Seahawks NFC title game keys: Noise, Sam Darnold security, Kenneth Walker Time
He doesn’t look like a coach in his first conference championship game.
He doesn’t sound like a newbie to all this, either.
Mike Macdonald, 38 years old, is in just his second year as a head coach at any level. He’s won 25 of his first 35 games leading an NFL team.
Friday, his final full practice and final day in front of reporters before the NFC championship Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field, the Seahawks’ coach was giddy. He was joking, laughing.
And he was looking forward to the noise Seahawks fans are about to unleash bouncing off the cantilevered covers to the east and west sides of the stadium in SoDo, back down onto the rival Rams. Seattle’s Dark Side Defense, with players such as Jarran Reed and Leonard Williams egging on the crowd for more noise will only make loud louder Sunday.
“It’s awesome. This place will be rocking. It will be electric, 12s will be on their stuff,” Macdonald said. “It’s going to be awesome, man.”
Last weekend in the divisional playoffs against San Francisco at Lumen Field, the roars began before kickoff. They rose to an ear-splitting level that shook the press box on the opening kickoff. Rashid Shaheed returned it 95 yards for a touchdown beneath the platform where Doug Baldwin had just raised the 12 flag representing Seahawks fans three seating levels above the south end zone.
The smoke hadn’t cleared from player introductions and the pregame show when Shaheed gave the Seahawks a lead 13 seconds into the game. They never looked back, smashing the 49ers 41-6.
At that moment, the noise was louder inside Lumen Field than at any point since the Legion of Boom — Seattle’s last defense with a top NFL ranking and a nickname — and the Seahawks wildly came back to beat the Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game in January 2015. That’s the last time Seattle made it this far, the last of three times the franchise played in the Super Bowl. “The atmosphere was just insane,” Seahawks Pro Bowl defensive end Leonard Williams said of his first career playoff game, in his 11th NFL season.
“Last week was incredible, so I’m imagining it’s going to be kicked up a notch,” Macdonald said. “I don’t know how that’s possible, but, again, this is why we do what we do. It’s for weeks like this, for our community, for our city, for the 12s, for our guys to have this opportunity.
“Doesn’t get any better than this. Not a cloud in the sky. It’s middle of the January. Light out past 4:00. I mean, it’s incredible.”
The keys to the Seahawks beating the Rams for the NFC title and reaching the Super Bowl for the fourth time in the franchise’s 50 years in the NFL:
1st key: Sam Darnold’s side, and security
The Pro Bowl quarterback with an oblique injury on his left side said Friday after he threw in practice: “I feel really good for Sunday.”
If he’s not affected, Macdonald and play caller Klint Kubiak are going to have Darnold do what the QB himself proclaimed this week he will: “Let it rip.”
But he can’t turn the ball over.
Darnold led the NFL with 20 turnovers this regular season. Six of those came in two games against the Rams. Los Angeles scored seven touchdowns in those two games. Darnold gifted L.A. three of those TDs, with interceptions that gave the Rams drive starts at the 4-, 25-, and 1-yard lines.
He had a career-high four interceptions at L.A. in November. Yet Seattle lost only 21-19. Jason Myers’ frantic, 61-yard field goal try went wide left on the final play.
The Seahawks’ top-ranked defense allowed the fewest points in the league this season. It emboldens them and their coach to believe no team, not even likely NFL MVP for this season Matthew Stafford with his Rams, can score multiple touchdowns driving 75-plus yards on them following a punt or kickoff.
Darnold did not turn the ball over in week 18 at San Francisco. The Seahawks won the NFC and top playoff seed in a 13-3 victory. He didn’t turn it over last weekend. The Seahawks annihilated the 49ers.
The Seahawks are 5-0 this season when Darnold does not commit a turnover. If he doesn’t Sunday, Seattle’s likely going to the Super Bowl.
2nd key: Kenneth Walker’s solo act
No player in recent Seahawks history has more riding on one game than running back Kenneth Walker does Sunday.
