NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Rams-Seahawks Week 16 TNF Recap | Seattle Proves Solid, Rams Hit with Reality Check

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

There might not be a more novel, improbable and impossible game than the Week 16 blockbuster between the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. After the Rams took a commanding lead through the first three quarters, the Seattle defense held stout just in time for Sam Darnold to exercise his demons, force overtime and defeat the top-ranked Rams — effectively moving the Seahawks into first place in the NFC. Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue navigate the ups, downs and unexplainable motions of this instant classic with highlights and analysis along the way.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Back inside is Barner. Darnel has time. Looks, inside, it's caught. Cutdown! Make an extra point. Make a conversion. I don't care what it is.

The Seahawks win the game again on the last play of the game. The Seahawks win 38, 37. It's sobbed with a two-point conversion catch. Holy cow! Perfect, joyous, messy call to a perfect, joyous night of football for the Seattle Seahawks. What did we just watch? The Seahawks win 30. to 37 in overtime to take control of the NFC West, of the NFC wildcard race.

And Jordan Rodrigue joins me from across Los Angeles on a night where it felt like we had an MVP moment for Matthew Stafford with about 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter. And then the game really started and the Seahawks somehow found all their way, got all the way back got the win, and Sam Darnold, I don't know if it's his MVP moment, Jordan, but he had his very best drive of the game. I think their offensive line was great in that overtime, and they go for two to win it, and they get the two, and they vanquish the Rams, sweeping them on the season.

Whoa, man, so much happened during this game, Greg. Oh, my Lord. We were watching thinking, okay, this is definitely, the game is drunk. this is definitely going to end it this time it's definitely going to end it this time it's definitely going to end it when Matthew Stafford in overtime hits the vintage Matthew Stafford

inbreaker to Puka Nakua for the touchdown that's when we thought okay of course this is what's going to ultimately and finally end this game it was almost too poetic that is the quintessential Matthew Stafford Thoreau. He is the best on the planet at throwing that inbreaker, a little dig of varying lengths.

And then Sam Darnold had a say, Greg. Sam Darnold had a say on the other side. It was an up and down game for Sam Darnold, who throws two interceptions, but in the fourth quarter, when Rashid Jihad helps to turn the game around, and the Seahawks defense helps to turn the game around, its special team, it's defense. And it's also a quick strike by Darnold to A.J. Barner to really make them go crazy. The craziest two-point conversion that you'll ever want to see. But yeah, I go back to that overtime drive really. And you think about the drive starter to Jackson Smith and Jigba. You think about the beautiful toe tap sideline throw to Cooper Cup. And by the end of this game, the Rams defense, which was game for so much of it, was gassed.

And all season, we've talked about like these are the most two complete teams in the NFL. And I think the Seahawks tonight kind of showed maybe they're a little more complete. because special teams counts. And even though the defense struggled for most of the night, their fourth quarter defense really came through and gave their special teams and their offense a chance to make that comeback in regulation and then in overtime. Yeah.

And how about Rashid Shaheed giving the spark when needed, not just on the punt return for a touchdown after the Rams failed again to score any points, another three and out, as their offense totally dried up. Seahawks increased the pressure, changed up the different styles of pressure. It looked to me, and I don't have the exact numbers in front of me,

it looked to me like they were blitzing a little bit less or a little bit more selectively and trying to get pressure just with four very successfully against Matthew Stafford. And there were a couple of drops. Then Rashid Shaheed steps up and says, hey, remember me. I'm the guy who shows up in these late games for the Seattle Seahawks,

a punt return for a touchdown. and then sets them up in great with great field position after another failed Rams drive. That started to flip the game. And of course, the Rams special teams, I texted you this. I was like, we thought the game was going to end. And I said, I never bet against Rams special teams, parentheses, negative. All right. Let's actually listen to that Rashid Jihad play.

So just to think about where we are in the game at this point. Matthew Stafford throws the no look touchdown to Pukunakua to go up 30 to 14 with 13 minutes. left in the game. At that point in the game, the Rams have, you know, over an 80% chance to win according to the next gen stats. It gets even higher later in the game. In all four of their losses this season, they have had a big time lead in over an 80% chance, which probably makes a lot of the people listening and watching, you know, thank you to everyone who's watching live on YouTube, think, well, that's why these percentages don't make any difference. Maybe not when it comes to the Rams. The Seahawks drive down the field. They get into the red zone and Kobe

Turner has what feels like a game ceiling interception with about eight minutes and change to go. And the Rams have the ball up 16. That starts a sequence of offensive drives in the fourth quarter where the Rams get the ball five times. They have a total of four first downs in those five drives. Includes three straight, three and outs. They take up over six and a half minutes of clock in five drives. They fail to run the clock out.

