It is quite curious to me how Sam Darnold has garnished so many haters over the past year and a half. He seems like genuinely one of the nicer dudes in the league, had a good year for himself in Minnesota last year up until the last two games, and has been enjoying an even better year in Seattle up until this one isolated game in LA against the Rams.

But people love to stroke the narratives of him being a pressure sensitive quarterback, an observer of ghosts on the football field, and the guy that they thought he was after a bad outing even though his analytics under pressure this year and last have actually been pretty good, for the most part. People in bars, on the job sites, and in the office don’t want to look at the nuanced data points, though. They want to watch Stephen A Smith rip him apart on ESPN, and then parrot off of him, afterwards.

After all, admit it. It is fun to say to your diehard Seahawks fan at work that the Seahawks will never win a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold. Deep down, there is a dark need for humanity to shit all over people’s hopes and dreams. This is why God created the internet. It helps him streamline the goats from the sheep with easy to read algorithms that the government tracks on its way to further authoritarianism.

So, I don’t know, just spit ballin’ here, but maybe folks don’t like Sam because he is an easy going So Cal kid who looks like his name should be Biff instead of Sam. Maybe, also, possibly some Seahawk fans don’t like him because they were huge Geno stans and don’t love that this sorta dorky white dude replaced their cool edgy guy quarterback.

Whatever the case might be, the truth of the matter is that Sam Darnold gave all of his haters and detractors reasons to light up their victory cigars this week, even though his late game quarterbacking against the Rams almost beat them in the finals seconds of the game. That last part won’t be much a talking point this week, though. His four interceptions most definitely will be.

Personally, I won’t put much stock in any of it. I will just keep the receipts for him to use at my discretion further down the line.

I fully get it that this lackluster performance of his was against the Rams, too, and that they were the team who did him dirty in the playoffs, but there is a lot of football left to be played this season, and a win or loss for either team coming out of this one isn’t going to make or break either of their seasons. If Seattle would have won yesterday, if Sam had played well, and Matthew Stafford had been the struggling quarterback, I would say the same exact thing, afterwards. Either way, I encourage pumping the breaks on declaring NFC West supremacy with seven games left to go on the season. Lots of football left to be played out there.

Aside from this poor outing of his, though, I suspect we will see much better versions of Sam in the games that remain on Seattle’s schedule, and he will guide his second team into the playoffs in two years come this January. I am also sure that should Seattle fall short in the playoffs, there will be a loud group of his detractors that will say “see, told ya, all so.”

This comes with the territory for any NFL quarterback who hasn’t won a lot of big moment games. This haunted Kirk Cousins, for years, in Minnesota, and it haunts Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert, and Josh Allen all today, frankly.

So, I fully get it that until Sam gets his team into a deep playoff run, this will be his likely stigma. I just find it curious why so many people seem to love to shit all over this guy whenever he has a bad game. Is it just simply that he is a former Jets quarterback and getting drafted by the Jets is an instant death nail for young quarterbacks, and people just love to crap all over the Jets and their lackluster inept history?

In contrast, I have seen peak Russell Wilson loose badly on the road in Green Bay, throwing five interceptions, but because he was an instant winner in the league, most fans were reluctant to jump all over him even though his play clearly cost Seattle the ball game. It would be brushed aside as Russ just having “one of those games” and in the following week, against an inferior opponent, he would look like Good Ole DangerRuss again.

I can guarantee you that should Sam Darnold throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns against the Titans next Sunday, there will be people brushing those numbers off in a purely dismissive manner only reserved for those wait out the Sam Turning Into A Pumpkin games to return on Sundays. In fact, I can see a scenario where Seattle rattles off another impressive four game win streak, but loses at home against the Rams again, and folks will be saying “see, Sam just sees them ghosts against those Rams.”

So, yeah, I guess you can say that Sam saw those ghosts against the Rams defense on Sunday. I wasn’t all together surprised by it, to be honest. I just hoped that it would not have been the case.

