Rams survive a thriller, holding on for a last-second victory over the Seahawks

Midnight Mode, indeed.

On the day the Rams donned black uniforms for the only time this season, the offense largely went dark.

Red-hot quarterback Matthew Stafford cooled. Star receivers Davante Adams and Puka Nacua struggled to consistently make the clutch plays that they often make look routine.

But safety Kamren Kinchens and the Rams’ defense managed to keep the Seattle Seahawks at bay — just barely.

🏈 Rams 21, Seahawks 19 — FINAL

Jason Myers missed a 61-yard field goal as time expired as the Rams narrowly thwarted a Seattle comeback to secure their fifth win and take over first place in the NFC West.

Myers’ kick was wide right and came after a Seattle managed a 10-play, 56-yard drive in the final two minutes.

An amazing punt by Ethan Evans was a big factor in the Rams holding on. His punt bounced in bounds before going out of bounds at the one-yard line.

🏈 Rams 21, Seahawks 19 — 2:23 left in the fourth quarter

Seattle’s Kenneth Walker III scored on a one-yard touchdown run to make it a two-point game late in the fourth quarter.

The Seahawks put together an 11-play, 84-yard drive to find the end zone for the first time against the Rams.

Despite Sam Darnold throwing four interceptions, Seattle is not making things easy for the Rams, who struggled to find rhythm on offense in the second half.

🏈 Rams 21, Seahawks 12 — 10:44 left in the fourth quarter

Sam Darnold threw his fourth interception — this time being picked off by Rams cornerback Darious Williams — to thwart another promising-looking drive for Seattle.

Can Matthew Stafford and the Rams capitalize and put the game away with a long scoring drive?

🏈 Rams 21, Seahawks 12 — 14:15 left in the fourth quarter

Tight end Colby Parkinson caught a short pass from Matthew Stafford and spun his way to a six-yard touchdown reception to extend the Rams’ lead following Kamren Kinchens’ second interception.

A 10-yard run by Kyren Williams helped set up the touchdown.

🏈 Rams 14, Seahawks 12 — End of the third quarter

Rams safety Kamren Kinchens picked off Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold for the second time today, this time on a pass intended for tight end Elijah Arroyo. The pick put the Rams on the Seattle 25-yard line.

The Rams have intercepted Darnold three times.

It wasn’t all good news for the Rams. Tight end Tyler Higbee sustained an ankle injury and is listed as questionable to return. Wide receiver Xavier Smith (concussion) and safety Quentin Lake (elbow) left the game earlier and are out for the remainder of the game.

🏈 Rams 14, Seahawks 12 — 7:56 left in the third quarter

Jason Myers kicked a 29-yard field goal to pull the Seahawks to within two points.

The Rams had an opportunity to seize control when cornerback Cobie Durant intercepted a pass by Sam Darnold on the second play of the third quarter and returned it to the Seahawk’s 35-yard line.

But Rams receiver Puka Nacua lost a fumble after making a catch, giving Darnold the chance to lead a scoring drive.

The Seahawks moved to the Rams 15, but Kenneth Walker’s apparent touchdown run was nullified by a holding penalty.

🏈 Rams 14, Seahawks 9 — HALFTIME

Jason Myers kicked his third field goal for the Seahawks, a 22-yarder as time expired in the second quarter.

The Rams scored touchdowns on a short run by Kyren Williams and a short touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Davante Adams.

Rams safety Kamren Kinchens set up a touchdown with a 31-yard interception return.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford slings a pass to tight end Colby Parkinson in the first half.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Matthew Stafford completed seven of 13 passes for 50 yards and a touchdown.

No Rams receiver has more than one catch.

Kyren Williams rushed for 76 yards and a touchdown in six carries.

Sam Darnold completed 10 of 16 passes for 92 yards for the Seahawks.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught five passes for 63 yards.

Kenneth Walker III rushed for 37 yards in six carries.

🏈 Rams 14, Seahawks 6 — 9:04 left in the second quarter

Jason Myers kicked a 30-yard field goal to keep the Seahawks within striking distance.

The Seahawks drove 53 yards in 13 plays for the field goal. The drive stalled when the Rams pressured Sam Darnold into an incomplete third-down pass.

Darnold has completed seven of 12 passes for 50 yards, with an interception.

🏈 Rams 14, Seahawks 3 — 1:04 left in the first quarter

Matthew Stafford tossed a one-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams to increase the Rams’ lead.

It was the 1,000th career reception for Adams and his 10th touchdown catch this season.

