On a night when a historic managerial mistake led directly to the most painful loss in Mariners history, Mike Macdonald and Klint Kubiak said, “hold my beer.” The Seahawks built 14-0 and 27-12 leads that should have been much larger, and still tried every possible way to give the game to a vastly inferior Texans team. Seattle had 4 turnovers, gave up a defensive touchdown, gave away a defensive touchdown, threw interceptions by a quarterback and a receiver, had 12 penalties, and still won. That was the first time in NFL history that happened. Seattle got another dominating performance by their defense, especially the defensive line, and that was enough against a hapless Texans offense. The Seahawks are now tied for the best record in the NFC.
Seahawks fans should have known it was going to be a weird night after the first Texans possession ended in bizarre fashion. Houston quarterback, C.J. Stroud, took a snap on 3rd and 13 from his own 19-yard-line, and basically sprinted toward his own end zone to avoid a sack without realizing Uchenna Nwosu was tracking him down and tackled him in the end zone for an apparent safety. His knee. went down in the end zone. The ball was in the end zone. An official initially ruled it a safety, and then some galaxy-brained referee rules that Stroud’s “forward progress” made him down at the 1-yard line. Mike Macdonald immediately threw the challenge flag, but forward progress rulings are not reviewable.
Forward progress usually involves moving forward. If a running back gets hit at the line of scrimmage and then, on his own accord, jumps backwards to try and find a hole and gets tackled five yards behind the line of scrimmage, forward progress is marked five yards back where forward progress was reestablished. Stroud never attempted to move forward and was willingly yielding ground.
That was the first of a series of bad officiating in this one. Cruelly, the same crew failed to allow the Seahawks to gain forward progress on a run later in the game when they blew the play dead despite the offensive line pushing the pile forward another 5-7 yards.
Kubiak, Darnold, and the Seahawks offense were cooking early. They took the safety-that-wasn’t into a quick touchdown, utilizing rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo for a big 27-yard pass and then another 8-yard throw that took them down to the 1-yard line before the offensive line scored a touchdown by pushing Zach Charbonnet over the goal line.
The defense held the Texans on 3rd and less than a yard, forcing a punt. The Seahawks offense went 80 yards on the next drive for another touchdown, keyed by a 32-yard pass to Cooper Kupp and a gorgeous touchdown throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. This was looking like a laugher as the 1st quarter ended with the Seahawks ahead 14-0 and the second quarter started with another punt from the Texans.
Tory Horton had a nifty 15-yard punt return that started a Seahawks drive at their own 43-yard line. Ken Walker III drew a 15-yard face mask and Darnold hit JSN on 19-yard pass against star cornerback Derek Stingley on 3rd and 8 to move Seattle to the Texans 21-yard-line. Then it got wacky.
Kubiak called a reverse pass with Cooper Kupp throwing to an open JSN, but the pass was way off target and was intercepted by Texans safety Calen Bullock. Certain points were pulled off the board. Houston finally got some movement on offense and kicked a field goal. Seattle came back and the wackiness continued as Jason Myers field goal was blocked. That led to another Texans field goal.
For those scoring at home, that was at least eight points taken off the board by a lost safety, a wide receiver interception, and a blocked field goal. That is often enough to cost a team a football game.
Seattle went into halftime up only eight points, and the Texans were due to get the second half kick. It was mind boggling.
Thankfully, the Texans offense was feckless and Stroud threw a pass to Ernest Jones, who caught it while on his back. It was if Jones was telling everyone the Seahawks defense could stop the Texans in their sleep.
The resulting field goal to put Seattle up 17-6 felt insurmountable. It got even more so after Seattle stopped the Texans on 4th down the next drive, followed by another Charbonnet touchdown to go up 27-12. The Seahawks forced another three-and-out with a Ty Okada sack to end the third quarter.
All that was left to do was run out the clock. RUN out the clock.
Macdonald made a highly questionable decision to punt the ball on 4th and 1 from the Texans 44-yard line. Seattle has converted every one of the A.J. Barner tush push plays this season. They had converted one in this game. You had just rattled off a 13-yard run by Walker. Close.
Instead, Macdonald chose to do some odd punt fake in the hopes of drawing Houston offsides and then punted. The Texans returned the ball to the 21-yard line. Seattle gained 23 yards in field position. Yes, the defense had been playing lights out, but that should be an easy call to go for the first down and drain more clock. They were maybe 5-10 yards from field goal range.
It seemed to work out when the Texans could not pick up a first down. The process was still off. That will bite this team in bigger games against better opponents.
Seattle’s next possession started at their own 36-yard line with roughly 12 mins to go in the game. Easy choice to run the football. Nope. Incompletion on first down. Next play is a 16-yard run to Walker. Easy decision to run on the next play, right? Nope. Deep pass to Tory Horton was incomplete and there was a holding penalty.