The LA Rams legitimately have a top defense this year, and going into this game, it was tops in the league at creating turnovers. So, defenses that play to this level don’t generally happen by accident, and this was the same defense that wrecked Darnold in the playoffs last year. I would be foolish to think that this was going to be a cake walk game for him, and this offense.

Still, gotta take care of the ball better, Sammy.

A friend asked me what the keys were going to be for Seattle to pull out a victory and I said “run the ball, feed JSN, put pressure on Matt Stafford, and don’t turn the ball over.” I felt that these were the clearest keys, and because Seattle did three of the four things really well, they made it a battle all throughout. It was just those four fudging interceptions by Darnold that did them in. Blast it all.

And let me be clear when I say this that those interceptions from Darnold are the clear reason why Seattle lost this game, and I say this still being a big believer in his potential Seattle’s long term answer at quarterback. While I appreciate the passionate F bomb latent defense of Darnold that Ernest Jones gave in his post game press conference, at least three of those four interceptions on Darnold were really bad decisions that are solely on the quarterback, and two of those interceptions led to 14 points for the Rams. You do the math and figure out where to lay blame.

Can’t have that on the road against a really good football team, and expect to win, period, and if Seattle ends up a wildcard team in the playoffs having to travel on the road, guess what? They will be playing a really good team with probably a pretty good defense.

So, yeah. Hell, yeah Sam Darnold has to play better. The good news is that I think he will. I really do.

Here is why I am not too overly upset about this loss to the Rams yesterday. Darnold played poorly, but Seattle’s prowess on defense gave all worldly Matthew Stafford fits throughout most of the day, and it was also clear that Seattle’s defense was stressing Sean McVay out on the sidelines. The other big positive takeaway is that for two games in a row, Seattle offense has showed some really positive trends running the ball against good defenses, and this matters.

If defenses now play Seattle with more shell coverage, instead of loading the box, there will be opportunities for Seattle to get their run game going, and their quick passing game. We saw this against an elite Rams defense, and there was success with it. That is a moral victory that can be had out of this one even though I hate moral victories.

It also stands to reason that Sam Darnold and Rashid Shaheed are going to take some time developing their chemistry and understanding of each other. The sideline touchdown attempt from Darnold to Shaheed was a perfect example of that.

Sheed runs at a significantly faster clip than anyone else on this offense, and he and Darnold have had no offseason to get a rhythm with each other. I suspect as we get further into these games, we should see it clicking, and hone it does, that will be a lot of fun for Seattle fans, but it will take some games. When we see it take off, though, it is going to be a lot of fun.

The only real bummer about this game, for me, is the knee injury that happened to rookie sensation Grey Zabel at left guard. If he is lost for the season, it is going to be tough for Seattle to win this division this year, I fear. They could still well make the playoffs as a wildcard team, but losing the talents of Zabel on the offensive line would definitely be a massive blow. I really hope that injury isn’t very serious.

So, as it stands now, Seattle dropped to 7-3, and they share this record in the NFL with the mighty Buffalo Bills. They have a better record than the Lions, the Packers, the Bucs, Steelers, Chiefs, and Chargers, who were all playoff teams last year. There exists winnable games on their schedule, and with this badass defense of theirs, I like them to win a lot of these remaining games even with the potential loss of Zabel at left guard.

When the schedule came out months ago, I looked at it, and figured that Seattle would probably land on a 11-6 season and a playoff birth. I still see this as the floor of this team this year.

The Sam Darnold Pumpkin Watchers can light up their cigars with Stephen A Smith this week, have their fun, and enjoy their victory laps on the internet. Let the Darnold Seeing Ghosts memes and comments have their cake and ice cream, too. I get it. Enjoy it, if you must. Vikings fans can rejoice in the false sense of security that their I Told You Sos will provide them as they use it to mask their anxieties about the development of JJ McCarthy. It is all good.

Just know that for every time you rag on Sam Darnold, a little puppy dog dies somewhere, and makes a young child cry in mourning. So, have that one your conscious, if you choose to partake. God is watching. God knows all.

I still think this team can be pretty special this year, and I think Darnold can still play a big part of that going forward. In fact, I am looking forward to that.

Go Hawks.