In the biggest game of his career, Sam Darnold delivered his finest performance.
Darnold threw for 346 yards and three touchdown passes and played turnover-free ball in Seattle’s 31-27 win over the Rams, vaulting the Seahawks into Super Bowl LX on Feb. 9 against the New England Patriots.
“You can’t talk about the game without talking about our quarterback,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said. “I mean he just shut a lot of people up tonight, so I’m really happy for him.”
I am. I think he’s really come into his own over the course of the season actually. His passing looked really good from the start, but it got us into trouble, too. He had tons of interceptions early on because he would try these bullet passes into dangerous territory, or wouldn’t give up plays to a fault.
He’s cleaned that up a lot now, and in this game specifically there were some opportunities where he let a doomed play die instead of trying to make the impossible happen. I think earlier in the season he wouldn’t have handled it as well, and would probably have made a risky play.
Probably the biggest weakness I see in him is lack of a run game. He actually had a good run this game, but he hasn’t done much in that regard. We’ve had some strong running QBs in the past, so it feels really different without that in the back pocket.