Week one is a known liar in the NFL. The Seahawks are hoping week two is the truth. Just a few days removed from a gut punch home loss to the rival 49ers, Mike Macdonald and his team flew across the country and put on a performance in Pittsburgh that would make Mike Holmgren and and Matt Hasselbeck smile. Known as the Stealers by many Seahawks fan for their controversial Super Bowl victory to end the 2005 season, the Steel City has rarely been a hospitable place for Seattle or any visiting teams. Since the year 2000, just three teams have won more games at home than the Steelers (140). The Seahawks had played just four times in Pittsburgh over the last 25 years, and had lost three. Seattle had been shutout only 4 times in 30 years, and two of them came in Pittsburgh. It was looking like things may go the home team’s way again when a series of Seahawks mistakes helped lift the Steelers to a 14-7 halftime lead despite only gaining 69 yards. All three phases clicked in the second half as they outscored Pittsburgh 24-3 to close the game and left DK Metcalf, Aaron Rodgers and Steelers fans exiting Arcisure Stadium empty handed.
This was a game that did not equal the conference and divisional matchup against the 49ers in terms of seeding and possible tiebreakers. It did, however, go a long way toward flushing that loss from their system. Seattle was a larger underdog in this game, and were playing without Devon Witherspoon. The Steelers were flying high after putting up 34 points on the road with their ancient quarterback tossing four touchdowns. Riq Woolen had been admonished by coaches, and Tyrice Knight was at risk of losing his job to Drake Thomas. Klint Kubiak had befuddled everyone with his game plan. Ken Walker III looked like he may no longer be the starter in the backfield. Cooper Kupp looked washed. Tory Horton Jr. was invisible. Sam Darnold and Abe Lucas had a forgettable end to the game.
What a difference a week makes.
Kubiak and Darnold had the Seattle offense cooking from the start in this one. They scored the Seahawks first opening drive TD since 2023, a span of 23 games. The drive included first down conversions on 3rd and 6 and 3rd and 10 to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and was capped by a 21-yard touchdown pass to Horton on a play action pass from under center. It was also the first catch of Horton’s NFL career.
That would be the only points for Seattle in the half. A missed 36-yard field goal by Jason Meyers, two interceptions by Darnold, and a missed interception by substitute nickel corner, Derion Kendrick, turned what should have been a comfortable halftime lead into a deficit.
The most egregious error in the half may have been Kubiak’s decision to eschew the tush push with A.J. Barner that had worked both times it had been used this season, and decide to go with a slow developing play action pass that was blown up by Cam Heyward, and resulting in an interception that nearly cost Seattle the game.
This felt like the worst type of overthinking by the coaching staff. The whole point of implementing a play like the tush push is to have a reliable solution for short yardage situations. The play had succeeded against the stout 49ers front and the Steelers earlier. Why go away from it?
To then call a pass play made the decision even more bewildering. That’s the kind of play call that makes sense when you have earned the reputation of a hard-nosed running team that a defense has to sell out to stop in short yardage. Seattle has not even proven that to themselves, let alone opponents.
There was another poor coaching decision later in the game when the Seahawks had a 3rd and 10 at their own 20-yard line. Macdonald called a timeout with the play clock about to hit zero. The chances of conversion there were low, and burning a timeout there was pointless. It came back to burn them when they had a far more consequential 3rd and 6 in Steelers territory with time again running low on the play clock. They did not call for time there and the offense rushed to get off the snap, only to have Darnold throw to nobody as the players were not on the same page.
These are self-inflicted wounds that are simple process fixes. The Eagles don’t have to think about what they want to do on 4th and 1. Seattle shouldn’t either, until opponents give them a reason to do so.
Fortunately, the team made enough plays with the Steelers making some errors of their own, to dominate the second half.
Seattle scored a touchdown on their first possession of the second half on a drive that was a shining example of the team they want to be. Walker gashed the Steelers for runs of 9, 15, and a pair of 5 yarders. The ball was spread around to three different targets, none of which were Smith-Njigba. The young tight ends got involved with Elijah Arroyo making a catch and Barner punctuating the drive with a touchdown. They were under center for 6 of the 9 plays, with play action utilized effectively. Darnold was 4-4 on the 4 passes, mixed nicely with the 5 running plays.
