NFC championship game: Rams face Seahawks in drama-laden third act

LOS ANGELES — Jared Verse leaned over the microphone during his Thursday press conference, dripping sweat from the Rams’ first full practice ahead of their NFC championship game against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Still catching his breath, the outside linebacker admitted, “The energy’s just different this week.”

“I think everyone’s taking the same approach,” he continued. “Every step you take is a lot more mindful. If you make a mistake on the field, people that beforehand weren’t calling it out are calling it out saying, ‘Hey, let me get that play again. Let me get that one more time. Let me get this rep again.’ Seeing that just makes me want to get to another level.”

But Verse wasn’t ready to share his thoughts about this week’s opponent, turning to look at his public relations handler and repeating the message he had received prior to the presser: “I’m not supposed to give any bulletin board material.”

It had to be the Seahawks this week, right? These two teams have circled each other since the Rams won the NFC West last winter based off a tiebreaker, denying Seattle the opportunity to play for a postseason spot before their Week 18 matchup.

Since then, the teams have squared off in two heavyweight bouts. The first was a Rams win in Inglewood that required a last-second missed field goal by the Seahawks. The second was a Seahawks overtime win in Seattle that shifted on a punt return for a touchdown and a two-point conversion on an incomplete backward pass.

And now they meet for the third time this season, a trip to Super LX at stake, and the league’s best-scoring offense and best-scoring defense to settle it.

Mike Macdonald’s arrival as the Seahawks’ coach was a fitting foil for Rams head coach Sean McVay. Macdonald’s five-defensive back scheme was designed to attack the way McVay’s offense – proliferated around the NFL as it has been – attacks space.

So as these past two years have unfolded, the Rams’ coaching staff has learned what it takes to plan between games against Macdonald.

“Like I’ve told you guys before, when you talk about offensive play-callers and you can watch the film and see an ownership and an understanding from an all-22 perspective and intent behind what they’re trying to get done, that’s how I feel about him,” McVay said. “They do a great job of accentuating their personnel and being able to adjust and adapt. I think he’s got a great feel for the flow of a game as a play-caller too.”

Then you get more granular and you get the fun stuff within the matchup. Quarterback Matthew Stafford against former Rams linebacker Ernest Jones IV, former dueling partners in practice now leading their units against each other. Receiver Cooper Kupp trying to get revenge against the Rams, the team for whom he was Super Bowl LVI MVP.

And the Rams’ defense in their fifth game against Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold in the past two years.

It was last postseason when the Rams sacked Darnold – then with the Vikings – eight times in a wild-card victory. The former USC star followed that up with a four-interception game in November in which he rushed the ball out into bad situations rather than take a sack.

He did seem to find something though in the second meeting between the Rams and Seahawks in December. He still threw two interceptions and was sacked four times, but he made the necessary plays to help the Seahawks down the field for the game-winning overtime drive.

Still, if the Rams’ pass rush can get to Darnold and get to him early, they have reason to believe they can make him uncomfortable.

“The quarterback’s job is to throw the ball so they’re going to look at where they have to throw the ball,” Verse said. “If us on the edge, the D-line or the D-tackles up front can get through there and get a good hit on him, make him feel that no matter what it is, whether he gets the ball off, whether it’s just a QB hit, whether you get a sack, he knows that we’re coming.”

And Rams-Seahawks Part 3 is coming, too, with glory on the line.

“They understand the stakes,” McVay said. “You don’t need to overcommunicate what is at stake, but what I want is I want our guys to be able to be courageous in terms of our ability to go cut it loose.”

NFC CHAMPIONSHIP

Who: Rams at Seahawks

When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m.

Where: Lumen Field, Seattle

TV/Radio: FOX (Ch. 11)/710 AM; 93.1 FM; 1330 AM (Spanish); Sirius 226, 228