The heads of Seattle Seahawks fans might still be spinning from the myriad twists and turns of Thursday night’s 38-37 overtime win against the Rams at Lumen Field.
Not that anyone’s complaining. The best parties often take a while from which to recover.
But as the celebration begins to quiet, we’re left with three lingering questions from Thursday night.
Is there still any reason to be concerned about Sam Darnold?
Had the Seahawks not rallied, the two interceptions Darnold threw in the second half would been one of the main storylines. To some, maybe it still is.
Darnold has 13 picks for the year, which entered Sunday third in the NFL behind the 15 of Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa (who has been benched for the rest of the season) and the 14 of Geno Smith of the Raiders.
Darnold’s 18 turnovers were two more entering the weekend than any other player — second was Tagovailoa with 16 followed by Smith with 15.
Darnold’s 13 picks have come in 424 attempts for a 3.1% interception rate. He threw 12 interceptions last year in 545 attempts for a 2.2% rate.
For what it’s worth, it’s this season that’s more in line with his career turnover numbers. His career interception rate is 2.9.
Had the Seahawks not won, the narrative that the Rams really have Darnold’s number would also have grown louder.
Darnold has now thrown six interceptions in 78 attempts this year against the Rams.
The two Thursday each came on plays where a Rams defender dropped into a coverage area after the snap where he wasn’t at the snap, only fueling the perception that Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula is able to devise some schemes to bait Darnold.
Understandably, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald preferred to emphasize the positive in how Darnold came back from the picks and completed eight of 12 passes for 91 yards and two TDs in the final 13:49 of game play following his second interception.
On his radio show Friday on Seattle Sports 710, Macdonald rattled off all of Darnold’s comebacks this season — he has led three game-winning drives this year.
“Show me the time when in big moments this guy hasn’t responded as a Seahawks? Macdonald said.
And during his later meeting with media, Macdonald doubled down on his faith in Darnold.
“Our story has stayed the same since day one with Sam,” Macdonald said. “It’s everybody else that has different stories. 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.”
Is there any reason to worry about the defensive performance?
That the game went into overtime puts an asterisk on the Rams gaining 581 yards overall, the most any Seahawks team has ever allowed.
Still, Seattle allowed 501 heading into OT, which would rank as the 30th most overall and the most since the Seahawks gave up 527 in a 28-16 loss at San Francisco late in the 2023 season.
A whopping 457 came from the arm of Matthew Stafford, which seemed to quell the idea that Seattle had come up with some unique way of stopping him after the Seahawks gave up just 130 to Stafford in the game last month in L.A.
The Seahawks also began the game with every defensive starter available; though, that changed by the end when safeties Nick Emmanwori and Coby Bryant and cornerback Riq Woolen were all sidelined. Of those three, it appears only Bryant might be in danger of missing more time.
Macdonald shouldered much of the blame for the defensive issues Friday, saying he might have put in too large of a game plan considering the game was on a Thursday.
“It’s a good wake-up call,” Macdonald said on his radio show Friday. “Some of it might be a little bit of a function of not having full-speed reps during the week and are we asking them to do too much on a short week. … And then let’s look at the fundamentals — let’s get that cleaned up.”
As we’ve seen often, Macdonald and his defensive staff cleaned up some things as the game went on.
After Seattle allowed 90 yards rushing on 24 carries in the first half, 3.8 per attempt, the Rams got only 34 yards on 15 attempts the rest of the way, a 2.3 average.
That included 21 on eight in the fourth quarter and overtime, which helped spur the comeback with the Rams inability to run well at that point contributing to L.A. going three-and-out on three straight possessions after taking a 30-14 lead.
But Seattle never really got a handle on Stafford, who was 17-of-31 for 290 yards and two touchdowns after halftime.
The Rams finished with four plays of 41 yards or longer, three after halftime.
“To me, if we’re not executing it at the highest level, then that means that I didn’t make it clear enough for them to go execute in those moments,” Macdonald said. “And those sting in those moments. That stings, knowing that those sometimes they’re avoidable.”
Has the NFL added any clarity to the replay process that resulted in Zach Charbonnet’s two-point play?
A few readers asked why the play was reviewed in the first place. That part is simple. As Macdonald said, “Everything is reviewable on a two-point play.”
What has been a lingering issue for some around the league is that it took roughly 1 minute and 40 seconds — the kickoff teams already had taken the field — before the play was reviewed.
As detailed by Pro Football Talk, former NFL official Walt Anderson makes a weekly appearance on the NFL Network’s Sunday pregame show and addresses controversial plays around the league and spent three minutes Sunday talking about the play.
As PFT noted, Anderson did not discuss why it took so long for the league to initiate a video review of the play.
As for who reviews such plays, that’s also mired in some mystery. As PFT noted, all it says in the rule book is: “All Replay Reviews will be conducted by the Senior Vice President of Officiating or his or her designee.”
Macdonald said the Seahawks weren’t initially sure what the league was reviewing.
“Honestly, they said they were looking at it, so then we started to look at whether it was a backward or not,” Macdonald said. “We didn’t notice it in real time.”
The length of time it took for the review remains a sore point with Rams coach Sean McVay, who said he expects the league to discuss the mechanics of that situation during the offseason.
“I do know this,” he told reporters Friday in L.A. “Those aren’t the kind of plays that you want to have people converting on. That’s not something that I can imagine anyone would argue with me on that. I would feel the same way if it benefitted us, too.