Barner continues to be a red zone weapon. He now has 5 touchdown catches in his short career, which matches the total from his entire 45-game college career. It also now puts him in a tie with Brock Bowers for most TD catches by a TE in the 2024 draft class. Bowers has been targeted 161 times. Barner has been targeted 43 times.
Kupp was a factor throughout the day. Not only did he finish with 7 catches and 90 yards, but 42 of the yards came after the catch. The whispers were becoming shouts that he was no longer a viable NFL receiver. This performance shouted back.
All of this was made possible by an offensive line that took another step forward. Gone were the artificially quick passes that made up over half the throws by Darnold a week earlier. There were longer developing play action passes and straight dropbacks, and the line provided solid protection on the day. A few blitzes got home, but the Seahawks pass protection of the previous decade had trouble blocking 3-4 defenders, so this was still a noticeable improvement.
Abe Lucas appeared to have a particularly strong game, especially in run blocking. Charles Cross had one of the best blocks of the day on a nondescript 5-yard run that had him drive-blocking his man onto his back seven yards downfield. Robbie Ouzts made his presence felt, getting a ton of snaps, often lined up as a tight end. He had a gorgeous pancake block to help spring Walker on his longest run of the day.
Zach Charbonnet and Walker did they best Freaky Friday rendition as they switched places in what seems to be an arrangement where only one back can be productive during a game. Watch out if the Seahawks can actually get both of these guys cooking at the same time.
Walker was finally back to his explosive self. This is a guy who has run behind such bad blocking, it was hard to remember just how good he was as a rookie. He was arguably the most dangerous offensive weapon on the field for Seattle, which is how it should look if things are going well.
This is a player who should be good for a 100+ scrimmage yards every single week. He is too talented and too dangerous to be the afterthought he had started to become. It was fitting that he put an exclamation point on the game by taking a toss play to the left on 3rd and goal from the 19 yard line and ran it in for a touchdown. He becomes the first player in NFL history to score a touchdown on a run of 19+ yards on 3rd or 4th and goal.
He is capable of more. So is this running game.
The man who has earned The Most Dangerous Weapon moniker on this offense is Smith-Njigba. The Steelers came into this game knowing he was the focal point of the pass game. They were going to bracket him all day and try to put their best corner, Jalen Ramsey, on him whenever possible. Smith-Njigba hardly seemed to notice as he ho-hummed his way to another 100 yards receiving. He is quickly establishing himself as not only a viable #1 receiver, but as one of the best receivers in the game.
People said he would struggle without DK Metcalf drawing coverage. They said he was just a slot receiver. They said he wasn’t a downfield threat. That chorus of doubters is looking like Rosie O’Donnell singing the national anthem.
Smith-Njigba is beating all comers, all coverages, on all parts of the field. His 43-yard catch on Ramsey’s head led to Walker’s historic touchdown scamper. Defenses are going to dedicate more and more attention to Smith-Njigba, which only matters if the rest receiving weapons are capable of exploiting their advantages. Kupp, Horton, Arroyo, and Barner did that perfectly in this game.
It felt like Kubiak took the training wheels off Darnold and the offensive line this week. You could feel the trust build as Darnold converted multiple 3rd and long passes. The interception he threw early was a nice play by Ramsey, and not a terrible throw or decision. It was aggressive and risky, but not poorly thrown or to the wrong receiver.
Generally, Darnold looked like a guy capable of carrying a heavier load than most expected him to in this offense. Evidence is mounting that John Schneider may have done the unthinkable and found a quality starting quarterback at a discount in free agency. That simply does not happen in this league.
Darnold still has his weak spots, like sensing the pass rush and turning the ball over too often, but his ratio of positive-to-negative plays has skewed heavily toward the good side over his last 20 games. At some point, we stop waiting for the “Old Sam” to return. Those who would point to his two interceptions as reason to pump the brakes should tally up all the other plays in this game and then look at his process throughout. This was a second straight quality start from the Seattle signal caller.
This Seahawks defense came into the season with far higher expectations than the offense. They played their hearts out against the 49ers and were understandably demoralized by the way things ended. The question was whether they could play with the same physicality and energy a week later without their emotional leader.
