Entering the regular-season finale a year ago, Sam Darnold was complicating the Minnesota Vikings’ grand quarterback plan.
The franchise that had drafted then-rookie J.J. McCarthy 10th overall and signed Darnold with the expectation he would be their bridge or backup quarterback. A season-ending injury to McCarthy in training camp gave Darnold the keys to start instead.
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And 16 games in, Darnold had ratcheted up the speedometer. His 68.1% completion percentage, 35 touchdowns and 106.4 passer rating were on track for career bests. His 14 wins doubled his previous single-season high. The win threshold also doubled the Vikings’ total from a year earlier.
So team had to extend quarterback, right? How could the Vikings let walk the Pro Bowl player who had helped them clinch a playoff spot and set them up for a regular-season finale that dangled the prize of the NFC’s top playoff seed and a first-round bye?
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Two losses later, the Vikings parted ways. A touchdown-less Darnold performance in a 31-9 loss to the Detroit Lions and a nine-sack, 27-9 wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams were sufficient for Minnesota to opt for its rookie’s contract rather than Darnold’s price point.
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The Seahawks pounced. And now, quarterbacking the Seahawks to 13-3 entering Week 18, Darnold finds himself in the exact same position.
With Seattle’s 27-10 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Darnold is yet again preparing for a win-and-you’re-No. 1 game in Week 18. This time, his Seahawks will face the San Francisco 49ers.
His teammates know that’s not normal.
“I’ve never been in this position before,” seventh-year safety Julian Love said. “You got to kind of love it. You got to just approach this next week… with just gratitude of like, ‘Man, we’re in a position to really punch our ticket in a great way.’ And so yeah, I just think the whole team is fired up.
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“I haven’t had too many of these moments in my career, and so I’m ready to just take it.”
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold has another shot at helping his team clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
In the last two seasons, Darnold has rewritten his narrative to the tune of consecutive Pro Bowl berths after six years in search of his footing. He is the only quarterback to win at least 12 games with different teams in consecutive seasons, per Next Gen Stats (Tom Brady held the previous record, at 11).
And Sunday, he bumped the record he already held to 13.
So as the Seahawks face the 49ers next weekend, Darnold’s next chance to step beyond last year’s success awaits. He won’t need to carry the bid for win No. 14 himself.
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“It takes 100% of everybody all the time, every week,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said. “So nothing changes this week. But one of our goals is to win the division, and it’s going to come down to, if we win the game, win the division.
“So we’ll hit the next goal.”
For Seahawks and Darnold, ‘complementary football all season long’
Against a Carolina defense that had upset the Rams and intercepted 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy three times during earlier-season contests, Darnold’s game was rocky.
He completed 66.7% (18 of 27) of his pass attempts for 147 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
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The Seahawks’ offense did not find its footing until halfway through the third quarter.
An intentional grounding penalty killed one first-quarter drive while a sack for a loss of 10 yards set up third-and-15 to threaten another. On third-and-5 with 5:33 to play in the second quarter, Panthers linebacker Nick Scourton hit Darnold’s arm, defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson then swatted and recovered a fumble. Darnold tackled Robinson to jar the ball loose, but Panthers inside linebacker Christian Rozeboom recovered. The Panthers scored 3 points off the turnover. After a Seattle turnover on downs, the score was tied at half.
“I dropped the ball,” Darnold said of the fumble. “I feel like I was still in the pocket so I had a good base to make that throw. The defense just made a good play. Got their hand on my forearm or elbow, and it kind of is what it is …
“As a quarterback I don’t want to be making tackles out there. But it was kind of a throwback there to high school when I was playing linebacker.”
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As a quarterback, Darnold also doesn’t want to be throwing interceptions. But less than three minutes into the third quarter, he chanced an end-zone ball to Jaxon Smith-Njigba that Carolina cornerback Mike Jackson picked.
The Seahawks avoided major damage when DeMarcus Lawrence forced a fumble the next play. At that point, the momentum would be Seattle’s to stay.
“I’ve just got to move on in my progression,” Darnold said. “Or at least make it an us-or-nobody throw where Jaxson can go up, and get it or it’s incomplete. So our defense has had our back all year and vice versa. When we feel like we need a spark, our offense has stepped up in big ways as well.
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“It’s complementary football all season long and this one especially.”
Complementary football meant that key plays in key times from the offense were enough to send a stellar defensive performance and solid special teams day over the hump.
After recent work on third-and-longer plays, per Darnold, the Seahawks converted four third downs of 9+ yards. Their 56.3% third-down conversion rate (nine of 16) whomped the Panthers’ 9.1% (one of 11) to keep drives alive. And in the third quarter, the Seahawks boat-raced the Panthers to the tune of two takeaways and two touchdowns.
By the time Carolina found the end zone for the first time in the fourth quarter, Seattle’s cushion was strong. And unlike earlier-season drives in four-minute scenarios, the Seahawks ran in another touchdown to put the game out of reach.
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“Credit to them, they made adjustments,” Panthers quarterback Bryce Young said after throwing for just 54 yards and an interception to pair with 27 rushing yards and a ground score. “They came out with a game plan, did a better job of executing than we did.
“You’re going to go up against different schemes. People are going to make adjustments. And we didn’t do a good enough job of being able to react to that and encounter it.
“But that’s the NFL.”
After win ‘wasn’t Sam’s best game,’ will Darnold do enough for Seahawks to secure bye?
In a season opener against the 49ers, Darnold threw for just 150 yards and no scores as the Seahawks lost, 17-13. In their season finale, they arrive with a different track record.
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The Seahawks’ defense has shown that in Macdonald’s second year coordinating, they’re much readier to navigate the complex schemes of a coach who at least one former colleague calls “the Sean McVay of defense.” Smith-Njigba has blown past his 1,130 yards and six touchdowns last season to the tune of a league-best 1,709 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns.
The Seahawks rank second in scoring offense and defense; seventh in offensive yards and sixth in yards allowed.
They’re talented across levels. And yet, whether Darnold can carry his team is unclear.
Sure, it was Darnold throwing on the run while needling an 18-yard completion to Smith-Njigba on the sideline in the fourth quarter Sunday. And it was Darnold who found tight end A.J. Barner for 16- and 17-yard completions in the third quarter, including a touchdown.
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But it was also primarily because of Darnold that, as Macdonald worried, the Seahawks watched “the ball being in jeopardy.” A defense that forced Carolina into checkdowns and 163 yards from Seattle’s running game overcame Darnold’s late start.
“I know it wasn’t Sam’s best game of all time and the stats reflect that, but there’s some big-time third-down throws with pressure in his face,” Macdonald said. “We threw one to Jax, that route to Cooper [Kupp]. I mean, those are some big-time throws in the face of pressure that we need to be able to make and they’re not easy to make.”
Defensive teammates said they’ll keep doing their part.
“Offense make a mistake, defense helps,” Lawrence said. “Defense make a mistake, offense is right there to have our back.
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“Just the dynamic of taking care of each other. Fighting for each other.”
And next weekend, they’ll fight for the No. 1 seed.
The implications for Darnold’s narrative will be there. The unlikely chance to redo his NFL playoff narrative in such similar circumstances so quickly awaits.
Darnold, like his head coach, will downplay it.
“It’s just the next game,” Darnold said. “Obviously it’s a big game, but we’re excited about that opportunity. We’re going to enjoy this one a little bit and then get focused on it tomorrow.”
