When the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl 60, they became only the 10th team to end the regular season with a negative turnover differential but still hoist the Lombardi Trophy. According to Stathead, no team has ever won more games in a season despite a minus in the turnover column than the 2025 Seahawks. But that’s only part of the story when it comes to Seattle’s tale of two halves.
Including last season’s playoffs, the Seahawks have won 11 straight games, tying a franchise record. Outside of their
thrilling regular season win over the Los Angeles Rams, they have dominated in the turnover department. Compare that to the preceding 11 games, in which they were still 8-3, and it’s easy to see how the Seahawks have tilted close games in their favor and turned competitive games into blowouts.
Seattle Seahawks turnover splits
That’s right. The Seahawks have kept the turnovers down, driven the takeaways up, and they’re scoring off of those takeaways at a very high clip. When they have turned it over during their win streak, they’ve allowed only 10 points off those eight giveaways. The only touchdown off a Seahawks turnover was in the second Rams game, and that was literally a 1-yard drive after a Sam Darnold interception.
Of the Seahawks’ 22 takeaways on defense and special teams, 16 have resulted in at least a field goal, including 12 touchdowns.
During Seattle’s 8-3 start last season, the losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams were more or less a story of untimely and costly turnovers. The Buccaneers recovered a Jalen Milroe fumble and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, and picked off Sam Darnold late for the winning field goal. Seattle didn’t come remotely close to forcing a turnover. Against the Rams, Darnold threw four interceptions, two of which led to touchdowns, while Seattle’s takeaway off of a Puka Nacua fumble only led to a field goal. That’s -21 points in the points off turnover column in games lost by a combined five points. Even the eight-point win over the Houston Texans could’ve been a blowout if not for a -3 turnover differential, including Darnold losing a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
In the somewhat sputtering portion of their current 11-game winning streak, the Seahawks have repeatedly come up with turnovers to generate points. Against the Minnesota Vikings, 17 of their 26 points were off Vikings giveaways (mostly off poor Max Brosmer). After a lackluster first half versus the Atlanta Falcons, the Seahawks turned the screws and turned a 6-6 halftime score into a 37-9 blowout in large part to a trio of turnovers, which led to 17 points. Likewise versus the Carolina Panthers, they quickly turned a 3-3 third quarter score into 17-3 thanks to short fields set up by a pair of Carolina turnovers. In the nail-biter of an NFC Championship Game versus the Rams, Xavier Smith’s muffed punt gifted Seattle a short field and a Jake Bobo touchdown, which gave the Seahawks an 11-point lead and essentially provided enough cushion for the Seahawks to hang on for the win.
Fast foward to the opening night win over the Patriots, the Jaxon Smith-Njigba tying touchdown is likely not possible without the Nehemiah Pritchett tip-drill interception. Julian Love’s pick off of Drake Maye gave Seattle a short field to kick the (ultimately) game-winning field goal. The final interception by Josh Jobe didn’t need anything other than a subsequent victory formation kneel.
And, of course, sometimes the defense does the scoring to seal a Super Bowl victory.
After being a significant net negative in turnovers through the first 28 games under Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald, Seattle has found a way to take better care of the ball, while the league’s best defense has turned the screws to “see ball, get ball,” and keep the good times rolling.