The touchdown capped a 10-play, 74-yard drive that was keyed by running back Kyren Williams’ 34-yard run to the Seahawks one-yard line.

Williams has rushed for 76 yards in six carries.

Stafford has completed six of 11 passes for 54 yards.

🏈 Rams 7, Seahawks 3 — 6:31 left in the first quarter

Jason Myers kicked a 57-yard field goal to cut the Rams’ lead to four points.

Sam Darnold completed passes of 13 and 11 yards to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba to set up the field goal.

Darnold has completed three of six passes for 32 yards, all to Smith-Njigba.

🏈 Rams 7, Seahawks 0 — 8:38 left in the first quarter

On a fourth-and-goal play, Kyren Williams scored on a two-yard touchdown run to give the Rams the lead.

Rams safety Kamren Kinchens set up the touchdown with an interception and 31-yard return to the three-yard line.

It was a quick turn of events for Rams, who on the opening possession drove to the eight-yard line only to see Matthew Stafford’s fourth-down pass to tight end Tyler Higbee fall incomplete.

The Rams benefited early in that drive from an unnecessary roughness penalty against cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Williams then broke off a 30-yard run to the Seahawks’ 17-yard line.

RENTON, Wash. — The last time quarterback Sam Darnold faced the Rams, he was on the wrong side of an emotional landslide. It was in the playoffs last January, when Darnold was playing for the Minnesota Vikings and the game was moved from SoFi Stadium to Arizona in the wake of the devastating wildfires.

Not only did the Rams roll to a 27-9 victory, but Darnold was sacked nine times.

“It’s football, those things happen,” said Darnold, preparing to play the 7-2 Rams on Sunday as first-year quarterback of the 7-2 Seattle Seahawks. “But yeah, that one stung. I didn’t feel like I played my best, and a lot of guys felt the same way. It sucked that it happened on that stage, but you learn from it. That’s part of the journey.”

After making all six of his extra-point attempts in a victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Harrison Mevis will once again be the Rams’ kicker on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

“I haven’t really proved anything,” Mevis said. “I’ve got more work to do and more to help this team.”

Mevis replaced Joshua Karty, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick who remains on the roster.

“I have a lot of belief in Josh Karty,” coach Sean McVay said. “I think he’s a guy that’s going to have an incredibly bright future. We’re going to continue to work with him but in the meantime, we will continue to go with Mevis.”

Did it cross McVay’s mind to let Mevis attempt a field goal against the 49ers?

The Rams appeared to have an opportunity late in the game, but McVay hinted that the 42-26 margin dictated his decision not to kick a field goal.

“We talked about it,” he said. “I did think about it, but we ultimately weren’t going to do it.”

Mevis is ready for whenever that opportunity comes.

“It doesn’t really matter whether it’s a 60-yarder or a 20-yarder,” Mevis said. “My approach is the same. I’ve done it millions of times so I’m ready for anything that comes up.”

Here are the players who will not be in uniform for the Rams and Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has passed for a league-leading 25 touchdowns, with only two interceptions, and continues to etch his name further into the NFL record book.

In last Sunday’s victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Stafford passed for his 400th touchdown. In the last three games, he passed for 13 touchdowns.

“The touchdowns have racked up the last few weeks but I’ve felt like I’ve been playing pretty good football for a while,” said Stafford, a 17-year pro who played 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions. “I’ve had years where you feel like you’re playing good football and you look up at the end of the year and the stats may not tell the whole story of how you feel like you played. That goes both ways.

“There are times where I’m like, ‘Man, I didn’t feel like I played that great,’ and you look up and it’s like, ‘OK, it was all right.’ I don’t pay too much attention to those stats. I’m just doing everything I can to try to get us in the end zone. Luckily, that’s been happening at a pretty good clip the last couple of games.”

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford passes against the Houston Texans on Sept. 8.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Stafford, 37, has learned to not rest on his laurels.

“The thing about the NFL is it doesn’t wait around,” he said. “It doesn’t feel good for you and it doesn’t feel sorry for you. You just have to go out there and play the next week. I’ve learned that throughout my career on both ends of it, you just have to show up, do everything you can to prepare and go play confident football on Sunday.”

The last time the Rams faced Sam Darnold at SoFi Stadium, the former USC star was playing for the then 0-13 New York Jets.

That was in 2020, and Darnold led the Jets to a 23-20 victory.

