The 2026 Seattle Seahawks are not a great team. At this point last season, neither were the 2025 Seattle Seahawks. This 32-29 loss to the San Francisco 49ers had a similar feeling to last year’s Week 5 38-35 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Seattle once again lost a game that they should’ve won, besieged by turnovers on offense. They had the chance to win it at the end, but couldn’t close the deal. Just like last season, this loss drops the Seahawks to 3-2 with both teams having an early season home
loss against the Niners.
Seattle went on a huge run after Week 5 last season, going 14-1 over the rest of the year. As much as I would love the Seahawks to do that again, it’s highly unrealistic. Point blank, they have to play better on offense. The score makes it look like the defense got shredded, but anyone who watched it knows that they actually played really well. It was the offensive turnovers that put them in a hole. Three TD drives spanning a total of less than 30 yards will be hard to overcome. Settling for 5 FGs also is usually a recipe for failure. Even one more TD on any of those drives would’ve totally changed the game. You can wish in one hand and take a dump in the other…see which one fills up first.
Seahawks Droppings
- Turnovers are always a factor, and they’re seen by some as lazy analysis. However, it’s a huge factor with the Seahawks under Mike Macdonald. Seattle took excellent care of the ball at the end of the season in 2025 which was a massive reason for their Super Bowl victory. Darnold’s INTs are a problem. The RB fumbles were even more egregious. Honestly, we were spoiled with Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet. Those two just did not cough the ball up. Both Emmanuel Wilson and George Holani fumbled once. Holani tried to fumble another time as he was running down the sideline and just dropped the ball. Seattle won’t be the team they want until they take care of the damn ball.
- Brace yourselves for a “Sam Darnold Conversation” if he keeps playing like this. Darnold will want an extension in the offseason. John Schneider has made very tough QB decisions in the past. Brian Fleury was brought in to keep Seattle playing “Seahawks Football” which means running the ball and being efficient in the passing game. Might there be another QB out there (or already on the roster) who could play that way at a fraction of the price?
- Jason Myers made all of his FGs and extra points, which is nice. The fact that they had to rely on him that much is never a good thing. Seattle’s offense needs to find a way to come out with TDs.
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba is still the only viable threat for the Seahawks offense, with five catches for 102 yards and 1 TD. Sure, he had an uncharacteristic drop on third down in the final drive. Realistically, Seattle wouldn’t have even been in the game without him. Brian Fleury needs to find a way to get others more involved. Please throw the ball to Tory Horton.
- Seattle’s defense kept them in the game by forcing two turnovers in the third quarter. I just wish they would’ve been able to stop Mike Evans on that 49ers drive that spanned the end of the third quarter and early fourth quarter. He was the only one doing anything for San Francisco, making ridiculous contested catches. The one thing that the defense is still struggling with is limiting teams to FGs when in the red zone.
- Byron Murphy was great today with two sacks. Nick Emmanwori played well. Ty Okada made impact plays in his first game back. Ernest Jones was effective. Nehemiah Pritchett was a factor again with a great read on his INT. Seattle’s defense has the horses to replicate last season’s success, but it hasn’t all come together.
- The offensive line got pushed around most of the game, giving up five sacks. They had some push in the run game during the third quarter, but Seattle only ran for 89 yards total. That’s not playing Seahawks football. Mike Macdonald brought up how they’re not playing complementary football in his postgame presser. The run game is a massive part of that.
This game was a specific brand of frustrating Seahawks football. On one hand they played like garbage and probably should’ve been blown out. On the other, they were in position to win the game and were in my opinion the better team. I didn’t see anything about the 49ers that screamed NFL Superpower. If the Seahawks don’t step on their own junk, they probably win that game by double digits.
As it is, they didn’t win the game and now fall farther behind the 49ers in the NFC West. Seattle needs to get their heads out of there a—es if they have any shot of being competitive in the NFC this year.
