Matt Hasselbeck breaks down Seahawks QB Sam Darnold's late-game mentality

Former Seahawk quarterback Matt Hasselbeck knows a thing or two about late-game heroics. Over the span of his 16-year NFL career (10 of them in Seattle) he engineered 15 fourth-quarter comebacks and led 24 game-winning drives of his own.

So when he speaks highly of current Seahawk signal-caller Sam Darnold's late-game poise, he speaks from experience.

"I think he’s proven that he’s a good player, a very talented player, and now he’s kind of gotten a lot of those distractions out of the way that sometimes young players have to learn. I know I felt like I had to learn those things the hard way. I think he’s learned some things the hard way and now he’s just out there playing ball, cutting it loose, having fun and I think he believes in himself,"
Matt Hasselbeck, Seahawk QB 2001-2010

That inner belief shows itself most clearly in the game’s defining moments. Even while leading the league in turnovers, Darnold has steered the Seahawks to a 12-3 record by consistently delivering when it matters most. No performance captured that better than last Thursday’s 38-37 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams. After throwing two interceptions earlier in the game, Darnold answered with touchdown drives at the end of regulation and again in overtime, sealing the victory with a daring two-point conversion pass to Eric Saubert.

Hasselbeck, speaking on local radio, credited Darnold’s roller-coaster path, including the “bust” label he carried in New York after being selected third overall in the 2018 draft, as a positive that has helped forge his current mindset.

"I think there’s a steadiness - he’s not too high he’s not too low and I think when you get in these fourth-quarter moments he’s not feeling the weight of everything like maybe a younger player would. "
Matt Hasselbeck on Seattle Sports 710

Darnold now has a chance to accomplish something Hasselbeck never did, and something no quarterback in the Seahawks’ 50-year history has achieved: leading the franchise to 14 regular-season wins. Seattle’s final two games both come on the road, beginning Sunday in Carolina before closing the regular season against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara. That finale could decide the NFC West title and the NFC’s No. 1 seed, offering one final test of the late-game "steadiness" that has defined Darnold’s season.

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