Home / General / NFL Open Thread: Game of the Year edition

NFL Open Thread: Game of the Year edition

By
/
On December 21, 2025
/
At 1:00 pm
/
In General
959 Views

Well, that was something:

Thursday night’s game was just as agonizingly close, but this time, it was in a 38-37 overtime win for the home squad. At first, it didn’t look as if things would go Seattle’s way. The Rams did what they have done to most opponents throughout the season — they upended them with a dynamic offense that can hammer you down however you’d like. Even Seattle’s top-ranked defense couldn’t keep up in this instance, though Mike Macdonald’s crew did its level best. Matthew Stafford completed 29 of 49 passes for 457 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 110.7.

The difference in the end was Darnold, but to start, this was third verse, same as the second and first. Darnold threw two more interceptions in this game, and until overtime came around, he looked very much like the same guy who had always seen ghosts against Chris Shula’s defenses.

There had been something about said defenses that has gotten quite a distance up Darnold’s nose, and this had become a problem. Over the last two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and the Seahawks, Darnold completed 595 of 891 passes for 7,473 yards, 57 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, and a passer rating of 105.1 against all opponents not named the Los Angeles Rams. In three games against those Rams, Darnold has completed 76 of 118 passes for 789 yards, three touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passer rating of 67.4.

But here, the regulation disasters didn’t matter. All that mattered was that in overtime, after the Rams had driven 75 yards in eight plays in overtime to go up 37-30, Darnold responded in the best way possible — by making four throws in a row that he absolutely had to make to win this game.

Everything that was needed was accomplished: a 21-yard completion to Cooper Kupp, a 5-yard pass to tight end A.J. Barner, the four-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and the two-point conversion completion to tight end Eric Saubert to seal the deal.

After that, Lumen Field was as earthquaky as I’d ever seen it — and I was here for the Beastquake, the Fail Mary, and the 2014 NFC Championship Game.

Both ends of the catch and throw to Cupp (whose first quarter fumble was one of the three turnovers that appeared to doom Seattle) in particular were amazing:

The game doesn’t fundamentally alter my view of the two teams — if they met in the playoffs I would bet on the Rams again, even if the game is in Seattle and even if they’re favored. While the Seahawks have legitimately better special teams, a punt return TD* and a missed 48-yard FG are a pretty shaky foundation for victory. That said, while I myself forgot this lesson during times of the game, it should be noted that 1)for the price Sam Darnold was one of the best acquisitions of the offseason, and 2)if the question is whether the Seahawks can win the Super Bowl with Darnold as the QB, the answer is, “sure.” Is he materially worse than Jalen Hurts? I would say no. I would say the same thing about Bo Nix — I will probably be betting against the Broncos at some point in the postseason, and Nix will probably be the second-best QB in any playoff matchup with the exception of “Aaron Rodgers” or maybe according to taste the possible exception of Trevor Lawrence, but I think ruling them out of winning the Super Bowl because of Nix would be silly. Pretty good can be good enough if the team does enough other things well.

*I like how Al had transferred fully into typical Thursday night bad-game mode after the second Darnold interception hadn’t quite gotten back into the game when Shaheed crossed the goal line. Since I almost missed it after turning over to the epochal Kraken/Flames matchup in sheer disgust, I can’t blame him.

OUT OF NOWHERE!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Bluesky
This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar