What is the story about?
The Seattle Seahawks aren’t to be buried just yet, as a national audience found out on Sunday Night Football.
Not only did the Super Bowl champions crush the Kansas City Chiefs offense all night, the offense looked cohesive, competent, and as free-flowing as it’s really looked all season. Over 400 yards of offense, 11/16 on third downs, and no sacks allowed was vital. But that defense? Wow. Patrick Mahomes has never quarterbacked an offense that inept until tonight
.Join myself and Bryce Coutts for
live post-game reaction to Seattle’s versus the Kansas City Chiefs. We’re starting up at about 9:00 pm PT and should run for a little over an hour. We’ll be watching the comments section and our own YouTube chat.
Seahawks vs. Chiefs: What we learned
- The Seahawks defensive dominance is a reminder that this is still an elite unit. The Seahawks defense didn’t even let the Chiefs get into the red zone, never mind the end zone. Kenneth Walker had just 36 yards rushing and zero explosive plays, while Patrick Mahomes rarely looked comfortable in the pocket and he couldn’t find open receivers on time with regularity.
- Emanuel Wilson can still have a role in this offense even when Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price return. If Walker not having a big night isn’t a major shock, who had Wilson with 100 yards on 24 carries and a game-sealing touchdown? While Wilson didn’t have too many huge plays in terms of explosive runs (outside of the TD), his physical running style seemingly wore the Chiefs defense down until they finally broke.
- Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba are still a lethal combination. Darnold’s awful interception aside, Sam looked as good and as comfortable in this offense as he’s had all season. He scrambled for timely first downs, made several clutch throws on third down, and his chemistry with Jaxon Smith-Njigba is still superb. JSN had 9 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown, with 13 rushing yards due to two Darnold throws going down as laterals.
- The offense looked more functional, even if there were some tough moments. As mentioned at the top, the Seahawks hummed on third down, had long, time-consuming drives, and they showed a lot more cohesiveness. Turnovers were kept to just the one from Darnold, no one fumbled, and the time of possession battle skewed heavily in Seattle’s favor. Perhaps there are positive signs that the mini-bye was a get-right moment for both Darnold and Brian Fleury, but we’ll need to keep seeing improvement over the next few weeks to be sure.
