Seahawks’ Nfc Championship Victory Means Everything For Rams Rivalry

Football: NFC Championship: Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay greet each other at midfield following game at Lumen Field. Seattle, WA 1/25/2026CREDIT: Simon Bruty (Photo by Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X164832 TK1)

Last weekend, the Seattle Seahawks defeated the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game, securing a trip to Super Bowl 60 with a 31-27 victory at Lumen Field. Not only was this the ideal conclusion to a hard-fought season series, but it was also the ultimate payback against L.A. for years of domination under Sean McVay.

The Rams hired McVay in early 2017, starting fresh after five years of mediocrity under Jeff Fisher amidst the team’s move from St. Louis. McVay, then just under two weeks shy of his 31st birthday, was the youngest head coach in the modern era of the NFL, and the youngest overall since the Rams hired 27-year-old Art Lewis as interim head coach in 1938.

Having been promoted to offensive coordinator with the now-Washington Commanders at the age of 27, McVay was quickly rising through the coaching ranks. In year three under McVay as OC, Washington’s offense ranked second in passing yards and third in total yards. This rapid ascent was replicated with Los Angeles, as the Rams’ offense went from last to first in scoring in McVay’s first year as the team’s head coach.

Evidently, a new challenger had burst onto the scene in the NFC West. As the Arizona Cardinals began to struggle during Bruce Arians’ final years with the team, L.A. swiftly asserted themselves as the Seahawks’ fiercest competitors for control of the division.

Seattle had previously lorded over the Rams during their final years in St. Louis, going 17-3 head-to-head between 2005 and 2014. The Seahawks reached the postseason seven times during this period, claiming the NFC West division crown six times between the latter half of Mike Holmgren’s tenure and the first five years of Pete Carroll’s time in Seattle.

This would be one of the Rams’ many motivations for hiring McVay, who was brought in to help bring the team back to playoff contention after a 13-year postseason drought. The tides began to turn in favor of Los Angeles, as the team rose to the top of the division in 2017.

Between 2017 and 2023, the Seahawks went 5-10 against the Rams, which included a home loss in the 2020 Wild Card round. Of those five wins, four of them were decided by just one possession, often requiring late scoring drives to pull ahead and finish on top. Seattle’s lone multi-score triumph from this period, which occurred in Week 16 of the 2020 season, was a low-scoring game that was tied at halftime and saw the Seahawks lead by one possession until Jacob Hollister’s touchdown catch near the end of the fourth quarter.

Though Carroll was able to keep Seattle in the playoff mix, this amounted to just one postseason victory and a failure to consistently keep pace with the likes of L.A. and the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West. The Seahawks finished atop the division just once during this time, doing so in the aforementioned 2020 campaign. If Seattle’s fortunes were going to improve, some sweeping changes would have to be made.

Carroll was removed from his post as head coach in early 2024, ultimately being succeeded by former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. Macdonald’s arrival marked the dawn of a new era in the Emerald City, with the then-36 year old bringing a fresh perspective to the Seahawks organization.

2024 saw Seattle and Los Angeles split the head-to-head meetings, with both teams finishing 10-7 at season’s end. The Rams scored 23 points in the second half and overtime to beat the Seahawks at Lumen Field in Week 9, but Seattle emerged victorious in Week 18 on a game-winning touchdown pass to Noah Fant in the fourth quarter of a game in which the Rams rested many key starters. L.A. was able to claim the division crown on a strength of victory tiebreaker (.441 vs. .424), with the Seahawks ending the year on the outside looking in.

Heading into the 2025 season, Seattle made some key changes in the off-season to help get over the hump. Perhaps the most notable addition was quarterback Sam Darnold, who was coming off a career year with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024, determined to prove that his run in Minneapolis was not a fluke. Other significant moves included signing former Rams wide receiver and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, as well as re-signing former L.A. linebacker Ernest Jones IV, whom Seattle had acquired at the trade deadline the prior year.

On the coaching staff, the Seahawks fired Ryan Grubb as offensive coordinator, replacing him with former Vikings and Saints OC Klint Kubiak. Under Kubiak, Seattle’s offense went from 18th to third in scoring, averaging 28.4 points/game during the regular season.

The Seahawks’ defense took a steady leap forward as well, allowing a league-low 17.2 points per game. This would be a perfect foil to the Rams’ offense, which would go on to lead the league in scoring with an average of 30.5 points/game. Their first matchup, a Week 11 showdown at SoFi Stadium, would have some high stakes involved—the winner would gain sole possession of the NFC West division lead, with both teams entering the game at 7-2.

Los Angeles came out on top in the first part of the 2025 season series, winning 21-19 after jumping out to a 14-3 advantage in the opening quarter. Seattle chipped away at the deficit later on, with kicker Jason Myers pulling his team within two points following three successful field goal tries. The Rams upped their lead to nine with Matthew Stafford’s touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson, restoring their two-score advantage in the fourth quarter.

