There’s no finality in Act 1 of a play. But at least the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams’ annual pageant now has the skeleton of a plot, complete with protagonists, villains and NPCs.
Soon we’ll know
which genre the 2025 edition is. It’s usually a tragicomedy, you know this, we know this, and Act 1 did nothing to dispel such a notion. So with the sour result still on my lips, I’ll take solace in knowing the redemption arcs are set up. The revenge motives are laid bare for a month-long intermission before Act 2. If we’re lucky, we get a third act in January. Or unlucky! Frankly, twice a year is more than enough against a team that unlocks special little plays on their special little teams more often than any special little rival should.
My goodness gracious, a bounce nothing short of teleological, at a preposterous time, to quite possibly save a game, or at least drain hope from the visitors and their legion of upstanding fans, who deserved no such persecution. Rams games, everyone.
If I were sitting here spouting gibberish about a Seahawks win in SoFi, it would be because Jason Myers gobsmacked everyone by uncorking a 61-yarder at the literal final tick. (Fantastic job by Rashid Shaheed in real time to preserve that precious second, by the way.) It would also probably be because the punt above went back for a touchback, as it intended, before a higher/lower power stepped in. Or either one of the two key flags — defensive holding on Sam Darnold’s maiden misstep and offensive holding on Kenneth Walker’s later score — went the other way. Or Sean McVay chickened out on one more fourth down. Or. Or. Or.
To be completely thorough, there were coaching and execution missteps in the fourth quarter that also helped swing the result. (We’ll get there.) So the game wasn’t fully decided on the final kick alone. But if Jason Myers is trying a 42-yarder as time expires… well, that’s a different proposition, isn’t it? If the Rams don’t get to start their final touchdown drive on the Seattle 25… who knows if they ever sniff the end zone again.
Mainly though, it’s plain why Seattle is glum and staring up at LA in the standings. No hiding the fact that Darnold’s four turnovers swung the game. The Seahawks were the better team Sunday except for the one aspect they absolutely needed most: ball security from their QB. Seattle probably wins if Darnold throws three picks, definitely wins with two, and comfortably walks away a cool 8-2 if he cleans it up after the first one. He chose none of those doors and went for door 4. You never choose door 4.
And yet, and still, the Seahawks defense again and again stymied the Rams with shear determination, showing themselves exceptional at furnishing the offense chances to retake the lead. Not only did they make a fourth-down stop right off the bat to nullify the initial interception, but after falling behind 14-3, here’s the kind of hell they put Matt Stafford, Puka Nacua and Kyren Robinson in for the middle quarters:
Drive 4: Punt (1 yard gained)
Drive 5: fumble (7 yards gained)
Drive 6: punt (23 yards gained)
Drive 7: punt (20 yards gained)
And after the short-field touchdown stemming from Darnold’s third pick, they forced THREE more punts in the fourth quarter alone.
Matt Stafford sputtered his way to 4.6 yards per attempt. The Rams had three explosive runs all afternoon. They gained 249 yards on 50 plays, so a hair under five per snap for an offense that was averaging almost six coming in.
And lest anyone think the leaders on that defense are planning a mutiny against their quarterback —
— those concerns can be laid to rest. Why don’t we get the whole transcript from Ernest Jones, yes, let’s.
“Sam’s been having us in every f-cking game. So for him to sit there and say, ‘Oh, that’s my fault,‘ no it’s not. It’s football. Man, he’s our quarterback. We got his back. And you got anything to say? Quite frankly, f-ck you.”
Jones isn’t wrong. They wouldn’t be 7-3 with the backup or third-stringer or spare Joe Flacco. Hell, they might be well short of 7-3 with Geno Smith, considering the totality of 2025.
Now for the recap, and the obligatory poop lollipops/discolored rainbows that come with every Seahawks setback.
In typical Rams fashion, the opening quarter was pockmarked with dubious officiating and a lugrubious sense of foreboding after Darnold’s first interception. Sure, Cooper Kupp was held at the catch point, but even more sure, Darnold should have thrown it away instead off his back foot. Spinning and turning and launching it toward a stationary target is fine for a Hakeem Olajuwon fadeaway. Which that decidedly was not.
The hosts turned the polite giveaway into seven points but not without resistance. Despite solving for x by stopping Blake Corum three times inside the five, Sean McVay kept the offense on the field and made the Seahawks solve for y with Kyren Williams. He snuck up the middle and the Rams never trailed again.
Three fourth downs go’s were in store in the first quarter alone! This is not something every fan should have anticipated, but Mike Macdonald and his crew should’ve.
Top right quadrant is for aggressive teams on fourth down. Bottom left is for… well, it says who. Pretty illuminating to see how far apart McVay and Macdonald are philosophically. Especially since they’re both armed with elite units on defense, theoretically allowing them to take more chances on offense. Say, did you know: the Rams are the league’s top scoring defense.
LA made it 14-3 soon enough on a drive that hinged on one fourth down, again with Williams on the ground, again with one yard to go, except he gained 34 of the 35 needed to score. Stafford found Davante Adams on the second try in the end zone. All this fourth downing meant the Rams first punted midway through Q2, when DeMarcus Lawrence, a man of indeterminate and irrelevant age, swooshed past a helpless right tackle on third down. Given a chance to basically tie the game before half, the Seahawks instead elected to consume the entire rest of the quarter and tack on three points at the death. 14-9 at half, a very Ramsy score if you know your 2010s history.
