of at least 10 yards, with three of his four interceptions on those plays.
Darnold’s latest performance follows a trend of him struggling in big games. Playing for the Minnesota Vikings last year, Darnold finished 25-of-40 for 245 yards, with a touchdown and two turnovers in an NFC Wild card loss to the Rams, who sacked him nine times en route to a 77.6 passer rating.
Darnold didn’t play much better with the NFC North title on the line in the final regular-season game, completing 44% of his passes for 166 yards and no touchdowns in a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Darnold acknowledged afterwards he must play better in big games.
“I can’t turn the ball over as much as I did today,” Darnold said. “I’ll learn from it, watch the tape and grow from it.”
According to Next Gen Stats, the Rams played zone coverage 80% of the time and blitzed on 22% of the snaps. The Rams also disguised their coverage 31.1% of the time, per Next Gen State, the third-most in the NFL for Week 11. Former Rams receiver Cooper Kupp, now a receiver for the Seahawks, said Los Angeles executed well pre-snap by disguising their defense to create confusion for Darnold.
“They were showing some safeties in the box,” said Kupp, who had three receptions for 23 yards in his first game against the Rams. “But also getting to some places where they were able to drop into essentially Cover-2 looks while being able to show eight-man boxes, which is obviously a big advantage for them.”
While Darnold struggled, this was the main takeaway from the Seahawks: Their quarterback played badly, but they still had a chance to win on a 61-yard Jason Myers field goal attempt that fell short on the last play of the game.
“The good thing is we kept battling, and that’s what our team is going to continue to do,” Seahawks tight end A.J. Barner told me. “At the end of the day, we have to finish these games and win these games.”
“He’s an ultimate competitor,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said of Darnold. “He is a great quarterback and he’s our quarterback. We love him.”
Like Barner and Macdonald, Williams believes that there are more good things ahead for Darnold despite the poor performance. At 7-3, the Seahawks remain just a game back of the NFC West division-leading Rams (8-2) and face them again in Seattle in five weeks.
“I just feel like we beat ourselves today,” Williams told me. “Obviously, respect to (the Rams). They’re a good team. They have a great offense. But I think overall we didn’t put ourselves in position to win the game like we normally do.
“We’re going to go back, watch film and make some corrections. And I think our whole team is going to look forward to playing them again.”
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on X at @eric_d_williams.
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