Championship Sunday is a day away, headlined by an NFC Championship rematch between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. If both games during the regular season are a preview of what’s to come, then we’re potentially in for one of the great conference championship games ever.
Ahead of the completion of this season’s Rams-Seahawks trilogy, I spoke again with John Gilbert from Field Gulls to break down Seattle’s Week 16 comeback, Rashid Shaheed’s return ability and more.
Q – The Seahawks really should’ve been swept this season by L.A., yet managed to win the game of the year in Week 16. Rams fans will hate revisiting this game, but could you break down Seattle’s comeback in the matchup that essentially clinched the division and the top seed for them?
A – There will certainly be Seahawks fans who argue that the better team won that game, but even if that’s the case, it took a lot of bounces going their way for Seattle to prevail in the Week 16 game. There are any number of big plays that facilitated the win, and if any of the Rashid Shaheed punt return, the flukey two-point conversion, or the late missed field goal by the Rams, it seems unlikely the Seahawks come away with the win. Certainly Seattle made the plays they needed to make when they needed to make them, but there can be no denying that it was a perfect confluence of events coming together that allowed Seattle to come out of the game victorious.
Q – Seattle hasn’t allowed a passing touchdown since giving up three to Matthew Stafford on Dec. 18. What makes their secondary so dangerous and why do you think the Rams and Stafford had so much success against them in the previous meeting?
A – The Seattle secondary is certainly good, and they have a whole host of playmakers who have the potential to make an impact on any snap. The biggest factor, though, in not allowing any touchdown passes since Week 16 is that the only quarterbacks they’ve faced since then are Brock Purdy and Bryce Young, neither of whom is anywhere near the quarterback that Stafford is at this point in their respective careers.
Q – Wide receiver and return specialist Rashid Shaheed began the Hawks’ demolition of the Whiners in style with a 95-yard kick return touchdown. Shaheed was acquired at the trade deadline, so what makes him so dangerous in the return game?
A – Shaheed’s speed is certainly a big piece of what makes him so dangerous, but what separates him from other speedsters who don’t have the same kind of impact in the return game are his vision and agility.
Every once in a while, there is a returner who simply sees the field and is able to take advantage of that differently than other returners, and Shaheed is that player. He was a two-time All-American returner in college, and that excellence has translated to the NFL, with three career punt return touchdowns to go with a pair of kickoff return touchdowns during his career. Of course, no returner puts up the kind of performance Shaheed has without a solid special teams unit blocking for them, and after a very poor first season as special teams coordinator in 2024, Jay Harbaugh’s units have performed at a high level for the majority of the 2025 season.
Q – The Legion of Boom is obviously the best defense in this team’s history, yet Mike Macdonald’s unit is putting itself in contention ahead of the NFC Championship. What are some facts or surprising stats about this year’s defense that Rams fans should know?
A – The 2013 defense was certainly elite, and demonstrated that on the biggest stage thumping Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII.
However, one stat that I find highly impressive is the simple fact that on their way to having the number one scoring defense in the NFL, the 2013 Seahawks faced just one opponent during the regular season that finished the season in the top ten in scoring. In contrast, on their way to finishing with the top scoring defense in the NFL in 2025, the Seahawks faced a half dozen opponents who were top ten in the league in scoring.
So, while the 2013 team certainly finished with better absolute numbers in terms of points per game allowed (14.4 versus 17.2), a piece of the difference is that they didn’t face the same level of competition as the 2025 group.
Q – Seattle is a 2.5-point favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook on Sunday. Both teams split the season series in the regular season, so who is your pick to go to the Super Bowl?
A – The Seahawks have been on an absolute tear since the final ten minutes of the Week 16 comeback over the Rams, so I’m going to pick them to come away with a win on Sunday and earn a trip to play for the Lombardi.
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