The Seahawks got the last laugh in 2025.
First came the massive overtime comeback in Week 16 that ultimately led to Seattle getting the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Then the Seahawks won a 31-27 offensive tussle in the NFC Championship Game.
Verse blamed the playoff loss on the Rams young defense.
“I think this is just me being completely blatantly honest. I think it was a young mindset. I think it was my fault on the defense,” he 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—-ing 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 said that the young defense started “freaking out” after things didn’t go well early. The second-year player added that the Rams D had the mindset that it would be a “cake walk.”
“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.”