SEATTLE — In a matter of minutes, the home of the Seattle Seahawks went from Lumen's painfully quiet “Library” to a loud madhouse that had seismologists scrambling for ground motion sensors.
Name it Shish-Game “Quake”.
In their historic comeback, the Seahawks rallied from a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Rams in overtime. 38-37.
Oh, visitors will be in agony over some strange calls, some of which deserve further explanation from the NFL. Call by an ineligible player in the bottom field that eliminated Rams touchdown when they were a yard from the end zone? This left people scratching their heads. Then there was a do-or-die two-point conversion that appeared to fall short… but was later overturned. More on this a little later.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went wrong for the Rams in their 38-37 loss to the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field on Thursday night.
As the Rams wince and rewind the video of the collapse, they'll be looking through the cracks in their fingers.
Have you heard of the no-look pass? It was a no-look finish.
As far as soothing victories go, it was a warm bubble bath for the Seahawks, who secured a playoff berth and took the driver's seat in the title race. No. 1 seed in NFC.
“You hear people taking losses at the end of the year, and you hear people coming here and saying, 'Man, this is going to be good for us,'” he said. Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kuppformer Rams hero. “It’s much better to be here right now and say this is going to be good for us.”
Kupp atoned for his first-half mistake with a successful two-point conversion in the fourth quarter – the first of three in a row for the Seahawks – and a 21-yard reception on the game-winning drive in overtime.
“If you find a way to win, turn the ball over three times, you're down 16 points or whatever it is in the fourth quarter, just finding ways to win games when the odds are against you and things aren't going your way – finding a way to fight back – that's going to be good for us,” Kupp said. “It’s a good thing we can build on.”
The rams are sorting through the wreckage of another lesson. It was a reminder that in this enchanting season, with Matthew Stafford in line for his first win Most Valuable Player Awardcould collapse at any moment. There is no smoother path to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl.
As good as it was for most of the game, Sam Darnold By sacking him twice and four times, the Rams defense failed when it mattered most. Shades of the three-point loss to Carolina.
Darnold will have a story to tell. He cast out many demons. The Rams sacked him nine times in the playoffs last season when Darnold was with Minnesota and intercepted six of his passes in two games this season.
“It's not good when you have interceptions and turnovers, you want to limit that,” said Darnold, a former USC star. “But all you can do is fight back. For our sake, I was just going to keep shutting down.”
Darnold delivered when it mattered, completing five passes on the game-winning drive and then finding little-heralded tight end Eric Sobert – his fourth option – wide open in the end zone after the triumphant conversion.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold looks to throw a pass against the Rams in the first half on Thursday.
(Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press)
The second of the three conversions was the most controversial moment of the game. The Seahawks needed it to force a 30-30 tie with just over six minutes left in regulation.
Darnold made a quick pass over the screen to his left, trying to get the ball home. Zach Charbonnet. Rams quarterback Jared Wehrs jumped the route and hit the pass. Everyone thought the game was over, including Charbonnet, who casually crossed the goal line and picked up the ball as it lay in the end zone.
It proved decisive because the officials – after what seemed like an eternity – ruled that Darnold had thrown a backward pass, and the ball was live when Charbonnet picked it up. Therefore, we search for recovery and successful conversion, which ends the game.
Asked later if it looked like a back pass, Darnold half-smiled and said, “Um, yeah. It felt like I threw it right out of the way. I'm glad Charbs picked it up and it turned out to be the turning point in the game.”
Was this intended as a back pass?
“It just happened to be the other way around,” he said. “It wasn't necessarily talked about. We were just trying to get the ball on the goal line.”
The Seahawks lined up to start the game when officials announced that the previous play had been cleared. Suddenly the most unlikely of victories was within reach.
Earlier in the fourth quarter, with the home team trailing 30-14, the Amazon Prime team had to resort to some manipulation to keep viewers interested. Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit told several stories about Kurt Warner from “The Greatest Show on the LawnHey, it was supposed to be more interesting than this game.
Michaels presented an obscure statistic: In the fourth quarter, while leading by 15 points or more, the Rams led 323-1.
Upon learning of this, the Seahawks running back Cam Akers – one day the Rams showed him the door – he received an ironic answer.
“Now they’ve lost two,” he said.
Celebration in one dressing room. Silence is different.
Do you believe in crises?