And the Seahawks begin their comeback after that first three and out where they go run, run, pass, and then punt. Let's listen to that punt. Seahawks can jump right back into this game with a big return here by Rashid Shaheed. This is a high wobbly kick. Shaheed has to run up, makes the catch in his own 43, starts up the middle. Now he has a gap on the left side 40. Turns up field.

There he goes. 20, 15, 10, 5. Holy catfish! Touchdown! Seahawks! I'm telling you, the coaches next door breaking the glass. And Rashid Shahid does it again, just when the Seahawks need a big special team's play. They get it.

Oh, great call. And it's a great call. And, of course, he's talking about the offensive and defensive coaches that are up in the booth, slamming on the glass sides of the booth as that play is happening, which would be so fun, I think, to call a game right next to. that was one of those moments, Greg. I've seen a few of them in Rams history and especially on special teams. I'm thinking of that Ravens game

I think it was two years ago where it almost was like it's a very quick right hook that knocks the wind out of you very suddenly and you're almost, you could see it. The Rams are almost reeling. Did not expect it totally surprised by it. But it's something that they've struggled with

all year, Greg, is their special teams unit. They've changed personnel. They've churned out the bottom of the roster with some of their coverage, and certainly it failed them there. Yeah, and to me, it's more about one of the best special teams units in the NFL. Like, if you look at DVOA efficiency, the Seahawks are two. The Rams are 25, and that was before they got Rashid Shahid, who has just a preposterous history.

That's a Harbaugh coaching down there, isn't it? Of long touchdowns from scrimmage. He is top seven all time, I think, in average length of touchdowns. If you count just as scrimmage touchdowns, of course, that was on a punt return. He has the longest average length of a touchdown since the merger. It's just outrageous how many 50-yard plus touchdowns he has gotten. And that's basically the only touchdown that he gets. And yet, there's still a lot of work to be done after that.

I think when we think about this game, we'll think about the ensuing two-point conversion where you think it's an incomplete pass. And everyone on the field seems to think it was an incomplete pass. except who is the man that picked it up there in the moment. I'm totally blanking Cooper Cup. No. No, that was Charbonnet picked it up. Charbonnet picks it up.

He's on top of it. No one else really seems to realize that it could. He does not really know what he's doing in that moment. And it takes a review to determine that Sam Darnold was in fact throwing the ball backwards when Jared Verst deflects it. He picks it up in the end zone. And that two points really allows them to get to overtime, to get the two point conversion that they later need later in regulation.

And it's just it's just one of those plays. I guess we're back to that the Seahawks never play a normal game. Imagine being at that game tonight, Jordan. Yeah. I mean, the crowd, you could hear the crowd slowly start to swell as they started to realize what was going on as they kept playing the review of this pass and thinking, oh, yeah, that's kind of moving backwards or at least parallel. The crazy thing is when they finally get the.

that the right angle where it's actually on the line of scrimmage. Even then, I do think it was backward, but it is so close, and that ends up making a big difference. It's such a complicated game because you want to give credit, you want to, you know, blame things for going wrong, I guess for the Rams, but it's a night where Matthew Stafford throws for 457 yards in three touchdowns. It has the great overtime touchdown. Dominates one of, if not the best defenses in the league for three quarters. And yet, when you think about the game, you still have to think about what happened after that moment.

The Rams are in a totally commanding position when they get the ball back again. And as I mentioned, they go three and out three straight times. So I don't really blame the play calling because it starts out run, run, pass. That doesn't work. Then they go pass, pass. That works even worse.

There's a batted pass in there. You mentioned the pressure is getting there. There's some pressures. Sometimes it's four-man. Then the next time around, after that three-and-out, they go run pass-pass. They tried every single combination of how aggressive they want to be. Ultimately, they have another drive because their defense does get some stops. They give up one short, big-time throw to Sam Darnold, to Barner, which gets it back to a tie game.

