Mina Kimes on how Rams' win may change how teams play Seahawks going forward

Sam Darnold never stood a chance against the Los Angeles Rams today. From the first drive on he appeared totally flustered by what they threw at him, defensively. To put it as simply as possible: they did the opposite of what everyone else had done this year.

The Seattle Seahawks' success in the passing game this season has largely come as the team has thrown from heavy personnel looks (passing out of a run formation), and opponents have been reluctant to get out of their base defense given how much they run the ball.

The Rams didn't care - instead of worrying about the Seahawks' mediocre run game they loaded up the back end of their defense as much as possible, giving Darnold far fewer open looks then he's used to.

The result was a disastrous four-interception performance that sank Seattle, despite an exceptional performance on defense.

You can bet that other teams took notice, and will try to copy what the Rams did successfully against the Seahawks the rest of the season - as Mina Kimes noted after the game.

The Rams play a lot of dime (33% on the season) but took it to another level today vs SEA (51%!).

As @gregolsen88 has been saying: Teams are going to dare Seattle to run the ball.
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) November 17, 2025

The good news is that there have been positive flashes from the rushing attack lately. Both Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet were explosive and efficient in last week's win over the Arizona Cardinals, each averaging over five yards per carry.

Considering the penetration that the Rams defense kept getting, they weren't bad today, either. Walker and Charbonnet combined for over 100 rushing yards and Walker scored his first touchdown in two months.

However, they're going to have to do better than the 3.85 yards per attempt that they averaged today against LA - especially if opponents are going to start dropping back and refusing to let Sam Darnold beat them the way the Rams did today.

For the season the Seahawks rank 16th in rushing yards per game, That's with the heaviest run-to-pass ratio in the league.

Success in this area has been largely elusive for Seattle this year. The good news is if offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak can figure this particular problem out, there won't be anywhere left for opponents to hide.

Nov 9, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet (26) rushes during the third quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at Lumen Field. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

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