Why Seahawks, Sam Darnold doubters ‘got to look at yourselves in the mirror bro’
Still doubt Sam Darnold?
The Seahawks have some words for you.
“Those who doubted Sam? Pffft,” Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon said inside the most bumpin’ Seahawks postgame locker room of them all Sunday night.
Witherspoon shook his head theatrically.
“Now you got to look at yourselves in the mirror, bro.”
Ripped for most of his eight seasons in the NFL playing, struggling then backing-up for five teams, maligned for never winning big games, Darnold won again. Big.
In the biggest game of his life, playing with an injured oblique, Darnold played the best he ever has. The 28-year-old quarterback the Seahawks signed before this season because the Minnesota Vikings gave up on him completed 25 of 36 passes (a tick under 70%). He threw for 346 yards. He had three touchdown passes. All were take-that throws against blitzing Los Angeles Rams, the team that 12 months ago sacked him out of his only career playoff game at the time.
Most important for Seattle’s season: Darnold did not commit a turnover for the third consecutive game.
Darnold, the failed Jet, Panther, the 49er backup, the Viking Minnesota didn’t want anymore, is going to the Super Bowl.
He just beat Matthew Stafford, the likely NFL most valuable player, to get there.
The Seahawks’ intense, 31-27 victory over division-rival L.A. in the NFC championship game at Lumen Field was a validation.
Not for Darnold.
For everyone else about him.
“He just shut up a lot of people tonight,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.
Macdonald wanted you to know Darnold hardly practiced this past week. He barely threw a pass from Seattle’s divisional-playoff win over San Francisco eight days earlier until about an hour before the title game Sunday.
“I mean, 300-something yards, three touchdowns, no picks. Every time they went and scored he came back,” Macdonald said. “Made some big-time throws on third down, 2-minute drive, 4-minute drive.
“Guy barely practiced all week. Just really happy for him. He deserves it. Just been a rock for us the whole year, so just really happy for him.”
The 38-year-old Macdonald is in his second year as a head coach, at any level. He went NFL history on Darnold’s title game.
“Just trying to be as smart as possible to get him ready to play,” Macdonald said. “He was confident. And to come out the way he played barely practicing, just barely throwing the ball, is really incredible.
“It should go down as one of the best performances in playoff history, I would imagine. I mean, hard to stack it. I can’t imagine anybody playing any better.”
Afterward, after he hugged and kissed his fiancee Katie Hoofnagle on the field, Darnold had the words and tone of a quarterback who just beat New Orleans in week three.
“Great team win,” he said, wearing a black Seahawks NFC CHAMPIONS cap. “We came out, did exactly what we wanted to do on offense,” Darnold said.
“Very proud of this group.”
Sam Darnold aces Rams pressure
Los Angeles defense typically doesn’t blitz a lot. But after sacking him nine times in their playoff win over Darnold and the Vikings 12 months ago, the Rams came after him Sunday night.
Darnold faced a Rams blitz in the final seconds of the first half with L.A. in the lead for the first time, 13-10. He stood in against it, with a hit from Rams top pass rusher Jared Verse imminent. He was waiting for Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s longer, out-breaking route. He waited for the NFL’s leader in yards receiving this season to put Rams cornerback Darious Williams in a bind, between covering the receiver running a shorter route in front of him and Smith-Njigba breaking into the end zone.
Williams let Smith-Njibga run free behind him. Darnold’s patience — and guts — allowed it to happen. Darnold softly lofted the pass onto Smith-Njigba’s hands in the end zone to put Seattle back ahead 17-13.
In the third quarter, same score, Darnold faced more pressure. The Rams blitzed a cornerback. And tackle Kobie Turner immediately ran in on Darnold inside. Darnold saw the blitz. He stared into Turner as the QB waited for Jake Bobo to break his route inside a defensive back left to right across the back of the end zone. Turner hit Darnold just after Darnold’s pass hit Bobo’s perfectly on the hands in stride, away from the DB.
Seattle led 24-13.
“They just brought their ‘two’ pressure, where they bring a corner and play Cover Two (two deep safeties) behind it,” Darnold said. “Bobo ran a great route on the corner, ended up being that half(-field) player.