Those two passes took a combined 11 seconds off the clock. The single run play took 44 seconds off the clock. There would not be another run on the series. A short pass to Charbonnet for 6 yards and then the fateful pass to Arroyo over the middle when he fumbled.
The Seahawks defense does their job again to stop Houston on downs. Seattle gets the ball back with less than nine minutes left in the game at their own 45-yard line. Walker breaks through for 17 yards, but they call Grey Zabel for a questionable holding penalty.
On 1st and 17, Kubiak dials up another pass over the middle instead of a high percentage screen or run play. It is intercepted. Understand that the Seahawks would have had a more positive result on these series if they simply knelt three times and punted. That has to be the mindset. Bleed the clock.
Remarkably, the defense stopped the Texans again on downs. This time, right on the goal line.
Kubiak correctly calls a run that gains a totally accepted three yards. Then, he goes back to the pass, and another deep pass at that. Incomplete. Six seconds. On 3rd and 7, deep in his own territory, knowing his quarterback already had been sacked for a touchdown, he called another pass play. Somewhere, Mike Holmgren was screaming at his television to run a draw play to Mack Strong.
Darnold made another bad decision and was sacked for what was very close to a safety. These are catastrophic mistakes. This was the Rams home loss last year all over again, except the opponent did not have Matt Stafford on the other sideline.
The Texans managed to finally score a prayer touchdown to pull within a score. A game that should have been over a half hour earlier, was somehow in question with a little over two minutes to go.
Fittingly, Kubiak finally called only run plays, and thanks to a penalty against the Texans, were able to run out the clock for a much-needed win before the bye week.
Many folks will read this and question the amount of criticism for a game where the Seahawks won handily and were clearly the better team. Houston analysts and fans are skewering their sideline for being out-schemed and out-coached. This is one of those situations where seemingly conflicting statements can all be true.
The Seahawks out-schemed the Texans on both sides of the ball. The Seahawks out-coached a team that was coming off a bye week and had plenty of time to prepare. The Seahawks defense was outstanding, with special performances from a variety of players. Sam Darnold made some spectacular throws. Darnold also made the worst decisions of the season. Macdonald and Kubiak made a ton of unforced errors. The amount of mistakes the Seahawks made in this game would have resulted in a loss to a lot of other football teams. The fact that they won is further evidence that their ceiling is much higher than anyone expected.
A few players that deserve a shout who have not had as much attention thus far. Nick Emmanwori is looking like the second 1st-round pick Seattle hoped he would be when they traded up to draft him in the 2nd round. Everything about him at the NFL Combine pointed to greatness. Not just his record-setting numbers, but how he carried himself and the easy confidence he displayed. Many draft analysts scoffed at him as being just a “good tester,” but a problematic football player.
This was an All-American player. He was not some massive project who was a good athlete. Macdonald knew exactly how he wanted to use him and Emmanwori put it all on display Monday night.
The clip you will see countless times that had my jaw drop in real-time was when he matched slot receiver Jaylen Noel stride-for-stride 40+ yards downfield. Noel ran in the 4.3s at the combine. Emmanwori weighs at least 25 pounds more than Noel and is five inches taller. That is not supposed to be possible.
He also blitzed and pressures Stroud multiple times, made a beautiful read on a zone coverage play to break up a pass, and was stout in run defense. The NFL is learning just how big of a mistake it was to give Macdonald a nuclear weapon like Emmanwori. He can impact every facet of the defense, and this secondary has only had Love, Emmanwori, Witherspoon and Woolen all available for 4 snaps the entire season. That will change after the bye week.
Drake Thomas and Okada deserve some love as well. Both impacted the game in multiple ways with tackles for loss, pass breakups and pass rush. Thomas is gaining steam as the new starter at linebacker. Okada has shown he can contribute to winning football after he has some very rough games earlier in the season.
Seattle will have a road-heavy November ahead of them, with trips to Washington, Tennessee, and Los Angeles, with a single home game against the Cardinals. The game against the Rams could very well decide the division. Macdonald and crew get the week to self-scout and make some adjustments. They will get back Robbie Ouzts, Derick Hall, Love, and Witherspoon. They may also make a trade before their next game.
This is a team that should aspire to win a ring this year. They are making youthful mistakes, both players and coaches. This defense, though, has come to play just about every single week and will keep them in games. The offense has been shockingly potent, even against the best scoring defense in the NFL. Seattle looks like a team that has less to prove about their ceiling, and more to prove about reducing self-inflicted wounds that needlessly lower their floor.
One Seattle’s team came to a painful end, at least in part, due to not learning from mistakes during the season. As that season ends, a new hope rises, but only if Macdonald, Kubiak, and Darnold learn the hard lessons now.