But the defense does give the offense a chance to just win the game in regulation, and they're not able to do that. two different times. That ends one drive with a missed Mavis kick, which is going to keep Sean McVeigh up at night. And then another drive at the end of regulation when they had the timeout, they had plenty of clock. And you kind of figured this is Stafford's moment to go, lead them to a victory. And they're not able to get off the field there. What did you see from the fourth quarter when it was going wrong for the Rams and right for the Seahawks out of the Seahawks defense? And how do they get off the field? Well, they, first of all, the explosives did not help. There were some coverage issues and the players that had been the types

of pressures that had been working against Sam Donald early in the game, which we'll I'm sure talk about later if we get to it. It just wasn't as effective. There were, I think some of the issues were especially these kind of, when you go back and you look at the dots, they look like coverage issues, right? In the secondary, we know that they are missing Quentin Lake Josh Wallace, I keep calling Charles Wallace out of a wrinkle in time. But Josh Wallace had a great most of this game and was playing in that star position like he has in relief. But you know, you saw at times the receivers get behind or just find their ways into space.

Clint Kubiak was working a lot of different formation changes as well. To me, this is when also the Seahawks got much more aggressive in trying to push the ball. than they were when they started the game. They were almost like weirdly cautious to start the game. And they didn't get a lot of bites at the apple. He only got to throw the ball six times. They were trying to make the run happen. It just wasn't happening.

But it was sort of that Ben don't break type of thing and breaking at the wrong times for the Rams. Yeah. Like to me, it's more about the Seahawks defense in general. Because if you really think about the Seahawks offense, they never really got into a rhythm. They hit the big Kenneth Walker play to start the second half, 55-yard touchdown rush. Hell, we're here. Let's listen to Kenneth Walker, giving them an early lead in the third quarter.

Our question, first and ten. Here's a hand off to Walker now. He starts up the middle. He breaks it outside 50. He's down 40s on the run. 30, 25, 20. He's going to go 10, third. Touchdown.

Seahawks. 55 yards and the way Ken Walker the third started the game on the opening drive with a screen pass for 46. This time he goes 55 on a handoff, his long for the season, and he takes it in for six. And the Seahawks have tied this baby up at 13 apiece. And I thought that was such an important moment because even though they ended up trailing 30 to 14 by the end of the fourth, or the start of the fourth quarter. This game reminded me of the first game in that, like, one team is dominating the game.

And that was the Rams at that point. They're killing them in yardage. It could have been 20 to 6 at halftime. It could have been 23 to 6. They played with their food by struggling in the red zone, getting stopped on fourth down. In a game where they were kind of dominating at that point, they end up trailing. And I know eventually they do build up that big league. lead, but it's not like the Seahawks offense really got in rhythm is what I was kind of getting

to, because after that intercept, after that touchdown by Kenneth Walker, if you think about the rest of the second half, Darnold throws an interception. They punt after a couple first downs. Donald throws another interception. They get the one, you know, quick turnaround, big play touchdown to Barner, and that's the one thing the offense does. And then they get three chances to possibly win the game at the end of the game. And they go three and out for all three. So at no point did they really get into an offensive rhythm, but their defense kept getting the ball back for them over and over again. And eventually, uh, Darnold makes it happen in overtime. By the time, you're talking about that Kenneth Walker touchdown. Um, his two explosive

plays, um, accounted for a hundred and one of Seattle's 185 net. at the time when the Rams were up after the field goal, 16 to 14. So, yeah, like, could not figure out, like, the explosives and then nothing, right? Like, it was so, and it also felt, it also felt like they were taking a warm-up walk before they started to run, you know, like they were getting their legs going and they were starting, because ultimately what you saw at the end of this game was the purest definition of complementary football, right? And what you saw at the end of this game was when Sam Darnold in overtime needed to finally get this offense moving down the field in a cohesive looking way in putting together big pieces of plays as well as the little conversions that mattered, that was when he did it.

But up until then, you're right. It was like start, stop, start stop, like slow in the first half, like just slowly kind of whimpering up a little bit. And then ultimately, like you said, the defense, I mean, God, kudos to this Seattle defense because where you kind of saw, and I know, yes, the Rams moved the ball down the field at the end too, but like where you saw some of this gas out, I think, happen for the Rams, Seattle even losing Nick Aminwari to an injury late in the game, like they just kept coming. They just, they are a monolithic wave that just will never stop trying to smother you. And it is really crazy to watch. And look, it's why I love football. It's why I love talking about the game afterwards. Like, you can look and see that they gave up 581 yards and 37 points.

