Seeing Ghosts In Seattle? Sam Darnold Hasn't Thrown a Football Since Injuring His Oblique In Practice On Thursday And The Seahawks Have No Idea If He Can Start Or Play Through It Tonight Against The Niners
Lachlan Cunningham. Getty Images.Welcome to the Divisional Round of NFL playoff football. A trip to the conference title game is on the line with plenty of new blood entering the fray. Mainstay teams like the Chiefs, Eagles, Ravens, and Packers are in Cancun. Someone new (unless it's the Rams) is going to win it all. So what drama do we have in store today? Bill-Broncos is up first and going to be incredible, but for this blog we shift our focus to the night game.
A couple of days ago we heard that Sam Darnold felt something in his oblique during practice. Initially I didn't think this was anything.
Then we saw him run out onto the field with a Theragun.
And now Schefter is reporting that Darnold hasn't thrown a pass since Thursday! If you read this blurb below they really don't know what to expect.
Nothing like having the bye, entering the playoffs as the 1 seed, and now you don't know if your QB can start or make it through the game. The good news for Seattle is that the spread has held strong at 7. It was as high as 7.5, but now stays firm at a touchdown. That tells me that either they know enough about this injury that it is not a big deal, or the difference between Darnold and Drew Lock running the offense isn't as big as we may think. Seattle scored 13 points in both of their games against the Niners so it's not like you're taking away a massive part of their success if Darnold is restricted.
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Oblique injuries are fucking tricky though and you'd ideally prefer your QB to be the guy who got you there. I associate this injury much more with baseball, and when one of my hitters has that injury it's usually a month sidelined. That muscle impacts all of your torque. When you throw a football you need that. Feels like a problem to me, especially with a guy who already has to deal with demons when it comes to massively important games in his career. Toradol will be his friend tonight.
One thing that is healthy? That Seahawks defense, which we just saw hold the Niners to three points in San Francisco back in Week 18. Now the Niners don't have Kittle and this game is in Seattle. Seems like a bad recipe against a top 2 defense in the league.
So let's recap. Darnold is legit hurt, might not be able to throw, and we won't know until game time. The Seahawks defense is amazing and one of the best units in the game. Kyle Shanahan is undefeated in the WC/Divisional rounds of the playoffs. SF is missing so many guys on both sides of the ball. Good luck picking a winner out there today. I went 1-5 last week while public schmucko Klemmer went a perfect 6-0. Never been more confused in my life.
P.S. Darnold's last game was played in San Francisco. Did the low-frequency electromagnetic fields conspiracy in SF have anything to do with this?
