RENTON – Along with all that is on the line for both teams, Saturday’s Seahawks-49ers game to decide the NFC West and No. 1 seed will also serve as the latest litmus test for Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold.
Is he truly a quarterback who can lead a team to the highest of highs of division titles, top seeds and long playoff runs?
Or is he simply a quarterback capable of putting up big numbers during the grind of the regular season, then fades when the lights are the brightest?
Darnold supporters can point to the way he led the Seahawks back against the Rams two weeks ago in a 38-37 overtime victory as proof that he can “win the big one,’’ while also noting that 27 wins over the last two years sure is a lot of at least medium-sized ones.
But fair or not, until Darnold wins a few more of what are unquestionably “big ones’’ – such as Saturday night’s titanic clash against the 49ers in Santa Clara – doubts will remain.
“It’s that time of year when Darnold turns into a pumpkin,’’ blared a headline of a story on SI.com this week, which recounted how Darnold faltered in the final two games last season, including an identical scenario to Saturday’s.
This time last year, Darnold led a 14-2 Minnesota team to Detroit to take on a 14-2 Lions team in a game for the NFC North title and the top seed.
It didn’t go well. Darnold was just 18 of 41 for 166 yards and no TDs as the Lions blew open the game in the second half en route to a 31-9 win.
That consigned Minnesota to a wild-card game on the road the following week against the Rams. The only playoff game of Darnold’s career also didn’t go well, as he was sacked nine times, threw an interception and lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in a 27-9 L.A. win.
The Vikings opted to give the quarterback reins to 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy for this season, allowing Darnold to become a free agent.
Darnold, who grew up falling asleep while watching SportsCenter almost every night on the TV in his room, understands the storylines at play.
But he also says he doesn’t dwell on them, preferring to view what happened last year as a learning experience, not a narrative to rewrite.
“Great point about going through it last year for myself, just having that experience of going through a game like that,’’ Darnold said after Thursday’s practice. “But I think the biggest thing is just treating it like another game. Understanding kind of when you get out there, people make it out to be bigger. … It’s prime-time, all that stuff – fans are going to be great, understanding that it’s going to have that type of feel to it. But understanding once you get out there between the lines, between the whistles, it’s football.’’
Still, it’s not just the last two games of last season that leave some saying Darnold still has something to prove.
While Darnold pulled off the unique feat of joining Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers as the only QBs ever to win 13 or more games in two straight seasons – and the first to do so with different teams – it’s hardly been a smooth ride of late.
Darnold emerged as a legitimate candidate for NFL MVP honors at midseason when he threw 17 touchdowns against six interceptions in the first nine games of the year and had a stretch of six out of seven games in which he had a passer rating of 111.8 or better.
Those streaks, though, came to a screeching halt when he threw four interceptions without a TD in a 21-19 loss to the Rams on Nov. 16 in Inglewood, Calif.
Including that game, Darnold has eight touchdowns against eight interceptions since then and only twice has had a passer rating of 100 or better.
Darnold has also lost six fumbles to go along with 14 interceptions and leads the NFL in turnovers with 20, two more than the man he replaced as Seattle’s QB, Geno Smith, who is now with the Raiders.
Darnold has taken accountability for turnovers at every turn and did so again Thursday.
“I think turnovers, they’re unacceptable, no matter how they come,’’ Darnold said. “Obviously tipped balls, some things like that, you would like to say, ‘Oh man, that’s out of my control.’ But did I need to be in that position for that guy to tip that ball?’ So, I think that all turnovers are all plays where we can look at ourselves and be like, ‘Oh, man, I could have done better on that play.’’’
Darnold, though, rebounded from two turnovers last week at Carolina to play his best in the last 25 minutes, as the Seahawks scored three touchdowns to pull away.
It was the latest example of what teammates and coaches have described as Darnold’s even-keeled personality that allowed him to move on quickly from adversity.
“The awesome thing about Sam is he figures it out,’’ coach Mike Macdonald said this week. “There will be plays here and there just like the rest of our team that we’re going to want to be better at. The guy is a problem-solver, a fighter, a competitor. He’s going to figure it out as the game goes on.’’
The Seahawks, though, need Darnold to not take as long to figure it out Saturday night against the 49ers, who have won six straight games and are averaging 21 first-half points in the past three.
“We can come out faster,’’ Darnold said Thursday. “At the end of the day, we have a plan of how we want to come out and attack a team and attack the game, and I think we’ve just got to do a better job of executing, and that’s really it.”
In what is a far-off-the-radar subplot to what it means to the Seahawks, Darnold also has some money on the line in terms of season incentive bonuses that are within his reach.
Via OvertheCap.com, Darnold can assure himself another $2 million Saturday by reaching four different incentives that each pay $500,000. Those are for reaching 4,000 passing yards (he has 3,850), throwing for 28 touchdowns (he has 25), and finishing with a 67.5% completion rate (he’s at 67.2%) and a 100 passer rating (he’s at 99.2).
“People want to make it a little bit bigger than it is,’’ Darnold said of the hype and storylines accompanying the game. “But we’re just going out there, we’re playing against the Niners, a really good football team, a team that we’re going to be prepared for. It’s going to be great though, the fans are going to be into it, it’s going to be a great atmosphere. But other than that, it’s football and we’ll be ready to go for it.”