Geno Smith, Darnold’s predecessor as Seattle’s QB, earned $6 million in contract bonuses for 2025 with his passing for the 2024 season, including in the final game at the Rams 12 months ago. But Smith already had a contract for this season. The Seahawks traded it to the Las Vegas Raiders in March and signed Darnold.
Walker doesn’t have a job for next season. His rookie contract ends when this Seattle season does.
He’s got the lead role to himself for the first time this season. Zach Charbonnet had been in a job share with Walker. Then Charbonnet tore knee ligaments in the 49ers game last weekend. He went on injured reserve Friday.
Walker is coming off his best game of the season: 16 carries, 119 yards and three touchdowns. He joined Shaun Alexander from 2004 as the only Seahawks with three rushing TDs in a playoff game. More than half of that game Walker romped after Charbonnet went out injured.
On Monday, Walker fired his agents for his first four NFL years, and hired David Canter’s Florida-based Aura Sports Group. The running back is still just 25 years old. He could get 20 carries plus pass catches against the Rams. The whole football world will be watching and assessing his value for a new contract.
Walker’s had a 1,000-yard season. He’s played in all 17 games of the regular season, for the first time in his four-year career.
This is his time, in the biggest game of his life.
“We have all the confidence in the world with him to carry a heavier load,” Kubiak said.
“We’re counting on him.”
3rd key: Affecting Matthew Stafford with 4
Williams is a second-team All-Pro selection at defensive tackle. Byron Murphy should have been at least that. Together, Williams and Murphy have 91 pressures on quarterbacks this season, according to NFL NextGen Stats. That’s second-most in the league behind only Denver’s Zach Allen and John Franklin-Myers with 98. Their Broncos are playing in the AFC title game earlier Sunday, against New England.
Outside Murphy and Williams, Seahawks defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence had a team-high 51 pressures, by himself. That was the most on the team, from the 33-year-old 12th-year veteran Seattle signed last offseason after his 11 years with Dallas. “He has transformed our defense,” safety Julian Love said this week.
Yet those stars up front haven’t gotten to Stafford.
In the two games with the Rams, Seattle has zero sacks on Stafford’s 77 drop backs to pass. The Seahawks have only hit him seven times after those 77 throws, once every 11 times. That’s how Los Angeles rolled up 581 yards and 37 points last month in Seattle.
Macdonald’s defense won when its front four affected every other QB they’ve played this season. That’s allowed the coach to deploy seven men in pass coverage, usually against four and five eligible receivers. Advantage: Seattle.
If Williams, Lawrence and Murphy again don’t affect Stafford Sunday, look for Macdonald to blitz do-it-all rookie Nick Emmanwori plus Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon from multiple areas more than he has all season.
It would help if the Seahawks stop L.A.’s first- and second-down plays better, to put Stafford in third and longer. Third and short against Seattle has meant quick throws from Stafford to short pass patterns with Puka Nacua running free after the catch.
“He gets the ball out extremely fast. What they do a good job at is putting them in third and manageable downs,” Williams said. “I think they have the shortest distance on third downs in the league, which allows for quick passes. You don’t have to sit back and drop and read coverages when you only need 3 to 5 yards for a first down.
“A lot of times he just catches the ball and knows exactly where to put it. Sometimes he’s not even looking. He’s a great quarterback. “I think that’s why I said I think we’re going to have to do a good job on first and second down stopping the run, getting them in a little bit more backed up third downs.”
The pick
Darnold does not turn the ball over. Walker takes advantage of his massive stage to earn millions more, whether from Seattle or another team. Macdonald has to blitz more. Emmanwori and Witherspoon affect Stafford more than the Seahawks did in the previous two meetings.
In one of the loudest, most epic games in the stadium’s history, the Seahawks advance to their fourth Super Bowl, Super Bowl 60 Feb. 8 in Santa Clara.
“It’s a fun opportunity,” Love said. “It’s exciting times in Seattle right now, your neighbors, people you see kind of on the street rocking their gear. It’s pretty special.
“And we’ve earned this moment, the city has earned this moment. So we’re excited to take advantage.”
Seahawks 24, Rams 22
This story was originally published January 24, 2026 at 5:15 AM.
