Not ‘fortuitous’ DeMarcus Lawrence explains ruining Rams play for Super Seahawks
Rams coach Sean McVay called it “a fortuitous bust.”
The only thing the Seahawks see as fortuitous about it is general manager John Schneider deciding 10 months ago to sign free-agent DeMarcus Lawrence.
“Fortuitous...what did he say? Fortuitous bust?” Lawrence, the 12th-year veteran defensive end, said Thursday before doing with his Seattle teammates something McVay’s Los Angeles team is not doing.
Practicing for the Super Bowl.
“Yeah, man, I’ll take it. I’ll take it all day,” Lawrence said.
The Pro Bowl end said it wasn’t luck. It wasn’t accident.
“It was definitely understanding the type of scheme that he runs,” he said of McVay.
Lawrence’s brains, instincts, experience and improvisation are why the Seahawks kept McVay’s Rams from scoring what would have been the go-ahead touchdown with 5 minutes left in the NFC championship game last weekend.
The Seahawks won 31-27. The Seahawks, not the Rams, are playing in Super Bowl 60 against the New England Patriots Feb. 8 in Santa Clara, California.
All thanks to what Lawrence did, unscripted, to the immediate dismay of his head coach during the play.
It was another example of how safety Julian Love says Lawrence has “transformed” the Seahawks defense into the top-ranked one in the league this season. This is Lawrence’s first season with Seattle, after 11 years with the Dallas Cowboys.
DeMarcus Lawrence out-smarted the Rams
L.A. had fourth and 4 and the Seahawks 6-yard line down by 4 points with 5 minutes remaining last Sunday night. The Rams offense was on its way to 479 yards. It was poised to silence roaring Lumen Field with a crushing touchdown that might have ended Seattle’s season.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald called for a “zero” blitz. That is, no safeties in the middle of the field. He aligned Love, the safety, on the line of scrimmage, on the right end of the defensive line. Lawrence was lined up inside Love.
The call by McVay, the preeminent offensive mind of the last decade in the NFL, actually beat Macdonald’s defensive play call. McVay anticipated Seattle’s blitz. He sent Rams running back Kyren Williams immediately out to the left sideline on a pass pattern behind and outside where Love was blitzing from.
At the decisive snap, Love came crashing hard at Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Too hard. Stafford recognized Love’s blitz. He prepared to toss a pass over him to Williams for an easy touchdown.
Stafford saw that Williams was the only Ram out to that left sideline. Because Williams was sprinting from out of the backfield, no other Seahawks defenders were outside left at the sideline to track the running back breaking free behind Love.
Except Lawrence. The veteran teammates have called “crazy as hell” during his first Seattle season is also crazy smart.
The Pro Bowl defensive end has earned $141 million over his 12-year NFL career by chasing and sacking quarterbacks. It’s what he does. On this play, he had a clear, direct, unblocked path to sack Stafford. The Rams’ left tackle slanted down to help his guard block on inside pass protection.
Yet Lawrence declined the opportunity to sack Stafford and win the game that way.
He did the inexplicable — to McVay, Macdonald, and almost everyone else.
On the Seahawks sideline, a panicked Macdonald said into his headset to his assistants about the guy his play call supposedly had rushing free in on Stafford: “Where’s the end?”
Where was Lawrence?
Lawrence had seen Love was too committed, too soon to the blitz. He realized immediately that Williams had already beaten the safety to the left sideline for what would have been the go-ahead touchdown.
So Lawrence didn’t charge. He turned his shoulders to the sideline. He sprinted back and outside, away from the line of scrimmage, instantly in step with Williams, behind the beaten Love.
Lawrence dropped into pass coverage. Like, you know, a safety would do.
“He saved my ass,” Love said Thursday.
Stafford was stunned. The 37-year-old QB, the likely league MVP to be announced next week, has seen just about everything in his 17-year NFL career. But he’d never seen a defensive end abandon a free path to a sack to pick up for his safety and cover a running back to the sideline and end zone. Stafford later called what Lawrence did “a mishap.”
That “mishap” forced Stafford to turn his eyes and head away from his primary option to pass, Williams, to the center of the field. That’s where tight end Terrance Ferguson was running from right to left across the back middle of the end zone. Stafford was running out of time to throw, so he did, to Ferguson. Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon knew Ferguson was going to run that route. He was inside and in front of the tight end when the ball arrived. Witherspoon easily broke up Stafford’s pass.
Incomplete. Turnover on downs. Sam Darnold and the Seahawks offense ran all but the final 25 seconds off the clock. Seattle advanced to its fourth Super Bowl, its first in 11 years.
After the game, McVay was still stunned by what Lawrence did. He said the Seahawks “lucked into” covering Williams and stopping the critical fourth-down play.
Thursday, Lawrence got a chuckle out of that.
“The back was flaring (out). Love came down, let me know he was here. So that means he has the back,” Lawrence said.
“But the back flared out so fast, I knew it was a funky look.
“And, you know, I had to use my ‘Law logic’ and, you know, help out.
“I wasn’t threatened by Matt Stafford running the ball. So, I mean, why not drop?
“You know, instinctual players.”
What made Lawrence, in that moment, when he’s paid to sack quarterbacks, think he’d become a defensive back and drop into pass coverage instead?
“The back was too fast,” Lawrence said.
“You know, if it was a regular design and the back wasn’t as ‘hot,’ the back would have waited to see if Julian was going to rush first, and then flare it out. But he didn’t wait.
“And so, that was definitely an indicator. An ‘Oh, s***!” moment. The back is flaring out that fast, that means that’s his ‘hot’ (receiver, against the blitz) and he’s going to the back first.
“You know, playing football as long as I have played, I’ve only seen so many formations and schemes. You start to pick up on those things.”
Then Lawrence said with a straight face: “Like McVay said, ‘fortuitous bust.”
Julian Love says thanks
Four days later, on his way to playing what will be his and Lawrence’s first Super Bowl, Love was still marveling at what his D-end D-Law did.
“I had a peel on the (running back), but I was a step too far up field and he got out pretty quick,” Love said. “It was a designed play (by the Rams), obviously.
“And then D-Law, he felt something was going on...something was off, in his mind. Thankfully he had the wherewithal to drop...and he just bailed into the zone.
“Obviously was a great spot — just off his instincts.”
Love has played 106 regular-season games over seven NFL seasons. Super Bowl 60 against the New England Patriots Feb. 8 will be his fifth career playoff game. Before that he played 38 games over three seasons while becoming an All-American at Notre Dame. Before that, he starred for years at Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park, Illinois.
In all his years, more than half the 27-year-old Love’s lifetime, he’d never before seen a defensive end do what Lawrence did to send the Seahawks into the Super Bowl.
“No,” Love said.
“I think I’ve said that he’s special. He’s a perimeter killer.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Not ‘fortuitous’ DeMarcus Lawrence explains ruining Rams play for Super Seahawks."
