SEATTLE — Sam Darnold threw the pass that changed everything on a Thursday night in Week 16. Not in the playoffs. Nor in the regular-season finale. Not for the touchdown that beat the Rams that Thursday, even, nor the two-point conversion that completed an epic comeback and jumbled the NFC’s playoff seeding.
No, this pass set all that up, made all that—and much more—possible. It wasn’t a throw so much as an exorcism. L.A. led, in overtime, 37–30. Darnold drove the Seahawks past midfield. He dropped back on second down, with three Rams defenders from one of the fiercest defensive lines in football all but in lockstep. Darnold knew he would get hit and chucked the football, anyway, the pass arcing and layered and in the one spot where only Cooper Kupp might catch it. Darnold didn’t see Kupp closing, didn’t see his hands around the football, nor the nifty toe-tap to stay in bounds. This play went for 21 yards and would be overshadowed by the Seahawks’ subsequent victory.
