Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold overcame adversity in the 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on December 18 at Lumen Field.
Darnold recorded two interceptions and looked as though he was on his way to repeating the November 16 performance in which he threw four interceptions against the Rams. However, that wouldn’t be the case as the veteran signal-caller stepped up when it mattered.
The Seahawks star threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to pull the game even at 30-30. Then, Darnold followed that with another scoring throw in overtime to make it 37-36. Seattle went for the two-point conversion, and a successful pass from Darnold completed the 16-point comeback.
Even with Darnold overcoming his struggles to lead Seattle to a win that moves the team to 12-3 and clinched a playoff spot, ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark gave a blunt analysis of the 28-year-old’s performance in Week 16.
“No,” Clark said when asked whether Darnold has silenced his critics during the December 19 edition of “First Take.” “If anything, Sam Darnold’s critics are louder, but he might have silenced the critics in his head. Here’s why. When you have six turnovers in seven quarters against the Los Angeles Rams, and you’re putting your team behind in those situations, when things are changing and you become hesitant.”
Seahawks QB Sam Darnold Is Building Confidence
Despite Clark not being convinced that Darnold can rise to the occasion in a big-time game, the analyst did state that it could be Step 1 in the Seahawks star believing in himself and stepping up in these situations.
“For Sam Darnold to start that game the way he started that game, to finish the season against Detroit last year that way, to finish the season against the Los Angeles Rams that way, to do what he was doing last night and find a way to win, that builds confidence in Sam Darnold,“ Clark added.
“That builds confidence in the Seattle Seahawks. But absolutely, every team walking in is going to watch the end of that film, but they’re going to watch those first three quarters and say, ‘This is what we have to do to rattle him.’“
Sam Darnold Talks OT Game-Winning Drive
After the come-from-behind win over the Rams, Darnold appeared on Prime Video’s postgame show. Moreover, one of the questions allowed the USC product to discuss what was going through his mind in overtime, which led to a game-winning drive.
“We practice so many situations throughout the week, throughout training camp, throughout the OTAs even, and throughout the week,“ Darnold said. “To be able to just get an opportunity to go out there and just run our offense, we weren’t in two minutes, we weren’t in a hurry up.
“It was just like, ‘All right, guys, let’s just play one play at a time.‘ That was it. That was our mentality going into that last drive. Like I keep saying, it’s just a huge credit to the guys up front, the big guys up front doing what they do every single play. Wouldn’t be able to have the success, both of us, that we have without those guys.”
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