‘No freak-out’: His calm rally past Rams show why the Seahawks trust Sam Darnold

Sam Darnold threw an interception. He walked back to the sideline. With zero expression on his red-bearded face, he placed his helmet on top of the bench. He looked up at the giant video board above the end zone. He put on a gray, Seahawks cap. He sat down to look at his mobile tablet to study the Rams defense some more.

Sam Darnold threw another interception, his NFL-high 18th turnover this season. He came to the sideline. With zero expression, he placed his helmet on top of the bench. He looked up at the giant video board above the end zone. He put on a gray, Seahawks cap. He sat down to look at his mobile tablet to study the Rams defense some more. That happened twice in the span of three drives into the fourth quarter of Seattle’s critical NFC West showdown against Los Angeles Thursday night.

The second interception came in the red zone. It appeared to end the Seahawks’ hopes. They were down 30-14 with 9 minutes left. The Rams were thoroughly whipping them on their home, Lumen Field. Fans were booing.

In that moment, his teammates on that Seahawks sideline were watching their 28-year-old quarterback. They were looking to see if he’d flap.

But Sam Darnold is unflappable.

“Sam’s ability to not let failure get to him is impressive, to me — I shouldn’t even say ‘failures.’ Bad plays,” right tackle Abe Lucas said later.

“He recognizes his role on the team as a leader, as the head man. And he just...he’s the same. Bad play or good play, we just keep going. That’s it.

“I mean, there’s no freak-out. There’s no, like, emotional outburst. He’s just, next-play mentality. He’s professional about it.

”And we love it.”

Darnold went back to work. Rashid Shaheed revived the Seahawks with a 58-yard punt return for a touchdown. Darnold threw a 2-point-conversion pass to Cooper Kupp to make it 30-22.

On his next pass Darnold found tight end A.J. Barner alone on the right side of the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown. Then, Darnold’s most ridiculous 2-point throw everyone including the officials and both teams thought was an incomplete pass. It became upon replay review a backward pass, recovered by Zach Charbonnet in the end zone. That inexplicably tied the game at 30 and forced overtime. “I’m just glad ‘Charbs’ picked it up,” Darnold said.

The most ridiculous two-point conversion ever results in the Seahawks tying it up vs the Rams.

Rules analyst Terry McAulay was all over it for Prime Video. #NFL#TNFpic.twitter.com/BI8HEGwt1c

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 19, 2025

On Seattle’s overtime possession, the division title on the line, Darnold completed 5 of 6 passes. He threw a majestic strike down the right sideline Cooper Kupp leaped to snare while deftly getting both feet down inside the sideline boundary. That 21-yard gain got the Seahawks into the red zone.

Then Darnold waited and calmly threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba across the back of the end zone to make it 37-36 Rams.

Coach Mike Macdonald went for 2 and the win, knowing a tie wouldn’t give the Seahawks the NFC West title if they ended the season tied with L.A. in two weeks. Darnold dropped back to pass. He calmly looked at one, two, three, four ideas to possibly throw to his right. Then the QB looked to his left. He saw blocking tight end Eric Saubert had drifted from the line of scrimmage to inside the goal line.

No Ram saw Saubert. Darnold aimed, willed, his throw onto Saubert’s chest for the game-winning two points. The stadium shook. Darnold raised his right arm to the black sky. He pointed his index finger there. For Darnold, that counts as an emotional outburst.

Seahawks 38, Rams 37. Seattle (12-3) gains the inside track to its first division title since 2020 and the top seed in the NFC playoffs next month, plus the bye and home field that comes with it. “That was crazy,” Darnold said with a smile 45 minutes after it ended.

The former third-overall pick by the Jets discared by New York, Carolina, San Francisco and Minnesota in the NFL is now 26-6 his last two regular seasons, with the Vikings and now the Seahawks.

“It just shows a true competitor,” Smith-Njigba said. “A lot of guys would get down on themselves and give up, lay down. That’s not what we do. That’s not who he is. And that goes around to the whole team.

“I’m excited to have a leader in Sam.”

Macdonald’s excited to have Darnold leading this team, too.

“Our story has stayed the same since day one with Sam. It’s everybody else that has different stories,” Macdonald said.

“This is a guy that we watch every day. Same guy every day, no matter the circumstance. He’s an ultimate competitor. He’s a phenomenal leader. Just keeps fighting and keeps plugging away.

“We weren’t worried one bit. So, that’s Sam.”

Sam wasn’t worried about Sam, either.

“For me especially, I’ve had games like this in the past where I haven’t played necessarily my best football and turned the ball over,” Darnold said, “but at the end of the game you see yourself on the other side. It’s not great when you have interceptions and turnovers. You want to limit that. But all you can do is fight back.

“For us, I was just going to continue to plug away, get the ball to open receivers, and go through my reads.”

Seahawks believe in Sam Darnold

Darnold completed 22 of his 34 passes with two touchdowns against the same Rams he threw a career-high four interceptions against in L.A. last month, a 21-19 Seahawks loss. That’s Seattle’s only loss in 10 games.

Thursday he threw for 270 yards. That was 200 fewer than the Rams’ Matthew Stafford did against Seattle’s shredded previously dominant defense. Darnold got sacked four times Thursday night.

For the season, Darnold is completing 67.3% of his passes. His 3,703 yards are third-most in the NFL. He’s thrown for 24 touchdowns, also third in the league, with 13 interceptions, third-most, and five lost fumbles, second-most in the NFL. He’s been sacked 22 times in 15 games.

His teammates don’t really care about those numbers. They see with eyes in the huddle, on the sideline, in practices and the locker room what they love and respect about their quarterback who replaced traded Geno Smith in Seattle this past spring

Say what you will about Darnold — as the rest of the football world already has dismissing him. His Seahawks teammates see he’s always the same, regardless.

And that’s why they believe.

“He’s always calm, cool, and collected. He’s never too high or too low,” running back Kenneth Walker said after his 11 carries for 100 yards against the Rams, his first 100-yard day since September.

“It’s just like a clean slate. That’s him all around. That’s been him since he got here.

“We’re going to have adversity throughout games. He’s just a playmaker.”