What a night in Seattle.

Behind a 270-yard, two-touchdown night from quarterback Sam Darnold, the Seahawks took down the Rams 38–37 on Thursday night, bringing us the leader in the clubhouse for Game in the Year in the NFL as they overtook first-place in the NFC West.

After L.A. quarterback Matthew Stafford continued his electric, age-defying season with a nine-play, 85-yard scoring drive—capped by a no-look touchdown pass to Puka Nacua—to take a 30–14 lead with less than a quarter to go, it felt like it was a wrap for Seattle. Then, the tides completely turned.

Despite Darnold throwing an interception on the following drive, the Seahawks were able to quickly force the Rams into a three-and-out, which they followed up with a punt return touchdown from trade deadline acquisition Rashid Shaheed. A two-point conversion later, it was suddenly a one-score game.

Speaking of two-point tries, Seattle again forced L.A. into a three-and-out before following up a two-play, 57-yard touchdown drive with one of the craziest conversions you'll ever see. While attempting to complete a pass to running back Zach Charbonnet, Darnold's throw was tipped by L.A. defender Kobie Turner. While the play initially looked to have resulted in a dead ball, after further review, NFL’s Replay Assist determined that Darnold's throw was backwards—therefore a fumble—and subsequently recovered for a successful two-point score.

The game would eventually head to overtime and after the two teams swapped touchdowns—of course, between Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba—the Seahawks put the dagger in the Rams' throat with another successful two point try: this one from Darnold to tight end Eric Saubert.

On the night, Smith-Njigba caught eight passes for 96 yards and what would become the game-winning touchdown, while his opponent in Nacua tallied 225(!) yards on 12 catches and two touchdowns. As for the once-MVP frontrunner, Stafford lit the proverbial world on fire again by completing 29-of-49 passes for 457 yards and three scores.

The win gives the Seahawks a 12–3 record, a full game better than the Rams, and a first-place spot in the NFC West with two games to go in the 2025 season. They’ll close out the campaign with the Panthers and the 49ers as they look to make a true Super Bowl run for the first time since the mid-2010s.

L.A., meanwhile, falls back into a tightly-contested NFC wild card race with contests against the Falcons and Cardinals to finish the year.


More NFL on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Seahawks Topple Rams in OT With Two-Point Conversion to Take Hold of NFC West.