What. A. Game.

Bad night for the for the Sam Darnold Can’t Win A Big Game Crowd, right?

Sammy wasn’t perfect in this game. Of course, it didn’t help that he was without his starting left tackle, Grey Zabel was weirdly giving up easy sacks and false starting, and Cooper Kupp coughed up the football running towards the end zone that took points off the board, but to say Sam had an up and down game would be understating his night, slightly.

The two picks he threw had fans frustrated and wondering if ghosts were appearing again. By the time the second one happened, my text thread was blowing up, and I was about to put my phone in the freezer to get away from the fray of angst and frustration, and the dumb narratives about him that I was surely going to hear all Christmas week.

Fortunately, when the Seattle Seahawks needed him most to make the plays in the fourth quarter, and especially at the end of overtime with a high powered touchdown throw to Jaxon Smith Njigba in the back of the end zone, and then a gigantic knock off two point conversation throw to Eric Saubert for the shocking win, he delivered.. big time. This delivery in clutch time can never be taken away from him, and because of it, this will be a Seattle Seahawk football game that I will remember for a very long time.

The Seahawks beat the Rams, and they are 12-3. They clinched the playoffs in Mike Macdonald’s second season as head coach, and control their own destiny towards winning the NFC West division, and having a first round bye in the playoffs with an opportunity to host two playoff games before the Super Bowl. That is how big this win was for them last night.

So, yeah. Bad night for the Darnold Doubters. I am sure that they will hang onto their priors, though, and bide their time. People can stay devoted to lazy narratives.

My other overriding thought coming out of this game is just the sheer outstanding showing of utter, unrelenting, resilience the entire Seahawks team showed after they went down big, 30-14, against the Rams midway during the second half. By the time the Rams went up 30-14, the chances of Seattle winning that game was next to nothing, but the way the Seahawks fought, and clawed back into this game to get it into overtime was nothing short of incredible.

The dynamic punt return for a touchdown by Rashid Shaheed after Darnold threw his second INT of the game, and Seattle’s defense valiantly forced a Rams punt, in retrospect, was the spark that lit the fire. When Darnold hit Cooper Kupp for a two point conversion, thus making the score 30-22, the game felt mildly more interesting.

Then the defense held Matthew Stafford and company at bay, again, got Seattle the ball, Shaheed contributed, big time, with yet another dynamic play, this time an end around run, and then Darnold brilliantly hit a wide open AJ Barner for a touchdown to make it 30-28. Then the wildest, weirdest two point conversion ever happened when Darnold threw a backwards pass to Zach Charbonnet that was tipped and initially called incomplete, but was recovered by Charbs in the end zone, and by rule of a backwards pass equalling a fumble, was a live ball, and thus ruled a successful conversion attempt tying the game up 30-30. Wow.

In that moment, it felt like the entire Mount Olympus of Football Gods looked upon the stadium full of sad sack Seahawk fans and said “there you go, Puka Nacua is a bonafide punk ass bitch, and here is a chance given for your team to beat his ass.”

Eventually, the teams found themselves in overtime after neither offense could take advantage of scoring the go ahead points in the final moments of the fourth quarter to put the game away with a win. This is why I started this piece off talking about Sam Darnold playing big in the big moments of overtime, and why it needs proper reflection of what actually happened in overtime.

The Rams got the ball first with an opportunity for Seattle to match points. This was by Seattle’s design when they won the toss. Mike Macdonald wanted to put faith in his banged up defense that found themselves minus safety Coby Bryant, cornerback Riq Woolen, and DB sensation Nick Emmanwori, but really, he wanted his offense to have final possession with four down territory should Matt Stafford and company score a touchdown, which they did when the back end reserve defenders couldn’t hang with Puka.

Seattle needed Sam Darnold to not only lead a touchdown drive, but also to successfully pull off their third two point conversion to win it instead of going for the tie. Sam could not have picked a better time to show ice in his veins against a defense that sacked him multiple times and picked him off twice in regulation. So, yeah. Let me say it again. Bad night for the Sam Can’t Win The Big Game Crowd.

