Seahawks Clinch Playoff Spot with a Thursday Night Football Week 16 Win
Here we are again in Seattle for Thursday Night Football, this time against the Rams. Both the Rams and Seahawks came with an 11-3 record going into tonight’s game in Seattle at Lumen Field. So this could have made for a really interesting game tonight from both sides, with the Rams already having their playoff ticket obtained, no matter how they have played in tonight’s game at all. Even though Seattle had a home-field advantage tonight at Lumen Field, of course, the battle for the first seed is still in rough waters here in the NFC West. All the while, though, Seattle had come close to falling face-first tonight.
Seattle had made a short left and middle pass from Sam Darnold to AJ Barner and then all the way to Cooper Kupp, before leaving the opening for Zach Charbonnet to get Seattle’s first touchdown of the game. Jason Myers got an extra point to add to Seattle’s point total and then would kick 63 yards all in the first quarter. Seattle was able to hold on long enough on defense during the first half, despite the Rams getting a touchdown with less than five minutes in the quarter, adding on an extra point as well. Tying it up 13-7 as the first half of the game started to come to a close. Seattle had used all three timeouts by the end of the first half as well.
As the second half of the game began, Kenneth Walker took a 55-yard touchdown all the way to the end zone. An extra point had brought Seattle back up to the lead, then, 14-13 to start the third quarter. Jason Myers would then lead a 57-yard kick on the next play as well. Darnold with a short pass that would eventually get intercepted and net the Rams another touchdown, and an extra point on their side, giving the lead back to LA with a 23-14 score for the third quarter.
As the fourth quarter went on, with the Rams gaining more and more interceptions, another touchdown brought the score to 30-14, letting Seattle fall behind despite them having the lead during most of the first half of the game. Short passes left and right over and over from Darnold over to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker, and Seattle finally made another touchdown with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Bringing the score to 30-20, less of a difference between LA and Seattle there. Two-point conversion attempts further shrank the point gap between LA and Seattle thus far. Another touchdown by AJ Barner made it an even closer game, 30-28 points, with six minutes left in the game.
Less than five minutes left in the game, the score was tied 30-30. It could’ve been anyone’s game in those last few minutes, and to see the possibility of whether or not Seattle will be going into the playoffs this season. Two minutes and the game was still tied, before going into overtime, and then LA was up by seven points with six minutes left on the overtime clock. Incomplete passes all around just made the game come to a very messy end for both Seattle and LA combined. Eric Saubert made the game-winning two-point play, bringing the final score of the game to 38-37. A 12th win for Seattle this season and a playoff spot in the NFC has been secured.
