Last year, Darnold was playing meaningful December football, but the bottom fell out when the calendar turned to January. He ended his winning streak with the Minnesota Vikings with a terrible back-and-forth performance. With the No. 1 on the line in Week 18, he completed 43.9 percent of his passes in a loss to Detroit. He then followed that up with a fumble in a loss against the Rams in the Wild Card round, which included nine sacks.
The history, especially against the Rams, isn’t making coach Mike Macdonald or the Seahawks nervous come Thursday night. Since the four INT game against LA, Darnold has only had one interception in four games.
“I think Sam is making some really smart decisions,” Macdonald said when asked about the drop in turnovers. “I thought he had a good game (against Indianapolis).”
According to NFL Research, the only players in the last 15 seasons to throw four INTs against an opponent in one game and beat them later that season are Joe Burrow (vs. Steelers in 2022), Ryan Tannehill (vs. Texans in 2021), Andy Dalton (vs. Ravens in 2017) and Tom0. Billy in 2017 (2017).
Darnold would like to join that list.
“I want Sam to play the way I want our football team to play, which is decisive, aggressive and relentless,” Macdonald said. “Make it very clear what you want to do in the game and in that play, so he can go rip it. Shocking is like, ‘Hey, this is the execution. It’s the beauty of the details. It’s all the preparation that goes into those fundamentals that make it come alive, and then just sticking with it. We’re just not going to quit and Sam has shown that.”