When the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 11, running the table was effectively the only realistic path toward winning the NFC West over the Rams and San Francisco 49ers. That meant
winning seven consecutive regular season games for the first time since 2013.
They ran the damn table, and all that stands between the Seahawks and a return trip to Santa Clara for Super Bowl 60 is winning two home playoff games. Lumen Field has not been much of an advantage for the Seahawks over the past several seasons, but after a 14-3 record and a 6-2 mark at home, that place will be rocking at epic levels when the Divisional Round begins.
Let’s get to Winners and Losers from Seattle’s masterful 13-3 win over San Francisco.
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Winners
Mike Macdonald: Coach of the Year?
Maybe he’ll win Coach of the Year, maybe he won’t. He’s Coach of the Year in our hearts. The Seahawks defense has repeatedly been torn apart by the 49ers offense for years, and he just held them to 20 points across two games and three points with the NFC West title at stake in their own building. Beyond how well coached and well prepared the Seahawks look under Coach Macdonald, it’s how disciplined this defense is on a near-weekly basis.
How many blown coverages can you recall? How many bad run fits have you seen? How many times have the Seahawks looked completely lost on defense and unable to adjust? I don’t want to shade Pete Carroll because this defense is very much reminiscent of his best defenses, but the Seahawks’ defensive decline was partly talent and partly lack of discipline. Too many time the Seahawks looked like they were doing aimless roaming and unsure who to cover or where to go. Macdonald has dealt with injuries at all three levels of this defense and it’s been plug-and-play success almost all the time. Everyone knows how to do their damn job even when they literally lose their starting job.
Full credit to Mike Macdonald for turning a defense that was embarrassing in 2023 (with a lot of the same players on this current roster) into the best (or second-best, if you rate the Houston Texans higher) group in the NFL.
John Schneider (and Jody Allen’s) boldness pays off
Schneider should definitely win Executive of the Year and that’s not debatable. He traded Geno Smith and DK Metcalf when he didn’t absolutely have to. He signed Sam Darnold, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Cooper Kupp in the most active free agency period the Seahawks have had in forever. He drafted Grey Zabel and Nick Emmanwori with his first two picks. Before all of that, he replaced almost the whole offensive coaching staff and brought in Klint Kubiak and company to run an offense that is flawed but miles better than what Ryan Grubb was cooking up. Just about every major consequential personnel decision was a net positive, and as someone who has been critical of John needing to re-earn his reputation as a top general manager, he earned it and then some.
Jody Allen and Seahawks ownership also were bold two years ago in moving on from Pete Carroll. Not to kick Pete while he’s down, but Seattle just won the number one seed and the Raiders could “win” the number one overall pick on Sunday. Carroll has meant a lot to the Seahawks organization but there comes a time to move on even with all of his success in Seattle. A shake-up was required to take that next step after jogging in place, and now they’re almost at the NFL’s summit.
The entire Seahawks defense was practically perfect
I’d be here all night if I had to list all the best individual performers on Seattle’s defense. What a masterclass in deconstructing a mad genius’ offense, injuries to Ricky Pearsall and Trent Williams fully acknowledged. Seattle’s pass rush won without blitzing, the coverage was air tight and receivers were rarely open, and Christian McCaffrey had zero explosive rushes all night. Brock Purdy is an aggressive QB who seldom attempted to push the ball down the field.
Derick Hall got a well deserved sack and a game-ending crunch of Purdy at the end. Uchenna Nwosu and Jarran Reed added to their respective sack totals. Nick Emmanwori was like a teach tape clinic on how to tackle in the open field on guys like George Kittle and CMC. Drake Thomas had the game-sealing interception on the CMC drop. Riq Woolen had maybe the best tackling performance of his career and I don’t think he allowed a catch all night. Devon Witherspoon was serving up a spoonful of whoopass.
Leonard Williams didn’t even record a stat in the box score and you could feel his presence alongside Byron Murphy II.
We have never seen the Seahawks defense demolish a good Kyle Shanahan offense like this. It was pure domination from start to finish.
Congratulations to Sam Darnold
Was Darnold flawless? No. That missed TD to Zach Charbonnet was bad and he had a couple of nervy throws. As a whole, Darnold managed the game very well and made plays with his legs while taking some safe checkdowns to keep the ball moving. On the night, Darnold was 20/26 for 198 yards for no touchdowns thrown, but most importantly no turnovers. Darnold was part of a 14-3 team last year that somehow didn’t win a loaded NFC North. He didn’t have to be the hero against the 49ers and now his next playoff game will be his first home playoff start.
