A manager once told me the mark of a great leader is the variety of people that person can guide to success. It not nearly as difficult to do great things when all parts of an organization are performing at a high level, as it is when there are pockets of mediocrity. Football has a similar reality. The game is easy when every part of the team is excelling. Ask the Saints or the Commanders how it feels when this Seahawks squad has everything working. There will be games where the offense, defense, or special teams are not performing to their standard. The mark of a great team is their ability to win a wide variety of games. Seattle saw their top-ranked passing game grounded against the Vikings, but were able to still dominate thanks to stellar defensive performance, a great day from special teams, and a solid running game.
It is natural to be concerned about how inept the passing game was for Seattle. Pass protection was atrocious, especially in the first half, when Darnold was sacked 4 times and fumbled twice. There will be those who look at this performance and the disaster against the Rams as reasons for pessimism about where this team will go. The reality is that if Darnold had taken 4 sacks in that game in Los Angeles, they probably would have won.
Mike Macdonald appeared to have a similar perspective after the game when said Darnold, “took some good sacks actually in some of those critical moments, which is good team football.” Had Darnold tried to toss the ball into harm’s way instead of taking those sacks, this game could have gone differently.
There is no way the game against the Rams did not impact Darnold’s confidence and that of his coaches. This three game stretch against bad football teams that have defenses capable of pressuring the quarterback is a chance to try and work through some of what ails him.
Minnesota is a unique defensive team with a one-of-a-kind defensive coordinator. Brian Flores blitzes at the highest rate in football, and from unorthodox places and pre-snap looks. The notion that they gave the rest of the league a blueprint for how to play Darnold is as silly as when people said Chris Shula found kryptonite with his heavy use of dime personnel. Very few teams can mimic what either opponent did.
What could transfer is the exploiting of a protection flaw in the Seahawks blitz pickup. There was controversy a year ago in San Francisco that Kyle Shanahan did not give Brock Purdy flexibility to adjust protections at the line. Other teams were getting better at decoding those protections and making big plays at big moments.
Klint Kubiak comes from that lineage, as does John Benton. There may be some adjustments they need to make to keep teams from taking advantage of their protection rules. There were some decent adjustments in the second half when there were more passes to the flat and quick screens. Darnold was not sacked after halftime.
The best way to not get sacked or throw an interception is to run the football. Seattle did a credible job on the ground, rushing for 125 yards, their fourth-straight game over 110 yards. They had two more explosive rushes, bringing their total to 15 in the last four games, ranking 5th in the NFL over that stretch. Their 572 yards rushing since Week 10 ranks 4th in the NFL.
Macdonald and Kubiak know they can cook with early play-action and deep explosive passes. They are in the lab tinkering to find other ways they can win when the game requires a different style of play. Getting a reliable run game would be ideal. Adding a quality screen game would be another useful tool.
The last time a Seahawks team shutout an opponent was also a 26-0 game at home where the offense only managed one touchdown. That was the 2015 squad, during Tyler Lockett’s rookie year. Lockett took a kickoff 105 yards back for a touchdown, and Richard Sherman returned a punt 65 yards. Russell Wilson was sacked four times. The opposing quarterback was an overmatched young backup. Sound familiar?
Max Brosmer walked into Lumen Field as an undrafted rookie free agent who many in Minnesota and around the league were eager to see take the helm after the poor play of J.J. McCarthy. DeMarcus Lawrence, Ernest Jones, and company made sure he left Seattle battered and broken.
Time after time, we have seen unheralded, or just plan bad quarterbacks, play over their heads against the Seahawks. The Giants shamed Seattle twice, first with Colt McCoy in 2020, and then with Daniel Jones last season. Case Keenum did with the Rams against that 2015 squad. Austin Davis beat the LOB in 2014 with the Rams. It does not seem to matter how many times that happens. Many fans still discount a dominant defensive performance against a bad quarterback. Not here.
Holding a team to zero points is a huge achievement no matter who is on the other side of the ball. Taking the ball away five times is impressive work. Scoring on defense is rare and should be celebrated without qualification.
A Seahawks linebacker outscored the entire Vikings offense, and nearly gained more yards. Jones finished with 91 yards on his two interceptions. Minnesota finished with 96 yards passing. They had 87 total yards of offense early in the 4th quarter before some garbage time yards boosted their total to 162 for the game.
Seattle’s defense was as complete as it has been in a long time. Every starter on defense was available outside of Julian Love. It showed.