And still kept coming at you. Right. And if you don't count the end of the half drive from the ramps, where they got the ball with, you know, 80 yards to go for in the first half, it essentially just, you know, kneeled on the ball, didn't try to score. They gave up scores on six straight drives before it all, you know, went wrong in the fourth quarter. But there are so many different types of ways that you can win a game. And I think this Seahawks team has been really resourceful and they have big playmakers everywhere

and they end up making it when it really matters. I don't think it's a death blow for the Rams by any means. But it's probably a death blow for their number one seed, just to talk stakes because we're going to go still into this game. The magic number for the Rams to get eliminated now from the NFC West is one. Like the Seahawks just have to win one more game and the Rams are not going to do it because the Seahawks and the Ramb, the 49ers, who are loving this result, like they could be playing for the NFC West title in week 18,

depending on what the 49ers do in the meantime. The 49ers have a chance at the one team. Just been lurking. The bears have a chance at the one seed. The Packers have a chance at the one seed. And the Rams are going to need a lot of help. And they're potentially, Jordan, going to be looking back at this game and thinking, like, now we have to go play outdoors potentially for three straight weeks.

instead of having a buy in the first round, and it just comes down to the details. What do you think, like, Sean, you having covered the team for so long, we'll be thinking about most on the flight home? His kicker, probably. It's so unfair, though. I know. He's going to say, he's going to say, and I am sure, and also probably those five drives where they came away with no points.

Because I think if they go back and look at the tape for the most part, I think they'll be fine with the way that Chris Shula called this game on defense. I think they'll be fine, especially a couple of, like, truly magical moments. And I think they're going to be fine overall with how that group played. They will not be fine with special teams losing contain on the punt return touchdown. It's just, you know, beating your head against the wall over and over and over again or trying the same thing so many times and expecting different results, right? like it's just it's been special teams so many times with this team whether it's losing an edge in a big moment or in this case impacting i know

patrick claybonds in my head but impacting the momentum truly of a game and sean mcvay does believe in momentum and i would imagine that will be a huge facet but those five drives with no points a couple of the drops to colby parkinson who's been playing great football lately and goes back to Seattle, you know, where he joined the Rams from and, you know, a couple of drops in key moments. That holding by Davis Allen, you know, for a Rams team that was deploying 13 personnel so effectively with like over a 60% success rate at one point, three tight ends, one receiver, one running back on the field against the Seattle team that had previously been the only one to stop them from doing that with such effectiveness. and for these tight ends to a couple times make great plays, but also, including a couple touchdowns, but also a holding penalty in a crucial moment

that stalled out one of those drives where they could have potentially gone down the field and won the game. Those are the things, I think, if you're a coach, that keep you up at night. Yeah, you lose an offensive lineman Kevin Dotson early in this game, and they were not able to run the ball. I think that was what stood out to me because this has been the most successful running team in the league by pure success rate.

And in the end tonight, they either had to go away from the run or it just wasn't very effective. The Seahawks, we talk about the big plays. They had a 50% success rate running the ball tonight. It definitely picked up towards the end of the game where the Rams were at 37. And that was after they started running the ball really well. And so I think about so many of the big Rams wins this year, it's including the last couple of weeks, including against the Lions. they get the ball late and they just run it out. Like they're running when the other team knows that they're going to run

and they run it out. And they were not able to do that tonight. And then they were not able to have enough faith to continue even to run it. And I think the passing game, you know, doesn't have Devante Adams. Stafford played outstanding and had a number of great throws. There was just like a couple throws in those last three or four drives that were off that he'll look back on.

And it, you know, it just messes with all the narratives. But I think it just shows you a great defense like the one Mike McDonald runs. Like they're always going to keep spinning the wheel and try to find the right answer. And eventually, I think they found the right answers with their personnel. Well, you saw that not just half to half, but quarter to quarter with them. Just the way that, like I said, even though they gave up a ton of yards, if you look at the box score, the way that they just kept coming at Matthew Stafford. And again, I do think with Kevin Dotson out, you could even tell early in this game, Sean McVeigh was going for it on fourth downs.

The second Kevin Dotson left the game and Justin Dietich came in, who's played pretty well when he's been in relief of either one of those two guards. But it's not the same when you're running the ball with a guy that's like probably about my height. You know, obviously I would hope weighs more than me, but, you know, probably about my height. And, you know, it's one of those where you could tell him, immediately, he, he sort of turtled up from going for it. Dietich had a penalty, obviously, that called back a touchdown.

