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The Seattle Seahawks defeated the Los Angeles Rams 31-27 tonight in the NFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks will face the New England Patriots on Feb. 8 in Santa Clara for the NFL title.
Sam Darnold passed for 346 yards and three touchdowns for the Seahawks in a showdown with Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who passed for 374 yards and three touchdowns.
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Seahawks top Rams in NFC title game thriller, advance to Super Bowl LX to face Patriots
The Rams had some surprising success against this stout Seahawks defense when running the ground. Second-year running back Blake Corum helped pace a touchdown drive and had 55 yards on nine carries for an average of 6.1 yards per carry — he also caught all three of his targets for 24 receiving yards. Kyren Williams was less efficient, with 39 yards on 10 carries, but did have the Rams’ opening touchdown catch on a brilliant route out of the backfield. He finished with two catches for 22 yards receiving and one touchdown.
The game script dictated that the Rams had to throw the ball as they trailed for the entire second half, and Sean McVay needs no extra incentive to do so when he has what Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams have provided this season. But I do wonder whether McVay wishes he had gone to the run a bit more in the first half.
This season was never Super Bowl-or-bust for the Rams, but they absolutely believed that ceiling was within their reach. Now, they’re going to be watching from home.
They got the season of a lifetime out of Matthew Stafford, at age 37, after missing most of training camp with a degenerative back issue. They got a league-high 14 touchdown catches from Adams after making the emotional decision to move off Cooper Kupp. They got a 1,700-yard season from Puka Nacua, a 12-sack breakout from Byron Young and the one-year veteran-minimum deal that dreams are made of in Nate Landman.
But two flaws were always there for this Rams team, and they bit them at the worst time. One was in special teams, where they’ve made changes to the kicker, long snapper and coordinator. And in the middle of this game, the return man. But that change came a snap too late, as Smith’s botched punt return created the quick score out of halftime that the Seahawks needed to keep this explosive Rams offense at bay.
What does the future hold for Matthew Stafford and Davante Adams? Rams fans must hope that the two future Hall of Famers run back their successful first year together in L.A., capped off by their best performance of the playoffs tonight. Stafford and Adams finally got on the same page after a bumpy return for Adams from a hamstring injury that cost him the last month of the season. Adams finished with four catches on six targets for 89 yards and a touchdown, including two pivotal catches on a key Rams touchdown drive right after a muffed punt had allowed the Seahawks to seize momentum.
Sam Darnold is one win away from winning his first Super Bowl.
It has been quite the career journey for Darnold. He was picked No. 3 in the 2018 NFL Draft by the New York Jets.
The Jets traded him to the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers let Darnold walk.
The San Francisco 49ers had Darnold as a backup. The Minnesota Vikings won 14 games with Darnold as quarterback and didn’t re-sign him.
Now Darnold is playing in Super Bowl LX with the Seahawks. You never know how a career is going to go, but this is quite something for the 28-year-old.
For as great as the Seahawks' defense has been all year, Seattle had no answer for Puka Nacua in Week 16 and again tonight. The superstar Rams receiver torched Seattle's talented secondary again tonight to the tune of 9 catches on 14 targets for 165 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown was a massive swing towards the Rams, too, as Nacua torched Riq Woolen on a 34-yard go route to bring L.A. back within a touchdown.
Mike Macdonald had quite the season for his second year as Seahawks coach.
He ties Sean McVay’s record (16 in 2021) for the most wins in a season by a head coach under 40, including playoffs.
Sam Darnold famously won 14 games in his career-reviving 2024 season in Minnesota. He’s now won 16 including playoffs in his first year in Seattle — making Darnold the first quarterback in NFL history to win 30 or more games in a two-season span with multiple different teams.
I’m running out of superlatives to describe Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He is just a flat-out tremendous wide receiver in all facets, from route-running to blocking to making contested catches or feats of athleticism, like his one-handed grab early in tonight’s game.
Smith-Njigba had 115 receiving yards in the first half alone, the most since New England’s Chris Hogan in the 2018 AFC Championship Game seven years ago. (Hogan’s quarterback, Tom Brady, was in the broadcast booth for tonight’s game.) Smith-Njigba finished with 10 catches on 12 targets for 153 receiving yards and a touchdown. As Next Gen Stats shows below, Smith-Njigba owned the entire field and was simply unstoppable no matter who he matched up against.
