RENTON, Wash. — The last time the Seattle Seahawks had a defense with a nickname, it solidified its place in history by knocking off the NFL’s best offense on its way to a championship. Mike Macdonald’s “Dark Side” defense can do something similar in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday at Lumen Field.
Seattle allowed a league-low 17.2 points per game this season, capturing the defensive scoring title for the first time since the Legion of Boom accomplished that feat four years in a row from 2012 to 2015. On Sunday, the Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams, who averaged a league-high 30.4 points per game.
The Seahawks’ 41-6 divisional-round victory over the San Francisco 49ers was the franchise’s most lopsided postseason win since the Super Bowl XLVIII rout of the Denver Broncos, who still hold the record for most points in a season (606, 37.9 per game). Matthew Stafford’s Rams averaged 29 points in two games against Seattle this season and will likely put up more of a fight on Sunday than Peyton Manning’s Broncos did over a decade ago.
This will be the Dark Side’s toughest test of the season.
“If we do what we do, everything will take care of itself,” outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said. “From our preparation in practice, to the meeting rooms after practice, to the next day, everything. How we take care of our bodies. Everything plays a part in it. If we just keep doing what we do, keep everything the same, don’t tweak nothing, don’t panic, we’ll be all right.”
The Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the only teams to score more than 22 points on offense against Seattle. Against the Bucs, Seattle played without Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, All-Pro cornerback Devon Witherspoon and safety Julian Love, then lost outside linebacker Derick Hall and cornerback Riq Woolen to injuries during the game.
The 37-point outing by the Rams in Week 16 is more instructive. Los Angeles scored 30 points in about three quarters — aided by one short field after a turnover — on a healthy Seattle defense before injuries decimated the Seahawks’ secondary in the fourth. The Rams accomplished that without receiver Davante Adams, who caught a league-high 14 touchdowns this season.
Stafford is the favorite to win the Associated Press NFL MVP award, voted on by the same media members who named the 37-year-old first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career. He was voted MVP by the Pro Football Writers of America on Wednesday. Stafford led game-winning drives in each of Los Angeles’ two road playoff games to set up this NFC West rubber match.
Reaching the Super Bowl rests on Seattle’s ability to rattle the engine of the Rams’ offense.
The Seahawks have not registered a sack and have just seven quarterback hits in two games this season against Stafford, who also hasn’t committed a turnover in 79 dropbacks versus the Dark Side. He threw for a season-high 457 yards in Week 16 after throwing for a season-low 130 yards against Seattle in Week 11. One of the few consistencies in these meetings has been Stafford’s ability to stay upright against Seattle’s pressure.
The Seahawks’ primary means of getting off the field has been forcing incompletions. Stafford completed 65 percent of his passes this season but was held under 60 percent in both games versus Seattle.
Stafford’s sack avoidance is not exclusive to this season. Seattle didn’t get him on the ground in 2024, either. He dropped back 44 times in a Week 9 matchup, and his final attempt ended up being the game-winning touchdown pass in overtime. The Seahawks’ last sack against Stafford came on a Witherspoon blitz on the second play of the game in Week 11 of 2023. The last Seattle defensive lineman to sack Stafford is Carlos Dunlap, who got him three times in December 2021 (Stafford missed both meetings in 2022).
“They get the ball out extremely fast,” All-Pro defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “What they do a good job of is putting him in third-and-manageable downs. They have the shortest distance (to gain) on third downs in the league, which allows for quick passes. You don’t have to sit back, drop and read coverages when you only need 3 to 5 yards for a first down.
“A lot of times, he just catches the ball and knows exactly where to put it. Sometimes he’s not even looking, and he knows exactly where to put it.”
Williams is correct: On average, Los Angeles needed only 5.7 yards on third down to move the chains in the regular season, the lowest in the league. No other team had an average below 6 yards; the league average was 6.9 yards. In Week 11, the Rams’ average third-down distance was just 6.1 yards, and it was 5.0 yards in Week 16. It’s harder for Seattle to generate pressure in those situations that favor the offense.
“We’ve just got to do a better job rushing (and) rushing as one,” Nwosu said. “There are times we had him, but Stafford, he’s smart. He’s not going to take sacks. He’s going to get that ball out. We get pressure on him, good things happen. We’ve got to make sure that even if we don’t get sacks, affect him, get him off the spot and hit him any way we can to affect the quarterback.”
Sacks are just one way to affect the quarterback. Sometimes, hitting the quarterback is just as impactful, particularly when it results in an off-target throw. In Week 16, Los Angeles scored 30 points on eight possessions through the first three quarters (that final series bled into the fourth quarter, with Stafford connecting on a 1-yard touchdown to Puka Nacua on the third play of the period). Seattle had just one quarterback hit in that stretch, when Williams beat backup right guard Justin Dedich.
The Seahawks held the Rams scoreless the rest of regulation in part because they began to put more heat on Stafford. Three of Seattle’s four quarterback hits came after Nacua’s first touchdown — two in the fourth quarter, one in overtime — and all were produced without blitzing, which is how the Seahawks prefer to operate. The Rams also went 3-for-8 on third down in the fourth quarter and overtime, and only one of those conversions occurred with more than 3 yards to gain.
So, as Williams said, the blueprint is obvious: Win first and second down. As great as Stafford is, he’s not eluding pressure with his legs at this stage of his career. In the first two meetings, the Seahawks had an average pressure rate of 41.2 percent, just above their season average of 39.9 percent, which was sixth best in the league. They’re pressuring the quarterback just fine, but that doesn’t have as much of an impact on generating turnovers as hits and sacks.
Ideally, Seattle would like to put Stafford on the ground without blitzing. It had the ninth-lowest blitz rate in the league and still finished top 10 in sacks and quarterback hits. Using simulated pressures — a four-man rush in which a traditional pass rusher drops and a second-level defender rushes — can alleviate the burden on the secondary against one of the best receiving duos in the league in Adams and Nacua, who had 225 yards and two touchdowns in Week 16.
“We know who they are. We know what’s coming,” said Lawrence, who has two QB hits against Stafford. “They know what is coming. So, just go out and attack them. Shoot, at this point, it ain’t no tomorrow. Just making sure we focus on the task at hand and be who we are.”
Lawrence’s “be who we are” remark reflects the overall feeling of the defense this week and the team’s culture under Macdonald. The Seahawks feel that if they play their style of football, the outcome will be in their favor.
Seattle’s defense was one of the best against the run this season. The unit is led by three All-Pro players (Lawrence, Witherspoon and Ernest Jones IV). The Seahawks have respect for the Rams’ offense but also know that dealing with the No. 1 defense in the league on the road isn’t exactly a walk in the park, either, regardless of what transpired in Week 16.
“Y’all look at who’s the best in certain categories and stuff; I don’t feel like we pay any attention to that,” Lawrence said. “It’s about going out there, lining up, recognizing formations, understanding what keys you need to be focused (on). Find ball, hit ball, get ball.”
The Seahawks have stressed not getting caught up in the pageantry of the playoffs, the gravity of the games and all that is at stake. But this matchup is still notable for Seattle’s defense, which has given itself a nickname and wants to be known as the best. Of all the “special” aspects of the Lumen Field atmosphere Saturday night, Williams said, the best part was seeing a fan dressed up as Darth Vader representing the Dark Side.
“I want to see more of that,” Williams said.
If they handle business Sunday, they probably will.
