Sam Darnold Silences Doubts as Seahawks Roll Past 49ers

Perhaps the best thing that could’ve happened to Sam Darnold came when he tweaked his left oblique in practice last week.

From that moment until the Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback took the field for Saturday’s NFC divisional-round playoff game against visiting San Francisco, the only question surrounding Darnold was about his health.

There was no talk about how Darnold had failed miserably in his only previous playoff appearance last season with Minnesota, getting sacked nine times and committing a pair of turnovers, one of which was returned for a touchdown, in a 27-9 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

Just whether he’d be able to play when the top-seeded Seahawks hosted the rival 49ers.

Darnold’s numbers weren’t gaudy, but they didn’t need to be as the Seahawks cruised to a 41-6 victory.

He completed 12 of 17 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Perhaps most importantly, he was turnover-free.

“I was going to let it rip, no matter what,” Darnold said. “That was a never a question in my mind. If I wasn’t able to give it 100%, I would be doing this team a disservice. So I was going to go let it rip, and if my body said, ‘No, you’re not going to do that,’ then I would have told my coaches and we would have gone from there.”

Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp said he wasn’t sure whether Darnold would play until he ran out into the field with the rest of the team.

“I figured he was gonna find a way to be out there,” said Kupp, who had a team-high five catches for 60 yards. “It’s hard to tell. You don’t know without him throwing or anything. But he was out there at the walk-through on Friday and he was told not to throw, and he’s out there pump faking. I was like, ‘Dude, just please don’t do anything stupid.’ I figured with him pump faking as much as he was, he had to be feeling OK.”

Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who intercepted a pass and forced a fumble, claimed he had no such doubts.

“Sam’s a baller,” Jones said. “He’s going to keep showing up. We trust him. We knew he was playing.”

Darnold’s injury put the focus on three other areas: the running game, defense and special teams.

All performed spectacularly.

It started when Seattle’s Rashid Shaheed returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

Kenneth Walker III became just the 18th player in NFL history — and the first Seahawk — to have at least 100 yards rushing and at least three TDs in a postseason game.

And the Seahawks’ “Dark Side” defense forced three turnovers and stopped San Francisco three more times on fourth-down attempts, keeping the 49ers out of the end zone.

The Seahawks will play host to the winner of Sunday’s game between the Rams and Chicago next weekend in the NFC Championship Game for a berth in Super Bowl LX.

“To play here in an NFC Championship at Lumen (Field) with the 12s behind us ... It doesn’t get any better than that,” Darnold said.