And then he, and then Sean, like, waited for it to try to get the Seahawks to jump off sides on a fourth and goal, or a fourth and short near the goal line. And Matthew Stafford was livid that that was the play. It was a great shot of Matthew Stafford on the broadcast, like he wanted to go for it every time. But I could tell that McVeigh was not comfortable with their guards at that point. And I think that showed near the end because you, it is a formula for them to move the line of scrimmage and close these games to go suffocation ball against an opponent, especially with a lead like that, to not have to throw it so much, right? And it was something that has bit Sean McVeigh before in previous years before he had a run game like this where it would just be throw, throw, throw, everything's on Matthew Stafford's shoulder and arm, which when it's great can be great. but when you're also missing one of the best receivers in the NFL and Devante Adams

and certainly their highest scoring one, you saw them missing him in a route that Terrence Ferguson ran, that Matthew Stafford threw the ball to the landmark, and Terrence Ferguson came out of the slot on the play. So you knew that if Devante Adams was in the game, that would have been Devante Adams's route. And so, and then it sails incomplete, it could have been maybe a walk-in touchdown at that point.

Just these little moments that I think some of it being personnel-driven. and then also Seattle having the fortitude to capitalize on all of the little things that could potentially go wrong for the opponent in the game, Seattle has this resilience to them where they know how to capitalize on these things. So there's so many little moments, like, look, the Rams failed on a fourth and short on their very first drive in Seattle territory. There's a drive where Tuka has a contested catch right along the goal line. they end up not scoring a touchdown on that.

Matthew Stafford misses a deep shot where Pooka Nakua is wide open going down the field that you just don't normally see. You mentioned kind of the conservative decisions to take the three points, which I didn't have a problem with in this game for the most part. Like, Sean McVay was being aggressive going for four things. Yeah. And once they missed Kevin Dotson, it changed. Yes.

And that was pretty early on in the game where their like their first six points. are on those field goals where they're settling for it, one of them where they tried to like draw a delay a game penalty. And it was just so much energy. I mean, have you see? I mean, I can't remember, Sean McVeigh gets pumped a lot. So that's not true. I would say Sean McVeigh was peak pumped when they knocked the ball out of Cooper Cups

hands for a forced fumble. I believe it was Cam Curl on the play late in the, in the first half. Like I was fearful of anyone that was around Sean McVeigh because it's, veins were just like coming out of his neck at this point. And to lose this game is going to be a big time letdown for them. Yeah. And you know Cooper Cup just had to dagger him right back at the very end of the game with that vintage Cooper Cup toe tap. And he had a couple of misplays. And especially that one, you know, obviously he was sick to his stomach losing that fumble. And then one of the nastiest, meanest play calls I've ever seen in my entire life, courtesy of Chris Shula.

Um, it was Josh Wallace and basically had the defense lineup in man to man and Josh Wallace tracked Cooper Cup across the stack in motion. So again, a man indicator showing that you are in man to man. And then instead of playing press man against Cooper Cup, he basically jumped into the zone knowing that Sam Darnold was going to see a one on one on the left side perimeter. And so Josh Wallace jumps inside the zone and the, and intercept Sam Darnold. And the most dastardly thing about it is that the Rams still was sending a linebacker to close over the top of Cooper Cup just in case Sam Darnold was able to adjust and throw into the seam where Cooper Cup was going. But it was like one of the meanest, most mean-spirited complimentary play calls I've ever

seen in a game. And it was done by like a undrafted free agent who's filling in in Josh Wallace. And so Cooper Cup getting back in a vintage way. Like that is a toe tap. I've seen a billion times, right? On the sideline, total situational awareness understands exactly where that second foot needs to land. I've seen it a billion times, and he does it right at the right moment for the Seahawks. Let's listen to that interception by Wallace. It was 16 to 13. This is in the third quarter. It quickly became a two-score game after this. Ram's showing blitz. Let's see who comes. They only rush for Donald unloads. Quickly, it's intercepted. Right side, Josh Wallace, 50, 40, gets a block from Fisk, waves inside to the five,

extends the football, he's down inside the one. Josh Wallace with the takeaway, a 55-yard interception return. The Rams are on the doorstep with a two-point lead. It's 5.23 p.m. One of your kids is asking for a snack. Another is building a fort out of your clean laundry, and you're staring at a half-empty fridge and thinking, what are we even going to eat tonight?

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Skip a week, pause anytime, pick what works for you. It's dinner on your terms. can even help you cook. Yeah, it's going to be messy. But somehow, they tend to eat the vegetables they made themselves. Try HelloFresh today and get 50% off the first box with free shipping. Go to Hellofresh.ca and use promo code Dinner 50. That's hellofresh.ca promo code Dinner 50. Hellofresh.com. Canada's number one meal kit delivery service. Hey, what's up everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. If you love breaking down football from every angle, you're in the right place.