This wasn’t a playoff game, but it was a vital game for the Seahawks to clinch the playoffs and be in the driver’s seat for the division title. There is still, obviously, two game left, and anything can happen, but I would have to think that this sort of dramatic victory is likely going to infuse this team with loads of confidence heading into these last two matchups against Carolina, and San Francisco on the road.

In fact, I would think this result for the Seahawks puts significantly more pressure on the 49ers to now find wins against good Colts and Bears teams before their season finale matchup against Seattle in Santa Clara in two weeks. It is an assumption that the game in Santa Clara would be for the division but the reality is that if Seattle beats Carolina, and the Niners lose one of the next two games, the division could already be sowed up for Seattle, especially if the Rams drop their MNF game against the Falcons, and the NFL has been weird like that this year.

For the Seahawks to win this game, though, I felt like they needed to run the ball effectively, and be explosive downfield with passes off of it on top of making life hard for Stafford. Well, I would have liked to have seen a lot more hardship placed on Stafford, but Seattle ran the ball for 171 yards in this one against a pretty good defense, and the downfield passing eventually found itself off of that. So, this is a good sign for the team moving forward regardless of how the defense played.

I think this was the quieter story of the game why Seattle came out on top in this one, and the hero in all those rushing yards? Ken Walker, who I blasted days ago for looking inept against the Colts, but my K9 enthusiast friend Matt assured me would have a big game.

I don’t know what to make of K9, to be honest. He has the rare explosiveness to be one of the very best backs in the league, but he can also be wildly inconsistent, but let me give proper credit when full credit is due. If truth be told, his running and catching in this game might have been the biggest key to this whole entire dramatic Seattle Seahawk victory. Klint Kubiak stayed very patient with the run, even in crucial moments when they needed multiple scores late to tie it up. The Rams defenders couldn’t tee off on Darnold like they were able last time around because of the danger of K9 and his 100 yards and a TD on 11 carries. This was felt in overtime when Seattle had the ball, in particular.

For Seattle to be a factor in the playoffs, they are going to have to be better at running the football, and more consistent at it. Right now, I feel like Charbonnet is the more consistent runner, but the allure of making sure you mix in plenty of K9 is entirely understandable, especially in the wake of what he did in this game. Let us hope as Seahawk fans there is more of it. They will need it, if they want to make a run at a title this year.

For now, let’s enjoy this epic Thursday Night Football win. What a glorious holiday present to behold for the Twelves.

It has been ages since I have seen a better game played in the regular season for the Seattle Seahawks. I am not just thinking of the LOB years. I am thinking all the way back to 1990, when Dave Krieg was playing, and he was sacked seven times in Kansas City by Derrick Thomas, and yet threw the game winner in the final moments when Thomas was trying to haul him down for his eighth sack. That was 35 years ago, and yes, I am old as fuck to remember it, vividly. That was an epic win for the Seahawks then, and this was an epic win now.

Oh, yeah. One other thing final thing worth mentioning.

I think those wolf gray rival jerseys that the Seahawks were wearing with those sparkling green helmets looked absolutely DOPE, and I could give a rat’s flying ass if they are somewhat Oregon Ducky looking. Get over it Husky fans. Let’s keep ’em.

Go Hawks!

This was a weird game. I won’t belabor all the weirdness involved with my favorite team facing off against a 44 year old formerly retired future Hall Of Fame QB who hasn’t played in five years, but this was a weird ass game.

Before I comment on the officiating, let me first say that Seattle seemed very unfocused on offense throughout most of that first half, and even the defense felt a little be like they were maybe going through some motions. It is not hard to imagine that the huge divisional matchup against the Rams on Thursday Night Football had perhaps been filtering into the minds of some of the players throughout this week, and into this game. They played like it, anyways.

When a wide open JSN dropped an on target pass that Sam Darnold hits him with in stride, you could sense that maybe this was going to be one of those games. Seeing fullback Brady Russell also drop a Darnold pass that hit him in the mitts later in the game was also eye rolling, and so was AJ Barner lining in the neutral zone negating his own big first down catch.

This game felt sloppy and unfocused, unnecessarily so for Seattle, and that is how you lose a game to a struggling team in December that is playing for their season. Darnold looked hesitant, at times, but I don’t think he was always helped with Klint Kubiak’s play calling. Seattle was passing with ease against Indy’s backup cornerbacks, yet Kubiak chose to stay with a run game that, frankly, wasn’t working.