Witherspoon made the trip to Pittsburgh and went through an extensive pre-game workout, but he was still not able to run full speed without some hitch in his gate. That meant a new DK had to take over for Seattle, Derion Kendrick. The corner who Seattle claimed off waivers from the Rams, had played almost exclusively outside corner in his career, but had started cross-training at nickel last season before he tore his ACL. The Rams played him some at nickel during preseason, which is probably part of what attracted Seattle to him
He very nearly had more interceptions in this game than Witherspoon has in his career. Rodgers threw a pass right to Kendrick in the first half, which Kendrick not only did not catch, but volleyed up in the air and almost into the hands of a Steelers receiver. He more than made up for it when he made a diving catch of a ball that caromed off the hands of a Steelers receiver in the endzone for a game-changing pick.
Macdonald used a variety of combinations in the secondary to make up for the absences of Witherspoon and Nick Emmanwori. Kendrick played nickel. D’Anthony Bell played big nickel. Ty Okada sometimes came in to play deep safety and Julian Love would walk down to the box.
Meanwhile, Woolen and Josh Jobe were locking down the outside all day. No Steelers wide receiver had more than 22 yards, and all 22 of those yards to Calvin Austin came when the game was out of reach near the two minute warning. Metcalf was mostly silent. He had his customary drops, but did make a rare contested catch in the red zone for the Steelers only touchdown.
Jobe is becoming a big story in this season. Often cited as the weak spot in the secondary, all he has done through two games is play nearly flawless football. Should this continue, his addition will go down as another big win for Schneider.
Woolen could have sulked after a rough week, but played with great effort and result. He had one penalty, but was otherwise blanketing his opponents on the day.
The biggest story on that side of the ball may have been the play of second year defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, who had a better rookie season than his numbers indicated. His first game this year followed a similar script in that his level of play was much higher than his stats. No need for advanced metrics in this one. Murphy finished with 1.5 sacks and 5 pressures.
The last time a Seahawks DT has had 1.5+ sacks in a game while playing in the first 15 games of their career was Jordan Hill back in 2014. Disruptive defensive tackles are a rare breed. Ones who have the desire to play both the run and the talent to rush the passer are even more hard to find. This was a building block performance for Murphy.
When Ernest Jones IV heard me mention the multiple sack performance to Tyrice Knight in the celebratory postgame locker room, Jones leapt up from his seat wearing just a towel and said, “Murph got two sacks!! Where you at Murph!?” He then walked off to find him with a big smile on his face.
The linebackers had plenty to smile about themselves. Knight had a big bounce back game that had him flying all over the field making tackles. He acknowledged afterwards that there was some rust after missing 30 days due to injury during training camp.
Special teams deserves a shout in this one. George Holani will get well earned praise for his touchdown recovery of a kickoff that allowed the Seahawks to create some breathing room, but Jason Meyers and Jay Harbaugh should get some shine as well.
Meyers kick was expertly skipped into the landing zone and over the head of the returner. It would have been an uncomfortable catch either way. Instead, the rookie returner made a huge mistake and let the ball settle in the end zone while Holani raced down the field to recover it while managing to stay inbounds.
Meyers also made a 54-yard field goal after missing a 36-yarder earlier. Horton had a nice punt return and Michael Dickson had a good day punting. Coverage was solid all afternoon. The special teams have made big plays in each of the first two games.
In all, the Seahawks won for the third straight time as road underdogs, and are 4-1 in those situations under Macdonald. A lot of the disparity in record between home and road can be attributed to quality of opponent. Not this time. Winning in Pittsburgh during their home opener with the talent they have should not be dismissed.
It is also worth noting that the Seahawks opponent seemed to struggle with the physicality of Seattle for the second straight week. A laundry list of Steelers left the game due to injury after the 49ers experienced the same fate.
The laws of physics would tell you that when two objects collide, the object with greater density and velocity will do the most damage. Seattle has felt like the bigger, faster, stronger team through two weeks, even if their record is just 1-1. It has been a long time since you could say that about a Seahawks team facing the 49ers and Steelers.
Just like last week, however, this was just one game. It won’t make up for the Super Bowl loss all those years ago or the home opening defeat to San Francisco, but it will allow this team to exhale and start building the belief that they are who they thought they were, and not who the naysayers have said they will be.
Week one is a liar. Seattle hopes the truth will set them free.