If you asked the question halfway through the season, everyone would have said, “oh, the Rams are going to the Super Bowl”. But Matthew Stafford and his team have struggled of late, so Seattle won the NFC West and claimed the NFC’s top seed.
I was at the Rams’ wildcard game at Carolina and they had a bit of an uphill battle. Now they’re going against an incredible defence in Seattle. These guys are operating at every single level. You’ve got DeMarcus Lawrence up front, linebacker Ernest Jones, and then you go to cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Seattle allowed the fewest points this season and led the league for third down defence. They’re playing like the best defence in the league.
That’s what [Seattle head coach] Mike Macdonald developed when he was at Baltimore. They had that clear identity and style of defence that really made the Ravens so special and is now making the Seahawks so special.
And as defensive co-ordinator, Aden Durde has played a big part. Good old Aden. I used to coach with him and it’s incredible to see what a British coach has done – to work his way through the player pathway system, going to the Dallas Cowboys then the Atlanta Falcons. Now he’s at Seattle and getting head coach interviews.
Mike Macdonald’s the defensive play caller, but Aden still leads a room. He has to get the guys right – fundamentally, mentally, culturally – and this is also an Aden defence, right? He played linebacker and his style is one of the reasons Mike Macdonald chose him, because they have very similar philosophies in that sense, and we’ve seen that come to life with this defence.
It puts them in a position where Sam Darnold doesn’t have to do anything spectacular. Seattle loves to run under centre play-action, so you hand the ball off, then can take your shots over the middle to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. I feel like that’s kind of their gameplan for this.
But Darnold’s had the most giveaways by a quarterback this season (20) and the Seahawks have lost that one-two punch with their running backs, because Zach Charbonnet is now out with a knee injury.
Kenneth Walker is going to carry a lot more of the load than he normally would, and this Rams defence will want to force the Seahawks into long and pretty much certain drop-back pass situations.
