Los Angeles Rams linebacker Jared Verse offered some brutal honesty on what transpired in the NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks.
The Los Angeles Rams went 1-2 against the Seattle Seahawks in 2025, with the final matchup deciding who punched their ticket to the Super Bowl.
That ticket belonged to the Seahawks, who are now Super Bowl champions. Considering how well the team played all season and through the playoffs, Rams linebacker Jared Verse spoke about the pressure of the matchup with some major honesty.
When Sam Darnold arrived in Seattle, nobody quite knew what the team would be. Fortunately, head coach Mike Macdonald molded the defense into something fierce, leaving Darnold to simply play a lot of mistake-free football.
Darnold hooked up with Jaxon Smith-Njigba plenty, leading to the receiver leading the league with 1,793 yards.
The connection was one of the major elements that the Rams could not slow down. Many teams couldn't, and the injuries, less-than-stellar play from the secondary left Darnold to throw 346 yards and three touchdowns.
There were many instances where it seemed the Rams were in full control, but a muffed punt by Xavier Smith turned the tide for the Seahawks. That, and it appears the defense as a whole for the team faced some steep issues.
Verse joined "The Pivot" podcast, where he spoke about not only his disdain for the Seahawks but also admitted with some major honesty that the defense was a bit panicked during the NFC Championship.
"They're a division rival, all that good stuff. But like I genuinely don't like them," Verse said on “The Pivot” podcast last week. "l got like a disdain in my heart for them. Like, I hate them. I don't like the Seahawks at all. There's nothing I like about them. I don't like their players. There's nobody I like about their staff. I don't like them.
"But when we play them, the whole team's kind of like that. Where, like, you have your best friend on the sideline. You don't like them. Like my mom could be wearing Seahawks colors, and like that's my OPP that day."
Naturally, Verse went into his disdain for a team that is his direct rival. Not only due to being in the same division, but the fact that the Seahawks ended the Rams' season early.
Verse may have gotten some laughs saying he would not like his own mother if she wore Seahawks gear, pointing to the major deep-seated rivalry.
Following the conversation, Verse also provided some honestly what he thinks he did wrong in the game, and what happened to the defense as a whole.
"I think this is just me being completely blatantly honest. I think it was a young mindset," Verse said.
"We all hyped up all week," Verse added. "We're like, 'Yeah, we're going to beat them again. We know what we learned from last time.' And then when we start having trouble -- early on, they throw a big play, everybody's kind of like, s------- the bed. Like, 'Oh, what do we do now? This isn't going the way we thought this was going to go. They're not laying down.'"
Verse pointed to the Seahawks fighting back, especially in the third quarter when the Rams cut the score to 24-20, but Seattle fired right back to extend the score to 31-20.
"And when we started having trouble, we didn't know what to do," said Verse. "Like some of us on the defense, some, you know, I'm going to take full blame, too. Like, there were a couple of times I'm like, but they're running the other way. Like, I don't know what to do. I can't chase. Like I'm not that fast. I can't chase him on the backside. What do I do? So when we had some troubles, we just kind of like mentally shut down."
Verse and the defense may have been beaten that day, but the unit and the team is in no way defeated. Matthew Stafford announced his return, and the core of the Rams roster should remain for 2026.
Mental errors can always be corrected, and Verse just spoke about what he perceived went wrong. Either way, expect both teams to be back competing at a high-level in 2026.