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Catch new episodes every Wednesday on the I, Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Only pay for what you need. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. It is now time for quarterback keeper presented by Snapdragon. Let's dive into the ultimate Darnel game because he has that interception. Mm-hmm.

Football is so contextual. He has the interception where Kobe turns. Turner picks him off on the goal line in the fourth quarter, just the next drive. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see the pressure gets to Darnold quickly. He lets go of it. His receiver is not at all where he thinks he's going to be, or he just panics and throws it into coverage where they drop the defensive line. And at that point in the game, if the Rams offense takes care of business or if the Seahawks

defense doesn't pick up their buddy Sam Darnold, we're talking. for the next month about how Sam Darnold can't win a big game that you can't trust them. The Rams are Sam Darnold killers. They have no chance to win three straight road games in the playoffs. Maybe they won't even win one road game in the playoffs. But because the Seahawks defense gives them a chance and they get a wide open receiver to Barner later. And they get all those stops, even when Darnold can't cash it in at the end of the fourth quarter and he gets to overtime and has a great drive. We are feeling different about Sam Darnold.

and we should maybe we shouldn't because to me this game it kind of is Sam Darnold and it's why like the the path is obviously narrower to win a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold as your quarterback than it is with Matthew Stafford but it is a team game and you can win games in all sorts of ways and it depends on which defenses you're going to face if they're going to be the right ones to be able to expose Darnold for who he is the thing I you have to love about Darnold I think is that he always keeps firing. And sometimes the keeps firing does land in four interceptions. But tonight, the ability to keep firing did help them win this game. And he was not high on the list of reasons they won this

game, but he was part of them winning this game. And now they have a much better chance to go on a Super Bowl run. Here's why I think the Seahawks can win the Super Bowl, Greg. Because I don't really buy the, I understand what some of the tape looks like and the turnovers are not good, obviously. There are certain types of pressure. And it's not just pressure. It's certain types. types of pressure. That interception that he threw, Chris Shula rushed a defensive back, an inside linebacker, and drop the flippin nose tackle into zone coverage to get that. Like, I would not, I mean, come on. Like, a lot of quarterbacks are throwing an interception against something like that. Against the first, against the Josh Wallace look, a lot of quarterbacks are

throwing an interception against that type of thing as well. So for me, it's, yes, it's specific types of pressure, not all pressure against Sam Darnold. But here. Here's why I think that he can co-lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl, at least at a Super Bowl appearance, is because the Seahawks play matchup football and you saw it tonight, especially on defense, almost better than anybody else in the NFL right now, because they adjust so quickly the communication along that entire coaching staff and the expertise and the knowledge and the IQ of those players and the physical nature of those players and like everything they're able to do, they adjust. so quickly. And combine that with pure actual resilience. If you want to know what resilience as an intangible trait looks like, it is what Sam Darnel did tonight, which was fail a bunch and then keep swinging and trust that at the right time, at the exact time, not only was his entire team going to help set him up to make the play, but he was then going to reciprocate and make that play. And in the playoffs and in making a deep Super Bowl run, it does not always matter how

complete of a team you were in the regular season. And this is a very complete team. But how you play matchup football and how you show specific resilience and strategy in key moments. And that is exactly what Seattle showed tonight. I know. When they, when Puka and Akua scored that, you just figured the Rams are going to find a way. But it's one of the reasons you have to give the Seahawks credit for winning the toss and overtime, not doing what the 49ers did in the Super Bowl in deciding to give the ball to the Rams first. The Rams, understandably, just kicked the extra point, but the Seahawks knew that they could not have a tie in this game.

I most misspoke, of course, earlier when I said that there was a sweep. I think of that first game and how much like the Seahawks dominated the line of scrimmage and they outgained the Rams, but the Rams, of course, won that game. So, you know, a tie was not going to help the Seahawks in this situation. They needed to get that tiebreaker back on their side. And so after giving up the touchdown, they knew exactly what they had to deal with. And the 49ers are watching and they're thinking, our ex-49ers, and I'm stealing this from the comment section, maybe are the ones who are going to come through with the biggest two-point conversion of the season. Yes, famous X-49er, Sam Darnold, to Eric Sauer, Cybert, who did not have a catch.