While Cooper Kupp was not as productive as we've become accustomed to seeing during the regular season, the veteran wideout still has a knack for making big plays on critical downs. Tonight, he did just that against a team who is very familiar with his clutch gene – the Los Angeles Rams.
Kupp totaled four catches for 36 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown in the second half that helped extend Seattle's lead. It would not be surprising at all to see him make similar big plays in the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks are playing in their fourth Super Bowl in franchise history. Seattle is 1-2 in Super Bowls.
Below are the scores for the Seattle Super Bowls:
Kenneth Walker III averaged 3.3 yards per carry tonight against the Rams, but that does not tell the full story of how impactful the running back was to Seattle's win.
He rushed for 62 yards on 19 carries with a touchdown on the Seahawks' opening possession, also adding four catches for 49 yards in the passing game. Walker ran physically between the tackles and displayed impressive elusiveness in the open field, finding extra yards on a majority of his touches.
His ability as both a runner and pass-catcher will be critical in the Super Bowl against New England, especially with Zach Charbonnet out for the season with a torn ACL.
Time will tell whether this was Matthew Stafford’s last shot at another Super Bowl ring. But this loss is definitely not on him.
Stafford, who is in line to win his first NFL MVP trophy this year, saved his best playoff performance for when it mattered most. The Seahawks' league-best defense had no answer for him, as Stafford went 22-for-35 passing (a 62.9 percent completion rate) with 374 yards passing, three touchdowns and no turnovers. He deserves nothing but praise for his performance tonight — and throughout this 2025 season.
The two conference championship games were very different. In the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks won a shootout against the Los Angeles Rams between two teams that looked worthy of that spotlight. In the AFC, the New England Patriots won against a backup quarterback in a snowstorm that made offense a rare commodity. Now, Seattle is favored against the Patriots in the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks are 5-point favorites against the Patriots on BetMGM. The associated -235 moneyline odds give Seattle a roughly 70 percent chance of winning the Super Bowl.
Both championship games were epic in their own right. The Seahawks-Rams matchup was epic in a traditional sense. Two talented teams making big plays back and forth until Seattle finally survived against its NFC West foe. The Patriots-Denver Broncos matchup was epic in the sense that the game started with a clean field, but it was covered in snow by the fourth quarter, and neither team could move the ball with any consistency late in the game.
The Rams' defense forced six interceptions off Sam Darnold in his first two games against L.A. in large part because of how they were able to pressure the quarterback. The Rams pressured Darnold again tonight — but this time, he flipped the script, per Next Gen Stats.
Sam Darnold chose the perfect moment for a career game, carving up the Los Angeles Rams' defense to lead the Seattle Seahawks to Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara.
The 28-year-old inked a three-year, $100 million deal in the offseason and he's already been worth every penny for the Seahawks, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns to defeat a bitter rival and win the NFC title. He showed poise in the pocket, displayed an impressive combination of mobility paired with arm strength and protected the football in his best game as a professional.
Check out the highlights from tonight's game.
The NFC Championship Game trophy ceremony is underway. After Jody Allen, the Seahawks chair, accepts the George Halas Trophy as NFC champions, Seattle coach Mike Macdonald addresses the crowd:
💬 “It’s always been about us and what we do. We’re now going to a Super Bowl.” “I’m speechless. This is the power of 12 as 1. This is a heck of a job.”
💬 “How about the 12s?”
💬 “It’s always been about us and what we do. We’re now going to a Super Bowl.”
After Mike Macdonald addresses the crowd, Sam Darnold lifts the George Halas Trophy. He balled out today, throwing 332 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Darnold praised his teammates and his love for the Seahawks fans:
💬 “That doesn’t matter to me. I just come to work every single day with these guys. That’s what it’s about. We’re here and we did it.”
💬 “It’s unbelievable. I love you guys, Let’s go 12s!”
Seahawks rookie safety Nick Emmanwori has been stellar all season long but may have saved the best for this game. Emmanwori was everywhere in both run and pass defense, and was particularly stingy against the pass, as Next Gen Stats outlines below.
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