Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold knows that the Denver Broncos had his number in a 17-14 loss on Thursday Night Football in Week 6. Darnold did help bring the Seahawks back from a 14-3 deficit, tying the game before it went into overtime, but he was under pressure all night.
Darnold was responsible for two interceptions, including the crucial interception by Ja'Quan McMillian in overtime, which allowed Denver to turn around and kick the game-winning field goal in the extra period. Darnold finished the game 27-of-51 passing for 278 yards with two turnovers. After the game, Darnold gave a brutally honest self-take.
"No way to sugarcoat it; that one sucked, can't turn the ball over," Darnold said of his own performance. “It's obviously at the forefront
of my mind, but there's just a lot we can do better... Some of the play-action stuff was a little iffy tonight, but yeah, we just have to be better all around, and it starts with me. So we just have to look at who we are as an offense, look at things that we do well, things that we don’t do well and go from there.”
“It sucks,” Sam Darnold says after this #Seahawks OT loss here at Denver, and his 6th, 7th INTs in 4 games.
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) October 16, 2026
He spoke to the entire team in the locker room after the game, owned the entire loss.
Said “it’s B.S.” that he’s turning over the ball so much.
Story coming @933KJR… pic.twitter.com/tUxlFXrIyL
Darnold was sacked five times by the Broncos' defense, and hit 17 times, battered by the Denver defensive line and chased all over the field by the pressure put on him.
Broncos defensive lineman DJ Jones said the defense rattled Darnold, causing him to make bad throws and bad decisions.
"[W]ith certain players that you know if you rattle them, the game will go your way," Jones said after the game. "[Sam Darnold is a] great quarterback. But any quarterback, you step on his toes, he’ll be rattled.”
Darnold gave credit to the Denver defense, and specifically, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.
"You have to give credit to those guys," Darnold said of the Broncos defense. "You know, they got a really tough defense, really good defensive coordinator in Vance.”
The Broncos' defense knew what the game plan was going in: get in the face of Darnold, and try to keep the ball out of the hands of 2025 Offensive Player of the Year, Jaxon Smith-Njigba. For the most part, Denver kept the pressure on Darnold, and kept Smith-Njigba out of the end zone, although he did finish with 134 receiving yards on the night.
Linebacker Alex Singleton detailed the Broncos' plans for getting Darnold off his game.
"We just knew this week that we wanted — you can’t just let him sit there and throw the ball," Singleton said. "You want to create pressure, not give them time to find No. 11. We were able to do that, the guys up front played a hell of a game, and it worked out how we wanted to.”
The Denver defense single-handedly kept them in the game, and kept Seattle from going down and winning the game in overtime. Hopefully, they can keep up the incredible work in the coming days and weeks, especially with the reintegration of Jonathon Cooper back into the lineup after he was reinstated from the commissioner's exempt list.
The Broncos get back into action next week when they play the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 25.
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This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: Seahawks QB Sam Darnold was brutally honest after loss to Broncos