Like, he's like not in the box score. They don't put the two-point conversions in the box score, but he caught that two-point conversion. And the thing that stands out in that two-point conversion and the other assist, I think, should go in the fourth quarter is the offensive line played much better. Even though I know Kobe Turner had a number of splash plays and was incredible in this game, in that overtime drive, the offensive line won. And they had moments of dominance in this game, including the opening drive. And so, like, they've had their share of injuries. They did not have their left tackle tonight. that was a huge factor in this game.

And on the biggest play of the season, like was that Donald's third read? I mean, he was back there forever before he found him. Yeah, and man, I sort of thought this a couple of times tonight. I hope this incredible Kobe Turner, aka All-Star Vibs team member, just does not have this game wasted. And at least it's an island game so everybody can actually see, you know.

But it just, yeah, it was. they held up at the right time. Again, Sam Darnold was calm at exactly the right time. I did not realize that about the 49ers connection because you know the 49ers were absolutely ecstatic about this one, considering, you know, they're still lurking around in the NFC. And also probably ecstatic watching the Rams miss a kick, considering now the 49ers apparently have all their kicking problems solved,

and it's the other NFC West teams that seem to have some issues with their kicks. So, you know, the universe is a giant arc, you know, Greg? It works in mysterious ways. And the chances of Seattle, San Francisco being the Sunday nighter in week 18 went up. Because what the 49ers have is the tiebreaker over everyone right now. They're four and one in the division. Jack Jones. Right.

They're four and one in the division. The problem is they're at Indianapolis this week on Monday night. We'll be recapping that live on YouTube. afterwards, me and Nick Shook, and then a very difficult game hosting the Bears before playing Seattle. So they have a lot of work to do to stay on, you know, they have to win those two games to get to the Seattle game. But if they went out, they're the one seed, which is, which is just a crazy situation. And like I said, the Rams are going to have basically an impossible time passing the Seahawks at this point because Seattle, you know, plays at Carolina

next week. Carolina's been the giant killer. I guess, I guess we can't. completely rule them out, but, you know, the Rams will need a lot of help. They're going to need a 49ers loss and they're going to need two Seahawks losses to try to get to that one seat. If not, we're just going to have the NFC, maybe looking a little more like the AFC than we expected, which is basically everyone can win it except maybe those NFC, that NFC South theme. I cannot wait.

Us West Coasters getting to watch NFC West football, we just exist in an embarrassment of well, frankly, minus the Cardinals. but they're in mountain time. I love you flexing on the NFC West, your division. It really is where the best of the teams are this year, although I guess the NFC North and what we're going to see Saturday night, we'll have a discussion with that.

That was quarterback keeper, by the way, presented by Snapdragon. Learn more at snapdragon.com slash laptops. By the way, I know Stafford didn't get the win tonight. He did not hurt his standing for the MVP. I, you never know what's going to happen over the next two weeks. He's got to keep playing well. They can't stub their toe in two games.

They're going to be heavily favored in Atlanta in Arizona. But he entered tonight as the MVP favorite. I think he left tonight as the MVP favorite because he had an outstanding game overall. They just didn't get the win. Can I tell you my favorite Stafford moment? You would think it was the no look pass, which never gets old. The first time I ever saw that was in training camp where he was throwing it to Daryl Henderson.

And Daryl Henderson was like in the wash up the middle of the field in the red zone. And I yelled three curse words. And that's those are the three curse words. I think every single time I see that. And, you know, my favorite moment of his though, because he's, he is playing outside of his body, really. Like he's kind of in that, I call it the soul stealer, uh, dark, chaotic Matthew Stafford. I coined the term during their Super Bowl run. And my favorite part, though,

was when he was getting really stressed about Sean McVay, giving him a really long play call in the helmet. And he started doing this like hand gesture where you could, it's what I do when I am really stressed out by small talk. I do it sort of close to my sides and very subtle. When I'm really stressed out when small talk is just continuing and continuing and I really want to interrupt, but I don't want to be rude. So I get really anxious about it. And I start doing this with my hands. I saw it. And then when they ran the play, I was like, oh, I get why the play call was so long because it was like a tight end screen off of a flea flicker. So I was like, yeah, that one must have been pretty long winded because then you have to get two play calls

in. And that one's probably pretty long itself with all the blocking. That was how I was feeling when this game went to overtime. And I realized it was not. Greg started going like this. going to be able to drive my family to the airport where they're going right now for the holidays. Although if we finish this thing soon enough, I might still drive there and try to say goodbye. The last thing I did want to mention is Pukua is weak because we have not been able to address that. And first of all, Pukua had over 200 yards in this game. He is making a strong bid to win offensive player of the year, as great as Jackson Smith Injigba has been. And he was fantastic in this game after being basically shut out in the first half.