The Seattle offense looked surprisingly bad running the football, and they looked flustered not getting any rhythm going. At times, the blocking didn’t look great, but I thought K9, in particular, ran hesitant, and uninspired. He continues to be one of the more frustrating players for me to watch, and this was, again, a game where the less dynamic Zach Charbonnet felt like the better, more dependable runner.

I also don’t know if going back to Jalen Sundell at center over Olu Oluwatimi was a factor in how bad Seattle ran the ball, but it is interesting that when Olu had been starting, Seattle tended to run better. I suspect that the reality at center this year for the Seahawks might be that while Sundell offers the better pass blocking, Olu is the more effective run blocker. What they might need moving forward into next offseason is to find a center who does both really well.

As it stands now, Seattle found ways at the end of this game to win it 16-18 in the final moments, and they have now won 11 games, the number of wins I projected for them at the beginning of the season. While watching them play like this yesterday won’t inspire tons of fan faith in them, there is every chance that they finish the year with more wins than this, and at this point, I would think it’s still probably a safe bet. That said, I believe that all this loud recent chatter over them being a potential Super Bowl favorite is, in my opinion, premature, and I say this being as big of an optimist as you will find when it comes to the Hawks.

They are a better team than they were last year, I have no doubts about that. They are better at offensive coordinator, and quarterback, and they are even more improved on defense. They still are the little brother in the NFC West division to the LA Rams and the San Francisco 49ers, and until they best those two teams in this regular season, and in the playoffs, that will not change.

The good news is that when they are on their A game, I think they can now do it. I didn’t think that much over the past few years, so improvement feels like it is genuinely happening under Mike Macdonald, and that is something to feel good about.

It is just that this game against the Colts kinda left me resetting in my mind that, despite all the DVOA stats that suggest this is a Super Bowl contending team, the reality is that there is a lot of young players on this team trying to figure out to be consistent NFL winners, and this Kubiak offense is still very new, therefore, is still working out the kinks and growing pains. In contrast, the offenses of the Rams and 49ers are fine tuned machines, and for as much of a Sam Darnold enthusiast as I tend to be, the Niners and Rams both have starting quarterbacks who have actually won in the playoffs and found themselves in Super Bowls. That is a clear advantage for them.

In this game, I think that the proof was in the details. If you want to be a top shelf tight end option for an NFL quarterback, you have got to know where to line up before the ball is snapped. If you are going to pull on a tricky athletic run block, you can got be able to be precise as a blocker on the move, or the play will look stupid. If the ball touches you hands, you have to catch it. All this must be automatic.

Fortunately for Seattle, their top level defense held in enough in this game against the wise old sage in Phillip Rivers, and Rivers really did show is where he is at as a passer. He’s got an A+ game between his ears, but his arm is a pop gun now, and he never was a threat to move to begin with. As the game wore on, this reality caught up to Indy fans, and Rivers.

They will be lucky if he can get them to nine wins with this remaining schedule, I’m afraid. He is a Hall of Fame level QB, has seen many things that an NFL defense can throw at him, but asking him to step on the field for the first time in five years, and deal with Nick Emmanwori blanketing his best target option, and snuffing out the run is an ENORMOUS request.

If fact, I think it definitely took the help of the NFL refs to keep this game competitive for them. It has been a long time since I have watched an NFL football game, and genuinely wondered if there was a fix in on it, but this game had me thinking it, LOUDLY, and that is not good for this league to have games like that. Not with online betting, and FBI investigations going on in the NBA, and other sports.

The numerous blatant PI no calls on Colts defenders that happened against Seattle receivers prevented the Seahawks from scoring touchdowns, and the late fourth quarter PI call that gave Rivers, and the Colts new life for a potential game winning drive were all eyebrow raising in the week that was filled with Rivers love and hype. I will just leave it all at that, and let you come to your own conclusion, but for me, I think everyone in sports media last week was recognizing the Disney level feel good story of Old Man Rivers coming out of retirement to save the Colts season.

Would it be great for the league to have this storyline in late December? Absolutely, it would. There is no debating its value in generating viewers and interest.

