NFC Championship Game takeaways: Sam Darnold's redemption sends Seahawks to Super Bowl

Every time the Seattle Seahawks have had the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, they have reached the Super Bowl. That streak continued on Sunday with a 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.

They will now play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX in a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX that ended with Malcolm Butler's stunning end zone interception. 

Here are some takeaways from the Seahawks' win on Sunday. 

Sam Darnold gets the last laugh against Rams

The last time Darnold faced the Rams this season, he had one of his worst games of the season, throwing four interceptions in a 21-19 loss. Going back to the 2024 season, where he faced the Rams as a member of the Minnesota Vikings two additional times, including in the playoffs, Darnold had thrown seven interceptions in the four games and lost three of them. Including last year's wild-card playoff game. 

He ended up getting the last laugh on Sunday by playing one of his best games of the season, completing 25-of-36 passes for 346 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He put up big numbers, and he made big throws when the Seahawks needed them most in crunch time.

After leading both the Vikings and Seahawks to 14-3 records the past two seasons, there were still some questions as to how they would play on the biggest stages and against the best teams. Is he really a franchise quarterback capable of winning a Super Bowl?

He silenced any of those questions on Sunday with this performance. 

Seahawks defense made the big stand when needed 

The Seahawks defense has been one of the best in the NFL all season, but it did have some struggles on Sunday. 

That is to be expected, going up against one of the league's best quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford and one of its best teams. 

But even with giving up 27 points and 479 total yards, they still made one of the biggest, game-deciding plays with the season on the line. 

With the Rams facing a fourth down late in the fourth quarter and possessing all of the momentum in the game, Seattle's defense made a huge goal-line stand to preserve its lead.