Geno Smith throws 4 TD passes in Seahawks' win over Rams: Key takeaways

By / / Sports / 4 minutes of reading


By Michael-Shawn Dugar, Jourdan Rodrigue and Lauren Smith

The Seattle Seahawks closed out their schedule with a 30-25 win over the Los Angeles Rams on the road Sunday, collecting their 10th win, but will miss the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

Though the Seahawks (10-7) and Rams (10-7) end the regular season with the same record, Los Angeles clinched the NFC West title last weekend, with a win over the Arizona Cardinals and securing a strength-of-victory tiebreaker over the Seahawks with Week 17 wins by four more teams. The Washington Commanders’ overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons last week on “Sunday Night Football” officially clinched the division title for Los Angeles, while also eliminating Seattle from postseason contention.

The Seahawks scored the opening points of Sunday’s regular-season finale in the first quarter with the first of Geno Smith’s career-best four touchdown passes, and kept the lead until midway through the fourth. Joshua Karty’s fourth field goal of the game briefly gave Los Angeles a 25-24 lead, but Seattle responded on its next drive with what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown pass from Smith to Noah Fant. The Rams turned the ball over on downs at the Seahawks’ 9-yard line on their final drive, and Seattle closed out the win.

Smith completed 20-of-27 passes for 223 yards and the four touchdowns to Jake Bobo, DK Metcalf, AJ Barner and Fant in the win.

The Rams did not play several starters in the regular-season finale, including quarterback Matthew Stafford, leading rusher Kyren Williams and leading receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp ahead of the playoffs.

Jimmy Garoppolo made his first start for the Rams after joining Los Angeles during the offseason and was 27-of-41 passing for 334 yards and two touchdowns — to Tyler Higbee and Tyler Johnson — in the loss.

The Seahawks closed out the season with six wins in their final eight games, collecting double-digit regular-season victories for the first time since the 2020 season.

After entering their Week 6 bye at 1-4, the Rams won nine of their final 12 — entering Sunday on a five-game winning streak — to return to the postseason. Los Angeles will host the NFC’s No. 5 seed in next weekend’s wild-card round.

Smith throws career-best four TD passes

Smith added another game-winning drive and fourth-quarter comeback on Sunday, bringing his season total to four in both categories. He also threw a career-high four touchdown passes. It was the sort of performance that will make this offseason an interesting one for Smith, who has indicated he would like a pay raise and considers himself to be among the top quarterbacks in the league. His numbers this season don’t jump off the page: 4,320 passing yards, 7.5 yards per attempt, 21 passing touchdowns, 15 interceptions, a completion percentage of 70.4, a passer rating 93.2 and two rushing touchdowns. However, the Seahawks don’t have an obvious path to a clearly better quarterback. So, what will the Seahawks do, extend Smith to lower his $38.5 million cap hit for 2025, make Smith play out the final year of his deal or try and explore other options? — Michael-Shawn Dugar, Seahawks beat writer

Rams No. 4 seed in NFC

The Rams gave Stafford the day off and Garoppolo made his first start with the Rams. He threw an interception in the first half but otherwise played well especially minus the Rams’ top two receivers, starting running back and all but one starting offensive lineman. He went 27-for-41 for 334 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Left guard Steve Avila was the only starter from the offensive line to play Sunday, so it’s no surprise that the Rams’ most effective play was the short pass/screen catch and run to the left side where Avila is a particularly gifted downfield blocker. By the start of the fourth quarter, Garoppolo was 11-of-14 for 180 yards on passes to the left per Next Gen Stats and 7-for-7 for 86 yards on short passes to the left. Garoppolo stepping in Sunday ensures Stafford will be rested ready next week — the Rams should enter the playoffs mostly healthy.

Now they can turn to their attention to the postseason. With the loss, the Rams are the No. 4 seed in the NFC and will face the loser of Sunday Night’s Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings game. That day and time has yet to be determined, but the Rams will host. — Jourdan Rodrigue, Rams beat writer

Required reading

(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)





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Avatar of Christi Melton
Christi Melton is a writer from The Newspring. She writes about lifestyle, books, sports, education and technology. Her hobbies include reading and playing tennis.

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