Successive turnovers by both teams to start the second half had the Seahawks back in business and apparently in the lead until Walker’s touchdown was called back for the type of hold you see on near every play. To 14-12 we went instead, but hey, at least it wasn’t an interception! Haha! /snort /choke /wipe eyes
In another blow to those who still believe time of possession is predictive of victory, the Seahawks hogged the ball through the middle two quarters, at one point running 41 of 46 offensive plays. In those periods combined, the Rams:
- ran 12 plays total
- gained two first downs
- possessed the ball for seven minutes exactly
- scored no points
And yet because of picks and kicks, Seattle couldn’t flip the lead.
The only time I really believed the Seahawks would storm back and take control was on a 3rd and 15 that should’ve been more significant. A false start backed the home team up to 3rd and 15; the automatic Nacua completion gained 14; McVay played it “safe” with a punt. If anything good was going to happen, it was then. But Darnold saw double coverage on the following snap and shrugged it off. He wasn’t sacked all afternoon, but would it have hurt him to take one? Like, specifically, there?
Walker eventually got his score, and the miracle finish almost materialized, but end of day, you cannot throw an interception for each quarter and beat a team of the Rams’ caliber. You just can’t. That shit will barely fly against the Saints and Cardinals of the league.
You cannot play with three downs if the opponent is using four — and converting. If they fail, sure, you’re copacetic. The Rams did not fail.
You cannot settle for red zone field goals if your opponent isn’t.
I’ll recap the final problematic possessions in Predator and Prey because of their peculiar pace. But I came away from this showdown believing there’s no discernible talent gap between the Seattle and LA rosters. A game WILL be decided by the quarterbacks (that’s the sport!) if one quarterback is having a sloppy day while the other is careful. Hard to ever really live with a close Rams loss. Not since the 18-point fourth-quarter home debacle in 2004, which presaged the home playoff loss capped by a Bobby Engram drop in the end zone as time ran out. My Rams hate runs deep and wide. But by game’s end, the Seahawks showed themselves to be equals with their most dangerous rival in terms of coaching, personnel, scheme, and overall contenderhood. Nutshell, here’s what we learned: they’re both good, don’t throw four picks.
PREDATOR
Cobie Durant with the pick and assorted other violent acts. I was told Durants loved Seattle? Make up your minds.
PREDATOR
Kamren Kinchens was the beneficiary of early Christmas gifts from his new bestie Darnold. No, I’m not gonna post the other one.
PREDATOR
Just adored this third-down tackle by Uchenna Nwosu, which he makes mid-block. Everyone on that defense balled out. Nwosu being in full form now is a big deal for the depth and rotation on what could be the league’s best defensive line overall.
PREDATOR
Colby Parkinson would not be denied on the doorstep.
Appreciated the holding calls earlier though. Once a Seahawk,,,,,
PREDATOR
The Universe, for causing a ball to do this during an otherwise fine Ethan Evans punt:
Look, Universe, the Rams don’t need your help. This isn’t 2021, or the mountainous ranges of North America in the dead of winter. Stop helping them.
PREDATOR
Coby Bryant forced a fumble and ensured a final Seahawks possession. Not sure what more you could want.
PREDATOR ADJACENT
Jason Myers. Made a 57-yarder and the rest of his reasonable kicks. But he’s not Cam Little or Brandon Aubrey. Few people are. It’s usually just those two who are.
PREDATOR AND PREY
Mike Macdonald set his defense up for success, and they were mostly excellent, mostly disciplined, mostly feasted on the run, mostly handled play action, despite being put in untenable defensive positions. But in moments when the Seahawks needed their head coach to be bold, he was cautious.
There was the fourth and three punt with eight minutes left. Kicking means you need two stops and two quick drives. Okay, so they got the two quick stops… but lacked urgency on the first TD drive and almost comically ran out of time on the second.
The Seahawks had reached the opposing 25 with four full minutes left but didn’t score until 2:09 because of three straight runs. Then, the final possession was essentially doomed before it ever got going, because it took them 70 seconds to gain the first 16 yards. My God, 34 seconds of actual game clock elapsed between the first and second snap. That’s not caution, it’s something else. Something not very conducive to winning when you have two of the NFL’s most dangerous deep threats.
I understand not wanting to see a fifth pick there, but of all the giveaways, that one would’ve mattered least, because you gotta give yourself a frickin’ chance, anything better than what you gave Myers. Seattle’s staff did no such thing. Three sideline patterns and two incompletions meant the clock reached 0:22 and they were still snapping the ball from their own 21. With a little more time — and they could’ve created that time — the W was there for the taking.
PREY
Sam Darnold is lucky he didn’t turn it over a fifth time with that fourth-quarter near-fumble, which replay thankfully deemed an incomplete pass. He’s 21-4 against every other NFL team except the Rams since the start of 2024. But, yeah, 0-3 versus them. I don’t have anything else to say about his performance except that it’s worth rewatching the game to see which turnovers were on him and which should be shared with his protection. He wasn’t good, on a day he only needed to be decent.
Act 2 is exactly one week before Christmas Day in Seattle and has obvious potential to decide the division. If the Hawks are to go anywhere in the meantime, let us go with them.
