The Seahawks got the last laugh in 2025.
First came the massive overtime comeback in Week 16 that ultimately led to Seattle getting the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Then the Seahawks won a 31-27 offensive battle in the NFC Championship game.
Verse blamed the Rams’ young defense for the playoff loss.
“I think it’s just me being completely honest. I think it was a young mindset. I think it was my fault defensively,” he said.
“We were all looking forward to it all week,” Verse added. “We’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to beat them again.’ We know what we learned from the last time.’ And then when we start getting into trouble — early on they throw a big play, everybody’s like going to bed. Like, ‘Oh, what do we do now? It’s not going the way we thought it was going to go. They’re not going to lay down.'”
Verse said the young defense started to “freak out” after things went wrong early. The second-year player added that the Rams D has the mindset that it’s going to be a “cakewalk.”
“And when we started getting into trouble, we didn’t know what to do,” Vers said. “Like some of us on defense, some, you know, I’m going to take full blame as well. Like there were a few times that I’m like, but they’re driving the other way. Like I don’t know what to do. I can’t chase. Like I’m not that fast. I can’t chase him on the back. What do I do? So when we had problems, then it was like we shut down mentally.”