The table is set. The Seattle Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday for the NFC Championship Game and their third meeting of the season. Clearly, the rubber match will be the most crucial of them all.
Mike Macdonald's team is fresh off torching the San Francisco 49ers with a dominant 41-6 route, the most lopsided score of the playoffs so far. The Rams, on the other hand, needed some late-game heroics and a game-winning field goal in overtime to take down the Chicago Bears.
Divisional games are always a toss-up. A detail can change everything, especially between two teams that know each other that well. That's why Sam Darnold will be so crucial, and why his record vs. Sean McVay's team might be a little concerning. Here, we'll dig deeper into that.
Seattle Seahawks QB1 Sam Darnold has a negative record vs. the Rams
Sam Darnold has fared well against many teams in the league, but the Rams aren't at the top of that list. He's gone 2-4 in six meetings against them, completing 66.0 percent of his passes for an average of 238.3 passing yards per game. He averages 1.2 touchdowns and 1.2 picks against them, all while logging an 84.0 passer rating. On a more worrisome note, they've sacked him 3.5 times per game.
Of course, we should probably take their first two meetings out of the equation. Even then, he'd be 1-3 against them and 0-1 in the playoffs, with the Rams ending his season last year when he was still with the Minnesota Vikings.
The last time they met in the postseason, Darnold completed 25 of 40 passes for 245 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in a 27-9 loss. The Rams were all over him and sacked him nine times, and while plenty of that had to do with the Vikings' injury-riddled offensive line, he was also responsible for several of those hits, as he was slow to get rid of the ball and made poor decisions.
Darnold struggled in their first meeting of this season. He threw a season-worst four interceptions, and even though the Seahawks lost the game by just two points, it was still arguably his worst performance of the campaign. Still, there's a sign of hope. He fared much better in the rematch at home, throwing for 270 yards, two touchdowns, and two picks in an overtime win.
Once again, taking care of the football will be crucial in this win-or-go-home matchup, and while the Seahawks have home-field advantage and have been the best team in the NFC this season, anything can happen in the playoffs. Darnold has to make sure he's not the reason his team doesn't advance to the Super Bowl; otherwise, there will be some uncomfortable conversations around him again.