“And I just tried to put it in a position to where he could put himself in between the ball and the defender.”
Later in the third quarter, Seattle had a third and 3 at the Rams 13-yard line. L.A.’s Turner again beat Seahawks stud rookie left guard Grey Zabel with arm rip. Turner was running into Darnold as he threw outside right to Cooper Kupp. The Rams Super Bowl MVP four years ago caught the ball at the 6, then leaned ahead on his run through safety Quentin Lake and safety Kamren Kinchens across the goal line for the touchdown.
The Seahawks led 31-20.
Seattle’s top-ranked defense then held on in the fourth quarter. Matthew Stafford and the Rams drove inside the 10-yard line. On third and 4, Devon Witherspoon broke up Stafford’s pass into the end zone for Konata Mumpfield. On fourth down, Witherspoon did it again to Stafford, cutting off tight end Terrance Ferguson’s route across the back of the end zone for another pass break-up.
Off the turnover on downs, with the season and the Super Bowl on the line, Darnold completed 3 of 4 passes. That moved the Seahawks off their goal line to the Rams 40. It forced L.A. coach Sean McVay to use all his timeouts on defense. By the time Michael Dickson expertly punted the Rams onto their own 7-yard line, only 25 seconds remained.
Game over. Seattle to the Super Bowl.
Darnold from infamy to Pacific Northwest immortality. “He saved us,” Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams said.
He was speaking for a Seattle defense that allowed the Rams 479 yards one month after L.A. put up 581 in Lumen Field.
Sam Darnold’s historical performance
NFL NextGen Stats said in the decade it has been doing their advanced numbers, Darnold became the first QB in a playoff game to throw three touchdown passes against pressure.
In all against pressure Sunday night, Darnold threw for 102 yards. In his two games of the regular season against L.A., Darnold threw zero touchdown passes and three interceptions under Rams pressure.
“Tell you what, I’m not a quarterback expert,” Macdonald, the Seahawks’ defensive-guru coach said, “but that’s some high-powered quarterbacking going on in that game by No. 14, for sure.”
Somebody asked Darnold after the win about finally getting to the Super Bowl. That’s something he never looked like he’d play in when he got run out of New York following three, failed seasons as the third pick in the 2018 draft out of USC. And after Carolina dumped him after two years there, 2021 and ‘22.
“I actually made it in ‘23, as well, when I was in San Francisco,” Darnold said of the season he backed up Brock Purdy on the 49ers.
“No, I’m just messing with you.
“It’’s unbelievable, man.”
The relative kid sideline microphones caught saying “I’m seeing ghosts” during a game the New England Patriots dominated him and his Jets a half-dozen years ago? “I almost forgot about it,” Darnold said. “So, thanks.”
He is a man, “The Man, who will play the Patriots in Super Bowl 60 in two weeks.
“There was a lot that I didn’t know back then, so I’m just going to continue to learn and grow in this great game. There is a lot of stuff that I can get better from today, even. I feel like I missed some throws out there that I shouldn’t miss. There were some things offensively that I feel like we can do better.
“So we’re always looking to get better. I’m always looking to get better. That’s the great part about this game is you win an NFC championship and you win games throughout the season, but there is always ways that you can look to get better.”
His coach loved what Darnold says he needs to improve on.
Darnold is now 30-6 the last two seasons, 14-3 for Minnesota and now 16-3 still playing for Seattle. He joined Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks to win 14 games in consecutive NFL regular seasons. Darnold is the only one to do it with two different teams.
Because teams don’t usually let 14-win quarterbacks go after such seasons.
He can’t win the big one?
Darnold just did.
“Everyone wants to make a narrative about this guy,” Macdonald said, “but he’s been the same guy since he walked in the door.
“You don’t want me writing the stories, because I would not write the narratives out there. This guy is ‘The Man.’ And his teammates love him. And he’s competitive as crap. And he’s tough.
“He’s really talented and he’s a winner. That would be the story.
“So don’t let me write the story.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2026 at 11:44 PM.
