Rams were looking like the best version of themselves. Then came the epic collapse

SEATTLE -- The Los Angeles Rams thought they'd placed a dagger in the hearts of the Seattle Seahawks. When Sam Darnold threw a quick pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the end zone, and Kobie Turner picked it off, the defensive end fell into the arms of his teammates in a moment of euphoria.

They were up 16 points on the rival Seahawks in their building. They were nine minutes and 39 seconds from their dreams of controlling an NFC West title and No. 1 seed in the conference. Nine minutes, 39 seconds.

The Rams spent those moments even laughing in their opponents' faces at times.

"Laughing," Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. "Crazy."

Added safety Nick Emmanwori on X, "They damn sho did!"

In the end, it was the Seahawks getting the last laugh with a 38-37 win in overtime to take over first place in the division.

On a short week mired by potential distractions, on a road trip in a raucous stadium without the NFL's leader in touchdown receptions, the Rams built a lead that showcased the best of them, only to let it slip away.

It finally ended when Darnold got a re-do with Smith-Njigba, finding him wide open in the back of the end zone for the touchdown, and then followed it up by hitting a wide-open Eric Saubert for the 2-point conversion for the win.

The Rams played exceptionally well before the slippage. They piled up a season-best 581 yards, even against a top-five defense. Their MVP-contending quarterback, Matthew Stafford, threw for a Rams career-high 457 yards, including three touchdown passes. Their lone healthy star receiver, Puka Nacua, had 12 catches for a career-high 225 yards and two touchdowns, with a nation tuning in to see if his off-field distractions would spill over into the game.

They didn't seem to, and when Stafford hit Nacua for a 41-yard catch-and-run touchdown in overtime after a review overturned an interception at midfield, it felt like the game was back in the Rams' control.

Since 1975, NFL teams were 79-0 when they racked up 400 yards of offense with three takeaways, no giveaways and no sacks allowed, according to NFL research.

They are now 79-1.

"Man, when you put out as much as our group does and you care about something and you come up short," coach Sean McVay said, "it's incredibly disappointing."

The Rams were laughing at their latest dominant in-game storm -- this time a 17-0 second-half run -- because that's who they are at their core. To them, it's the confidence and joy they play with, which flows from Les Snead's out-of-the-box drafting to McVay's endless positivity to Stafford's arm arrogance to the simple way they approach what is a child's game to them in the end.

To a division rival with the same record, this energy can come off as something different. Perhaps it's something they envy. It's certainly something they want to steal away.

And make no mistake, the Seahawks stole this game, in ways that were impressive, strange and downright confusing at times.

They found a 58-yard punt return touchdown from speedster Rashid Shaheed, the player they traded for at the deadline for a boost, while the Rams chose to mostly stand pat. That exposed a leak that teams found earlier this season against the Rams in special teams, one that had disappeared during their more dominant stretches. It came back out at the worst possible time Thursday night.

They found a coverage bust that allowed tight end AJ Barner to get wide open for a touchdown from 26 yards out to give Darnold an ounce of life to begin to exorcise his demons against the Rams, who have dominated him in recent matchups and were dominating him again Thursday, until that throw. That exposed the lone leak of the Rams' defense in coverage, where captain and safety Quentin Lake used to coordinate these assignments and limit those plays. But he's on injured reserve until the playoffs.

They found a game-tying 2-point conversion that everyone initially thought would lead to the Rams' win. It came on a screen pass from Darnold that Jared Verse swatted into the air until it fluttered into the end zone, and nobody tried to go after the ball. Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet nonchalantly picked it up well after the play, and then it was ruled a backward pass that the Seahawks recovered in the end zone.

"I've never quite seen anything quite like what happened on the 2-point conversion where you're lined up to kick off, and then they say it's a fumble and a clear and obvious recovery and you tack it on and make it a 30-30 game," McVay said.

Minutes after the game, Nacua took to social media to voice his displeasure, just one day after a livestream went viral where he accused NFL officials of inventing calls to gain TV time.

"Can you say I was wrong," Nacua posted to X before deleting it. "Appreciate you stripes for your contribution. Lol."

Officials were not made available for a pool report after the game. But former longtime referee and NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay did add some perspective.

"When a backward pass is ruled forward and incomplete, replay can reverse if there is a clear recovery in the immediate continuing action," McAulay posted to X. "The recovering team is awarded the ball at the spot of recovery. Let me make this perfectly clear: whether a whistle is blown or not is completely irrelevant."

It was a strange and unfortunate break, but there's no denying the Rams had plenty of other chances to put this game away. Nacua admitted that by pointing to the drives that ended in quick punts in the fourth quarter. The Rams often salt these leads away with the league's best running game and three-tight end sets, but the two-headed backfield of Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined for 3.2 yards per carry with a long of 9 on 37 handoffs against Seattle's elite defense.

Stafford pointed to the three red zone possessions that ended in Harrison Mevis field goals. That's where the Rams missed Davante Adams' presence the most, though they did get into the end zone three times in that area. But every possession ended up mattering.

This is the second time the Rams have built a lead of at least 16 points over a playoff team in the second half on the road and lost. The first came against the Eagles in Philadelphia, when they were up 26-7 early in the third quarter and lost 33-26 after back-to-back blocked field goals.

Those leads say everything about what makes this team so dangerous. The Rams can go into a hostile environment against a good team and play with untapped confidence and joy. They can put together some of the best complementary football, from a run game that sets up play action to a quarterback in Stafford who can throw no-look passes to a receiver in Nacua who piles up 150-yard receiving games like it's routine to a pass rush that can rattle a quarterback like Darnold, as he showed on an interception that Josh Wallace took 56 yards to set up a touchdown.

But the inability to finish either of those games has left them in a precarious spot in one of the best divisions the NFL has seen in recent memory. The Rams are now 11-4 with an MVP-contending quarterback, the best offense in the league and eight wins over teams .500 or better -- and yet the odds are that they will be on the road to begin the playoffs.

The postseason journey is still going to happen for them. That was the reward for taking care of the Detroit Lions last week, when they did close out a two-score lead against a strong team. Because of that, Thursday's game wasn't exactly a "must-win." And between a 17-year quarterback, a head coach with two Super Bowl appearances, a ferocious pass rush and a lethal two-headed rushing attack, they believe they can bring an A-game on the road that few can match.

The No. 1 seed and the NFC West title are no longer in their control. The ultimate prize of a Super Bowl run still is, if they can find the resolve they constantly talk about to turn the latest adversity into their next big surge.

"For us, we had nothing to lose," Turner said. "We went down swinging. That's a really good football team, obviously. It's hard to beat a team three times in a year. We'll see them again. ...

"At the end of the day, we're in the big dance. That's what counts. That's what matters. I don't care where we're at, I don't care if it's freezing cold, snow, rain or if we're back at SoFi (Stadium). Wherever we play, I'm counting on our guys, and I'm betting on our guys."