After stops in Carolina, San Francisco and Minnesota, Darnold signed a three-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks, and he has helped lead them to a 7-2 record heading into Sunday’s game against the Rams.

“On that Jets team, he came in here and beat us at SoFi and he played really well,” Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula said. “When we played him, we thought he was a legit quarterback and that he just needed to be in a good system with good guys around him.

“We know the type of player he is and we know how he feels when he is comfortable and feeling good and distributing the ball, and that’s exactly what he’s doing right now.”

Last season, Darnold had an outstanding season for the Vikings that ended when he was sacked by the Rams nine times in an NFC wild-card game in Arizona.

But Darnold appears rejuvenated with the Seahawks.

Darnold has passed for 17 touchdowns, with six interceptions, for a team that is averaging 30.6 points per game, which ranks third in the NFL.

“I’m seeing a guy that’s playing with a lot of confidence that’s been earned and it’s a continuation of a lot of the stuff that got him the deserved recognition last year,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.

The Rams will sport a new look on Sunday when they play the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.

The Rams will be wearing their “Midnight Mode” uniform as part of the NFL’s Rivalries program.

Teams are wearing the uniforms for one game each season.

Rams receiver Puka Nacua said he was “a fan” of the ensemble.

“In Madden [video games] when I played the NCAA stuff, I liked to switch up the uniforms and try to put up the best combination,” he said. “I think that our guys always do a good job of making us look great.

“It’ll be nice to switch it up. I have some different gloves and some different cleats so it’ll be nice to switch up the swag a little bit.”

Safety Jaylen McCollough also welcomes the change of pace.

“It’s always good to mix it up,” he said. “It’ll be a good little change up. I’m excited for it.”

Likewise receiver Davante Adams.

“When you’re in the game, you’re not thinking about that when it’s showtime,” he said. “But when you see them sitting back there in the equipment room, it’s definitely exciting looking at them.

“ I wore black uniforms with the Jets last year and they were pretty cool ones too, but these ones are up there.”

RENTON, Wash. — Read and react. That isn’t just what Cooper Kupp does on the football field, adjusting his pass route to get open. It’s what he does in his free time, too, tearing through close to two dozen books during the NFL season.

The Seattle Seahawks receiver, once a star with the Rams, is an enthusiastic reader of both nonfiction and fiction, and buys extra copies of some of his favorites — “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “When Breath Becomes Air” — to hand out to friends.

Just as when he’s poring over the playbook, the bearded bookworm reads with pen in hand or ready to note something on his phone.

Logan Paulsen recognized the mastery, despite Sean McVay’s youth.

Jordan Reed immediately tapped into the positivity of the then-20-something assistant coach.

So the former NFL tight ends, who were tutored by McVay in Washington, are happy that the Rams’ ninth-year coach has utilized a quartet of tight ends this season — a sizable shift in an offense that has helped fuel a four-game winning streak entering Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.

VIDEO | 02:09

Rams and Seahawks prepare for NFC West showdown at SoFi Stadium

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Gary Klein breaks down Sunday’s matchup between the Rams and the Seattle Seahawks at SoFi Stadium.

McVay is among coaches who recognize “how much of a matchup nightmare tight ends can be and how vital they are to an offense,” Reed said, “so it’s awesome to see the position grow.”

McVay was an offensive assistant in Washington for one season before he was elevated to tight ends coach in 2011, and then offensive coordinator in 2014.

“He was so young,” said Paulsen, who played in Washington from 2010 to 2015. “He never played tight end before, he didn’t have any background there ... and here he comes as a quality-control guy with this level of mastery.

“And I think that just speaks to how special he was then, and how special he is now.”

McVay, 39, acknowledges that the Rams’ deployment of multiple tight ends harks to his start as an NFL position coach.

SANTA CLARA — This is not a one-off.

This is no hot streak or a flash in the pan.

So don’t look away. Pay attention.

Otherwise, risk missing the master class that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is conducting this season.

One that has the 17th-year pro squarely in the conversation for his first NFL most valuable player award.

Cooper Kupp played eight seasons for the Rams, highlighted by his 2021 performance, when he was the NFL’s offensive player of year and the most valuable player of Super Bowl LVI.

On Sunday, the Rams will play against Kupp for the first time when the Seattle Seahawks visit SoFi Stadium for a game that will determine first place in the NFC West.

Kupp, released by the Rams last March after they could not find a trade partner, is a complementary piece of a Seahawks offense that features quarterback Sam Darnold and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who is on pace to break the NFL season record for yards receiving.