The third meeting between the Seahawks and Rams this season will be Sunday 3:30 p.m. at Lumen Field for a spot in Super Bowl 60.
Whose charm will this third time be, for a spot in the Super Bowl?
The Seahawks will play the division-rival Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at Lumen Field. It will be the teams’ third meeting this season.
The Rams (14-5) blew a 17-10 lead at Chicago in the final seconds of regulation Sunday, then beat the NFC North-champion Bears on a 42-yard field goal in overtime of the second divisional playoff game in the conference.
The Seahawks (15-3) won the first divisional game, Saturday 41-6 over San Francisco. This will be eighth time in 14 Super Bowls the NFC’s team will be from the West division.
It will be the first NFC championship at Lumen Field since Jan. 18, 2015, when the Seahawks rallied from being down 16-0 to Green Bay deep into the third quarter beginning with punter Jon Ryan’s fake field-goal touchdown pass and ending with Russell Wilson’s touchdown throw to Jermaine Kearse in overtime. That sent Seattle to Super Bowl 49, which the Seahawks lost to New England on Wilson’s last-second interception to Malcolm Butler at the goal.
This is the fourth time the Seahawks have hosted the NFC title game, all as the number-one seed. They’ve won each of the previous three, at the end of the 2005, ‘13 and ‘14 season, to advance to the three Super Bowls in the 50 years of Seattle’s NFL franchise.
The Seahawks and Rams will meet for the third time this season, like they did when they played home-and-home then in the playoffs in the 2020 season.
L.A. won the first meeting this season, in November in Inglewood, California. Sam Darnold threw a career-high four interceptions for Seattle. Two of them handed the Rams drives of 3 yards and 25 yards to two of Los Angeles’ three touchdowns in their 21-19 win. Jason Myers missed a frantic 60-yard field goal on the final play that would have given the Seahawks the win.
Last month at Lumen Field, coach Sean McVay’s offense rolled to 481 yards and scored 37 points on Seattle’s defense, which otherwise led the NFL in fewest points allowed this season.
Down 30-14 with 10 minutes left in regulation, the Seahawks roared back, starting with Rashid Shaheed’s punt return for a touchdown. Darnold rallied Seattle to force overtime, then won it with a touchdown then two-point conversion pass to reserve tight end Eric Saubert, 38-37 over the stunned Rams.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has been the leading candidate for the league’s most valuable player award this season. Yet the 37-year-old veteran has been different lately. The 65-plus-% passer for 2025 has been under 60% in four of the last five games.
Sunday in Chicago’s cold and snow he was 20 for 42. The win over the Bears was Stafford’s first game this season without a touchdown pass.
Grey Zabel: We’re doing it for Seattle
It’s not at the same level, of course, but Grey Zabel is used to this.
He played in 12 postseason games his last three seasons playing for North Dakota State. That included two Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national-championship games he and his Bison reached to end their 2022 and ‘24 seasons.
The 23-year-old native of Pierre, South Dakota said minutes after the Seahawks made him their 18th-overall pick in round one last spring, their highest-draft interior offensive lineman since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson in 2001: “Man, I’m going to probably start divin’ into these Busch Lights.”
Already, in his first NFL season, Zabel gets the significance of getting this far, to the last step before the Super Bowl, in his rookie season. Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams has played for 11 years and never gotten this far. Neither has fellow Seahawks defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, 33 and in his 12th season in the league after his first 11 with Dallas.
Saturday night, sitting at his cubicle in yet another bumpin’ Seahawks locker room after their eighth consecutive win at 13th victory in 14 games, Zabel laughed at how wild this all is.
“Man, it’s special. It’s cool. We’re just setting the standard for the future,” Zabel said. “A lot of guys in this locker room remind me this doesn’t come around that often, to cherish it, to embrace it. And understand the importance of it.
“And I think it’s cool that we’re giving the state of Washington, the city of Seattle, something to shoot for. “We’re excited for next Sunday. I know the 12s are going to show up and get rowdy again.”
Category: General Sports