Smith Injigba finishes with 8 and 96 in a touchdown. Pukuk on a night without Devante Adams goes 12 for 225 yards and two touchdowns. Just like a ridiculous performance. One of the best contested catch seasons of all time. One of the best receiver seasons like that we've seen and he's playing out of his mind but it was in a in a week where i think he lost a lot of fans i'm sure ranns fans are going to more than stick by him and there'll be a segment that will be cheering him for what happened in his week but he apologized on thursday and i will quote pukunakua uh for his apology for uh what he did on a live stream during the week when i appear the other day on a social media live stream. It was suggested to me to perform a specific

movement as part of my next touchdown celebration. At the time, I had no idea. This act was anti-Semitic in nature and perpetuated harmful stereotypes against Jewish people. Nakua said it was in an Instagram post that he sent out. I deeply apologize to anyone who was offended by my actions, as I do not stand for any form of racism, bigotry, or hate of another group of people. The NFL also released a statement and a lot of people want to kind of give Pucanakua a pass because he's young and dumb. But our friend Patrick Claibon, I think, put it well. If we're giving a pass for people who do hateful things because they're dumb, that's going to take care of a lot of the population that's doing stuff that he doesn't need to be doing. And that was far from the only dumb thing

that Puka Nakua, you know, said on the live stream, including that he doesn't believe concussions are real, that you can control them with your mind. So just a rough week for Pukua. And typical of him, he plays great on the field. But, you know, we did want to hit that because that's been the biggest story around the Rams all week. And we thought they'd be celebrating when instead they're going back and dealing with all this coming off of a loss. Yeah, and tough questions after a loss, too, because they had not addressed the media other than a statement on a short week, normally a Wednesday is an off day or a rest day or at least a no media, like very light walkthrough day.

So wasn't a chance to, and it was a lot of no comment at that time as they were deciding what to do. I would say, you know, I think with everything, actions speak louder than words. And I think obviously that being the most serious of what occurred, there's also the, you know, trying to sneak people into or trying to get people into the football building, a YouTuber, you know, of a certain reputation trying to get into the football building on a short week when you're playing for the division and some of the comments about officiating that, you know, dumb decision. or not, like, you are aware you're not supposed to do that as a player in any platform. He was aware that he will get fine. They talked about it. Yeah.

And so I think that that's where the, again, aside from, you know, at best is a huge learning moment otherwise. That's also something that the situational awareness needs to improve and, you know, a 24-year-old young man with a baby. So situational awareness moving around in the world as the face of a franchise as the star, you know, I hope for the best for all of that. Yeah, I think it's annoying whenever fans or media try to tie something that's serious and off the field and completely unrelated to things that are happening on the field. Like he is dealing with that situation now and it puts Puka in a different light for this season. And we'll see how that that all goes.

And this Ram season now is in a different space. They are very much Super Bowl contenders. They can win the Super Bowl as a five seed or a six seed, whatever it ends up being. They still have a chance to be the one or the two seed. They just are going to get it going to need a little help. They just were pushed back tonight on a night where it looked like it felt like it was going to be a big time coronation, an MVP moment for Stafford who still might win the award. they just got a little more adversity and they're going to have to try to go win

the Super Bowl from a lower seed like they did back five years ago. We've got to get out of it. I can already hear the spin coming into my text messages. This is perfect. It's just like 2021. You know, I can already hear the copium. I say that respectfully.

That's great for you. We just came back on you in a game that we're down 30 to 14 And you had the freaking ball midway through the fourth quarter. Let's go. Seattle fans, this team has been a lot of fun. What a surprise this Seahawks season has been. They were expected to be a 500 team.

They are atop the NFC. We will be back in your feed on Friday with the weekly pick show. 11 straight weeks I've had winning picks. This will never be topped again. So check out what the fix. You know who else entered tonight, 11 with 11 wins? Ooh, that's true. The Seahawks, because they're big-time winners.

We will see you with the pick show on Friday. See you then. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team-building philosophies,

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Tune in daily for winning insights to help dominate your work league, your family league, or the league with your college friends who still think they know ball. It's time to lock in and get your roster championship ready. Listen to late round fantasy football in the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up? It's Cam Jordan. I'm back with season three of your favorite podcast. The Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast. Tap in every Wednesday to hear conversations with my friends and stars for the NFL, the sports world in general, and entertainment. about anything from teams and players making waves to pop culture.

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