How Sam Darnold’s facemask could decide the NFC playoff picture

What do 2 Byrons, Sam Darnold’s facemask, and the NFC West title have in common?

For the time being, it seems that the NFC West division title will either come down to the Rams beating the Cardinals on Saturday or having to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the season finale. However, the reason that the Rams are in such a powerful position over the Seahawks right now, other than their previous head-to-head OT win against Seattle, is basically because of two games:

• Rams 30, Vikings 20
• Vikings 27, Seahawks 24

Why?

If the Rams and Seahawks tie at the end of the season, the tiebreaker could come down to the rare “strength of victory”, which adds up the winning percentage of all the teams you beat that season.

If we flipped either of these games against the Vikings, not only would it favor Seattle thanks to conference record, but it would mean a more favorable Strength of Victory for the Seahawks because Minnesota is 13-2.

That’s a huge 13-2 win for the Rams and a big fat nothing burger for the Seahawks because they lost to the Vikings. Ironically, Sam Darnold’s facemask came into play in both contests:

Byron Young sacked Darnold for a safety that ended Minnesota’s bid to tie the game when they were down 28-20 in the final two minutes, but refs didn’t call a facemask penalty that would have setup the Vikings 15 yards down the field and allowed them to keep moving.

Maybe in another history, the Vikings get the call and score a touchdown, get the 2, force overtime, and win.

Meanwhile last week, the Seahawks held a 24-20 lead over the Vikings with 4 minutes left in the game when Byron Murphy sacked Darnold on 2nd-and-10. The play would have made it third and long and potentially ended there, but a facemask call against Murphy moved the Vikings all the way down to the Seattle 39 with a first down.

On the next play, Darnold hit Justin Jefferson for a go-ahead touchdown and won the game.

Let’s try and forget the part where obviously the Rams outplayed the Vikings and obviously the Vikings outplayed the Seahawks; Seattle had every opportunity to tie the game or take the lead after that facemask and they couldn’t pull it off.

Minnesota would have still needed a monumental effort to beat the Rams.

Instead, just marvel in the coincidence and how it’s playing out right now:

A player named Byron sacked Sam Darnold in the final minutes and grabbed his facemask but it wasn’t called and the Vikings lost.

A player named Byron sacked Sam Darnold in the final minutes and grabbed his facemask and it was called and the Vikings won.

The results there could decide who wins the NFC West.

The NFL has no shortage of weird stories this season.