In totality, Darnold had a very good season even with the turnovers, and you can at least make a Super Bowl with Darnold as QB. Go through the NFC catalogue over the last 20 years and tell me I’m wrong.
Zach Charbonnet and Kenneth Walker run all over the 49ers
What a performance! K9 almost had 100 yards rushing again and Zach’s 12th touchdown of the season proved to be all the touchdowns Seattle needed. These two combined for well over 200 yards of total offense and were valuable in the passing game, too. Walker had two successful screen plays! TWO! That 3rd and 17 run was the fourth time the Seahawks have turned 3rd and 15+ into a first down or touchdown on a running play. Incredible! Also heads up to Charbonnet for a clutch fumble recovery after Sam Darnold was tripped by Jalen Sundell.
This is three straight weeks in which Seattle’s running game has functioned anywhere from good to great, and this should bode well for the playoffs.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba caps off one of the greatest regular seasons ever
Another efficient six catches for 84 yards from JSN, ending his regular season with a whopping 119 catches for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns. Puke Nacua needs 155 yards to take the receiving yards title away from JSN, which I suppose is possible against that sorry Arizona Cardinals defense, but I like my chances that his services won’t be needed for the whole game.
JSN should be the Offensive Player of the Year.
Klint Kubiak called a good game despite the 13 points scored
I do not blame or fault Kubiak for the 1st and goal play-action pass at the 1-yard line. Literally every team can run that play and it just needs to be executed well, and Sam Darnold didn’t do his job and got sacked. Seattle moved the ball at will and only punted once, didn’t commit a turnover, and was effectively 50 percent on third downs when you subtract the kneel down at the end. There looked to be execution breakdowns more than bad play-calling process on some of the less successful plays. I’m sure if Jason Myers hit all of his field goals and Darnold didn’t randomly ignore Charbonnet out of the backfield then it’d be a more accurate reflection of how the day went.
And don’t look now, but the Seahawks may finally know how to run screen passes.
Offensive line deserves its flowers, especially Grey Zabel
Apart from one holding call which I thought was nonsense, Grey Zabel had no sacks or pressures allowed. Josh Jones had another good game deputizing for Charles Cross. The run blocking was as superb as it’s been all year, and the 49ers pass rush predictably didn’t do much outside of coverage sacks. Sam Darnold was only hit three times in addition to two sacks. Maybe my only complaint was I didn’t think Abe Lucas had a very good game but I’ll need more time to review what my eyes saw at first glance.
John Benton, take a bow. The Seahawks don’t have an embarrassing offensive line, at long last. This ain’t 2005; it doesn’t have to be. It just has to function well enough, and maybe the best is yet to come.
Losers
Jason Myers starts 2026 off with a dud
What was that, man? Two missed field goals, one of which was a 26-yarder that doinked off the upright following a beautiful eight-minute drive toward the end of the game. He also had a kickoff out of bounds that led to a short field for the 49ers and their only points all evening. Hopefully that was a one-off and not a sign of a kicker having a brilliant season before coming undone.
The red zone offense still needs to sort itself out
Going 0-3 in the red zone was an annoyance that made this game closer than necessary. Seattle has gone from a great red zone offense through 10 weeks to a bad once since the loss to the Rams. This has to be fixed in the playoffs, or alternatively just get explosive play touchdowns and don’t worry about the red zone.
Final Notes
- Cooper Kupp had a goose egg through three quarter and then came up huge with two third down conversions on Seattle’s final meaningful drive. Taking eight minutes off the clock and exhausting all of San Francisco’s timeouts was a thing of beauty that deserved points. That’s the type of winning football that leads teams to Super Bowls.
- It was a quiet night for Rashid Shaheed with one catch for two yards. He did draw a pass interference, which without that might have been a touchdown. I’m still waiting for that big play TD coming his way on offense. It’ll happen.
- Enjoy the night. Enjoy this win. Enjoy these two weeks off, because the Seahawks are going to get healthier and won’t have to face the dreaded prospect of having to win three straight playoff games on the road. NFC West champions and looking for more. What a season it’s been so far, and they’re three wins away from making it the new greatest season in Seahawks history.