There was nowhere to go for the Vikings offense. They could not run outside or inside. How overmatched were they in the run game? Minnesota had 10 yards on 10 carries until late in the 4th quarter. They could not beat pressure with quick passes. The Seahawks secondary swarmed everything in front of them. And when they did ask Brosmer to push the ball past the line of scrimmage, a fiendish collage of off-target throws, painful sacks, and awful interceptions, joined together to create nightmares that will haunt his sleep for a long time.
Lawrence has been so much more than a tone setter and a leader on this defense. He has been one of their best and most impactful players. The play he made on Brosmer on a 4th down in the Vikings lone red zone trip was smart and athletic. Plenty of defenders chase after a quarterback on a bootleg, only to see the pass get off anyway or thrown away. Lawrence grabbed the nearest arm of Brosmer and yanked him down toward the ground before the quarterback made a rookie mistake to try and toss the ball to the line of scrimmage to avoid a sack.
Jones was happy to collect the mistake and race the other way for a pick-six. Up 10-0, Seattle was never threatened again. Minnesota did not convert a 3rd down until there was about a minute left in the third quarter. Two plays later, Brosmer threw another interception to Coby Bryant.
Tariq Woolen got his first interception of the season and Jones got a second. He became the first player in Seahawks history to have 2 INTs, 1 TD, and 12+ tackles in a game. His 5 interceptions on the season is the most for a Seahawks linebacker.
His presence on this team cannot be overstated. He is everything you want in a leader. Smart. Passionate. Talented. Selfless. Seattle has won games without him, but make no mistake, they are a very different team when he is roaming the middle of this defense.
Love is expected to be back in the next week or so, and Jarran Reed should be back soon as well. Lawrence believes this defense has another level it can reach. He might be right. They are already as fearsome as any unit in the NFL. Ultimately, the fortunes of this team will rise and fall on their play.
The spending is on that side of the ball. The veterans are on that side of the ball. Macdonald and staff have a full year head start on Kubiak and the offense. All the fireworks on offense have been terrific. Don’t let that fool you into believing the offense must excel for this team to win.
This defense has dismantled every offense they have faced outside of a Bucs team that was going against an unrecognizable crew that was missing Lawrence, Witherspoon, Woolen, and Love. That was the only game where Seattle allowed more than 24 points. Opponents are averaging 16.2 points per game when removing the Tampa Bay game.
Kubiak and Darnold need to be able to score 20+ points to reliably win with this defense. If they can score 25+, this team will be very tough to beat. A great special teams can help, and this was one of Jason Myers best games. He went 4-4 with two kicks of over 54 yards for the first time in his career.
Think back to the last two NFC Championship games the Seahawks hosted. The offense struggled in both. San Francisco led at halftime. Green Bay was running away with the game due to Wilson turnovers and ineffectiveness. It took a gritty ground game and a big time explosive play on 4th down for Seattle to score enough points to beat the 49ers. It took some key turnovers and a special teams touchdown to help create enough opportunity for the offense to finish the job in overtime.
This Seahawks team has the elements it needs to be explosive downfield in the pass attack, with a defense and special teams that will always keep them in the game. Getting more gritty in the run game is the most important step they can take between now and the playoffs, while also helping Darnold have more answers when teams send pressure.
The Rams team that had already started planning their victory parade dropped a game to the Carolina Panthers due to three costly Stafford turnovers. No team had been hotter or playing better football than the Rams. They were favored by 10 points. Carolina was playing without their best cornerback in Jaycee Horn. That Panthers team pounded the Rams defense on the ground and saw their defense make enough big plays to allow their quarterback to win the game on an explosive fourth down pass. We have seen this script before, both in terms of what it takes to beat a great team and how a great team can fall to a lesser opponent.
Seattle did not win a beauty pageant on Sunday. They did crush an opponent on their way to a 9-3 record and the best point differential in the NFL. That win combined with the Rams loss gives the Seahawks something that seemed unlikely just 24 hours earlier: control over their destiny in the NFC West. A 14-3 record will give Seattle a division title and a home game. That record, plus a loss by the Bears somewhere along the rest of the way (they play Green Bay twice, Detroit once, and the 49ers), would give Seattle the #1 overall seed and a first-round bye. Everything is on the table for Macdonald in his second season. He came to the northwest wanting to create a style of football that no opponent wanted to play against. That goal has been met. Bigger goals remain.