Seahawks Film Study: Sam Darnold conquers his Rams demons and it places Seattle atop the NFC
Darnold was a major catalyst in the Seahawks’ thrilling win over the Rams.
The talk surrounding Sam Darnold heading into Thursday night’s showdown was all about the torment he’s faced when playing the Los Angeles Rams over the last couple of seasons.
He was 0-4 against Sean McVay and Co. and the last two matchups featured off performances from Darnold – it was completely reasonable for everyone to wonder if he could finally get over the hump in week 16.
After a rough start, Darnold finally came to life and not only did he conquer his own personal demons against the Rams, the Seahawks got the win and now sit atop the NFC heading into the last two games of the year.
Sam Darnold saves his best throw for when the Seahawks needed it most
There are big time throws and then there are BIG TIME THROWS – and this most certainly was the latter. Trailing 37-30 in overtime and facing 2nd & 8 from the Rams’ 37 yard line, Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold delivered an absolute dime to Cooper Kupp along the sideline under immense pressure from one of the best pass rushers in football, Jared Verse.
How did the Seahawks get this one dialed up? By effectively using their best player to manipulate the Rams’ coverage.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba gets a major assist by opening up space for Kupp
The Seahawks had one target and zero receptions from their star receiver in the first 30 minutes of play. But in Klint Kubiak’s quest to get his best player cooking, Seattle found something they’d use to their advantage on this play: they put Smith-Njigba in the backfield. JSN had nothing working on the perimeter early, so Seattle started playing peek-a-boo with presnap alignments and appeared to find something by getting Smith-Njigba running routes out of the backfield to create extra space for him to set up his breaks.
On the big play to Kupp, Smith-Njigba motioned in from the boundary to align to Darnold’s right in the backfield. Kupp was aligned as the Z-receiver to the same side of the formation, along with tight end AJ Barner, who was in-line with his hand in the dirt and on the line of scrimmage.
This trio of players made up the concept that Darnold would work — with Smith-Njigba getting the kind of extra attention that you would suspect from a player hunting 2,000 receiving yards this season. He would run what appears to be a choice route out of the backfield, sitting down underneath as a shallow option for Darnold on the play.
Rams cornerback Cobie Durant was playing the flat to the passing strength. The Rams were playing two-high safeties, leaving a potential void outside the numbers if you could layer a pass into that window. Durant’ eyes looked through Smith-Njigba to the quarterback while shuffling to drop and split the spacing between Smith-Njigba and Kupp, who ran a deep out into that exact vulnerable window. Durant didn’t stutter. He didn’t bite on the option route from Smith-Njigba. But the gravitational pull of Seattle’s top receiver did just enough to hold the coverage spacing to pin Durant down for Darnold to make a big-time throw over his head to the sideline.
Darnold makes the best throw of the night
And that’s exactly what Darnold did. This throw is, in short, spectacular. It’s a far sideline throw on a deep out that’s layered overtop of a sinking cornerback who is playing in a half turn. All while Jared Verse comes around the twist and plasters Darnold in the face as the ball is released.
When you consider the touch needed to get up and over Durant while seeing that Darnold is not even able to get all the way through on his release because of the pressure in a muddy pocket? This throw is bananas. The weight on the ball is perfect. The trajectory allows Kupp to work the sideline masterfully, too.
In a game filled with brilliant quarterback play and the possible league MVP on the other sideline throwing for 400+ yards, this was — in my opinion — the throw of the night.
Seahawks chances of winning this game drop dramatically without this play
Not only is this an insane play by both Darnold and Kupp – just think about the snowball effect that was avoided thanks to this incredible play.
This is a do-or-die drive for the Seahawks. They lose the game if they don’t score a touchdown and it’s 2nd and 8 and this is the only throw Darnold can make when looking at the Rams’ coverage. Everyone is locked onto their guy and it’s either an incompletion, or worse, if Darnold attempts to throw to anyone else.
Therefore, the Seahawks are facing a 3rd and 8 from the Rams 36 without this play and that’s the last situation they want to be in when playing the Rams defense. Especially considering LA already had four sacks on the night at this point.
Who knows what happens from that point on, but hey, no one has to worry about that because Darnold and Kupp worked their magic. And now, the Seahawks own the NFC’s No. 1 seed and have a mini-bye week before they try and take care of business over these last two weeks.
