Rams vs. Seahawks NFC Championship Preview
The NFC Championship game is here!
Think back to the beginning of the season… did anyone expect this NFC championship? A 1-seed, potential best defense in the league Seahawks team, bringing in Sam Darnold to replace Geno Smith, hosting a Rams team with question marks around now-MVP-candidate Matthew Stafford’s back injury.
What a year it’s been for the NFC West. As much as it pains me as a diehard Cowboy fan, even I have to give props to the 49ers. After being remarkably injured all year, they reached the Divisional Round of the playoffs. While seeing them get their ass whooped for 60 minutes brought great joy to my heart, I have to say Kyle Shanahan and his staff did a great job all season.
Seeing the Jordan Love-led Packers and Jalen Hurts-led Eagles also lose in Wild Card Weekend was just fantastic as well, as teams I hate more than just about anything in this world. Once again, shout out to the 49ers for knocking the fraudulent Eagles out! I sure didn’t want to see either of them play anymore this season!
Also, Chicago put up a great fight last week, going to OT in a thriller vs. the Rams. In a snow game, I even counted the Rams out, but they held on against Caleb Williams late.
Anyway, back to the Championship Sunday game.
Seattle and LA, coming off wildly different Divisional Round matchups, are finally playing for a third time this season. They split the series 1-1 in the regular season; each home team won by margins of 2 or less.
However, in Week 16, the Rams realistically should have won. The game went to overtime after a wacky call around a Zach Charbonnet 2-point conversion. To jog your memory, Sam Darnold threw a backwards pass that Charbonnet recovered in the end zone after it was blown dead on the field as an incomplete pass. In my opinion, that shouldn’t have counted because the whistle blew, and everyone thought the play was over. Charbonnet just happened to be the one to pick it up after the ball rolled into the end zone, and the game shouldn’t have gone to overtime in the first place.
Regardless, both games would have been close either way – let’s break it down.
Seattle’s defense has been hailed by many as one of, if not the best, defenses in the league. They are incredibly well-coached and excel at all three levels of the field. However, Seattle’s offense is a little wishy-washy. We’ve seen some serious meltdowns out of QB Sam Darnold in his career, and even in the first half of the Week 16 matchup when he couldn’t get the ball to WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Now, tack on that Kenneth Walker is going to have to be the lead guy at running back, and Seattle’s got a lot to juggle. For context, Zach Charbonnet tore his ACL and is out for the rest of the year.
Kenneth Walker, now the primary back, will help them, but their change-of-pace ability at the running back position will be helpful for their gameplan. He’s clearly the best back on the team based on my eye-test, and I know ball!
The Rams’ offense has been one of the best units in the league as well, with potential MVP Matt Stafford and 2-headed monsters at running back and wide receiver. Last week, Kyren Williams was their lead guy, with 21 carries for 87 yards and 2 TDs compared to Blake Corum’s measly 6 for 19. Davante Adams still hasn’t gotten back to his regular role as a 1B receiver with Puka Nacua, but I’ll chalk that up to the crappy weather and necessity to run the ball.
Realistically, pressure is the key to the game for both teams here. Neither of these guys has been particularly good against blitzes this season. Sam Darnold was questionable all week with an oblique injury going into Sunday’s game, and extra pressure could easily rattle him enough with that still looming.
LA needs to throw new coverages at JSN – last time they had him in check for the first half, but put up almost all of his 8 rec/96 yds/1 TD in the second half. If they can crack the code in the middle of the game, he can go off.
Seattle needs to keep Davante Adams in check again. Puka’s going to get his, but Adams has been a non-factor in the past few games. They need to try to make LA play how they did a few weeks back, when Adams was out.
Seattle is favored by 2.5 right now. I think the Rams cover that, since neither game between them has been won by 3+ points, and Adams will be playing.