The Seahawks responded on a goal-line TD by Kenneth Walker III, coming within two points once more inside the last three minutes of regulation. Even still, Seattle ultimately failed to snatch the win, with Myers missing a 61-yard field goal attempt that would have delivered the win for the ‘Hawks. Rams 1, Seahawks 0.

Our combatants remained neck-and-neck in the standings over the next several weeks, with Seattle jumping into another first-place tie following L.A.’s loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 13. Heading down the stretch, it became clear that control of the division would not be decided until the very end of the season.

The Seahawks hosted the Rams at Lumen Field for a rematch on Thursday Night Football in Week 16, setting the stage for what was then the biggest game of the year for both squads. With a win, Seattle would be able to gain control of the NFC West going into the last two weeks of the regular season.

It was 14-13 Seahawks early in the third quarter, but the Rams pulled ahead by two on a Harrison Mevis field goal on the following drive. Seattle could not regain the lead again until the fourth quarter, falling behind 30-14 after two touchdowns by Los Angeles, the former of which was aided by a costly interception by Darnold.

This would not be the end of the story, though, as the Seahawks tied things up with two TDs of their own (and a pair of successful two-point conversions), the former of which came via Rashid Shaheed’s 58-yard punt return score. Neither side could reach the end zone again for the rest of regulation, necessitating overtime to decide the fate of the teams’ season-long battle.

The Rams got on the board on the first OT possession, leading 37-30 with 6:27 to go in the extra frame. Seattle countered by driving to L.A.’s four-yard line, with Darnold throwing a short pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for the touchdown. Darnold’s two-point attempt to Eric Saubert was good, sealing a 38-37 victory for the Seahawks with two games to play in the regular season.

Seattle would all but eliminate the Rams from division title contention with the win, eventually claiming the NFC West championship with a 13-3 triumph over San Francisco in Week 18. The Seahawks (14-3) entered the playoffs as the conference’s No. 1 seed, while Los Angeles (12-5) would have to play on wild card weekend to begin the postseason.

The Rams narrowly avoided a second embarrassment in Charlotte, escaping Bank of America Stadium with a 34-31 victory over the Panthers in the wild-card round. In the Divisional Round, L.A. knocked off the second-seeded Chicago Bears with a 20-17 win in overtime, while Seattle beat the brakes off the 49ers in a 41-6 rout at Lumen Field. The NFC crown would come down to the West’s two biggest powerhouses, pitting Macdonald’s “Dark Side” defense against McVay’s elite offense for the third time in the 2025 season.

The Seahawks asserted control of the game early on, leading 10-3 at the end of the first quarter. The Rams would take a 13-10 lead late in the second quarter, but Seattle struck back inside the final minute of the half on JSN’s 14-yard touchdown reception. The Seahawks led 17-13 going into halftime, exiting the first half of the NFC Championship with the lead for the first time in 20 years.

Seattle came out of the break swinging, with Jake Bobo hauling in a 17-yard TD pass from Darnold to extend the lead to 24-13. Los Angeles would recover those points with a touchdown on the ensuing drive, but Kupp would quickly serve up some revenge against his old squad with a TD of his own. With Kupp’s score, the Seahawks led by 11, up 31-20 with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter.

Then, disaster struck on the next possession—on 3rd-and-12 near midfield, Stafford’s pass to Puka Nacua was ruled incomplete. Just an easy punt to end the drive, right? Wrong.

Seattle cornerback Riq Woolen was flagged for taunting, giving the Rams a crucial 15-yard gain that would not have been awarded otherwise. Rejuvenated by the penalty, Stafford connected with Nacua for a long gain, which ended with a 34-yard touchdown catch to pull L.A. back into a one-score battle. The score was now 31-27 Seahawks, with just over a quarter’s worth of game left to play.

Nobody would score again in this one, with the Rams falling short at the opposing six-yard line after back-to-back incompletions by Stafford on the longest possession of the fourth quarter. Seattle was able to whittle the clock down to just 32 seconds before Michael Dickson punted it back to Los Angeles for one last shot at the conference title. Stafford threw a pair of deep passes to Nacua to try and get the Rams in scoring position, but Nacua was ruled down inbounds as the clock ticked away the last 10 seconds of the game.

After eight years of being routinely dominated by L.A. in the Sean McVay era, the Seahawks finally achieved their comeuppance with a victory in the NFC title game. Years of playing second (or third) fiddle to the Rams and 49ers were finally over, with Seattle getting two of its largest wins against both teams in just one playoff run.

Unlike the final years of the Pete Carroll era, the Seahawks have been able to match and outdo Los Angeles in the early stages of Mike Macdonald’s tenure. Now, Seattle is on its way to Super Bowl 60, with a chance to match the Rams in Super Bowl titles in the time since McVay’s hiring in 2017. In just one year, Macdonald vs. McVay has become one of the fiercest and most compelling coaching matchups in the NFL.

Here’s to many more competitive Seahawks-Rams contests in the years to come!