There is also no way anyone can prove that the NFL illuminati told the refs how to call this game, but it felt very clear to me that Seattle was not just fighting to overcome their own occasional screwups, it felt like the officiating was also very clearly working against them, as well, and objectively, there is no way anyone can argue against that. There was undeniably that at play, and that will be a talking point about the game this week.

But great on Seattle’s MOB defense for holding Jonathan Taylor at bay, and forcing Rivers into a number of hurried off target throws. Also credit Darnold and the offense for playing better in the second half to get critical field goal scoring drives to go up twice in the fourth quarter, and most of all, huge credit goes to Jason Myers for being most stellar when Seattle needed to win this game by getting six field goals. He was, unquestionably, the player of the game for Seattle.

I hope someone out there bought Myers drinks and maybe even a lap dance after the game. He earned it.

As it stands now, the game this Thursday against the Rams will be enormously hyped and it should be. Whichever team wins it will most likely win the division. I have a feeling like Seattle will be more ready and focused for that one than this one yesterday.

My biggest most optimistic view coming out of this game against the Colts is that perhaps this is the game a young Seahawk roster needed to feel before Thursday Night Football. Yesterday, the played down to an inferior opponent, and almost blew it. On Thursday, I look forward to them playing up to a very worthy one.

Go Hawks.

When you favorite NFL team travels on the road across country and properly lays to waste an inferior opponent, 37-9, such as the Seattle Seahawks did to the Atlanta Falcons, it can feel like a bit of a challenge summoning up interesting things to write about, afterwards. After all, Seattle was favored by 6.5 points to win this match, and the Vegas betters seemed see some pretty clear writings on the wall.

I think many fans could sense this was going to happen, as well. Seattle has been beating down a lot of struggling teams this year. Atlanta has a very talented pass rush, and some really nice skill players on offense, but a geriatric immobile Kirk Cousins was going to stand next to no chance against the speed, talent, and discipline spread across Seattle’s soul devouring defense.

I knew it, you knew it, and Vegas certainly understood it, as well. The question was how was Sam Darnold and the offense going to perform against Atlanta’s heavy blitz, but there was no question on how Seattle’s defense would hold court. This defense is that good.

As we get further into the 2025 football season, and we see before our eyes the greatness emerging out of Mike Macdonald’s Seahawk defense, fans are starting to search for nicknames for it. The Legion Of Boom is long retired, and cannot be brought back, but people are drawn to wanting to name this group of fellas, and it is understandable. They are playing that well together in dominating fashion.

Some nicknames within the Seahawk orbit that have been tossed around are the Death Zone, and/or MOB Ties. Seeing what this defense has done to Kirk Cousins, Aaron Rodgers, Trevor Lawrence, CJ Stroud, Jayden Daniels, Kyler Murray and many other overwhelmed veteran QB’s this year, however, I am almost inclined coin them The Super Soul Sucker Defense. Seriously.

The funny thing is, I don’t even think they are playing their best football yet as a unit, and that is a scary thought to opposing teams who have to meet them in the playoffs. Up to this point, Mike Macdonald has been working himself into Coach Of The Year consideration having to start third string players at safety and linebacker, and getting them to play like quality level NFL starters. Now, he is slowly starting to reincorporate pro bowl safety Julian Love into the mix, and he is getting top level defensive tackle Jarran Reed back.

When Love gets his feet back under himself better as the leader of this secondary, watch the fuck out on Sundays. They will hit another gear of defensive football.

Offensively, I believe Klint Kubiak just needs to not get too cute with play calling, and they have the talent at quarterback, receiver, tight end, O line, and running backs to be both efficient, and explosive enough to stress out any oppositional fanbase moving forward. They might have somewhat of a blemish on the interior of their offensive a bit, and I still question whether Ken Walker is an ideal running back for the zone blocking scheme that they want to deploy, but the talent and abilities are certainly there for them to remain explosive, and for Kubiak to scheme ways in which they can be complimentary explosive.

This game in Atlanta, if anything, showed that Seattle’s offense can match a good defense so long as it doesn’t overthink who and what they are, and how they can compliment this stellar, kick ass, soul chewing up defense. Sprinkle in some stellar and timely special teams play, and this is what you get; a solid, thorough beat down win on the road that is worthy of dreaming of bigger things about.

Here are some random thoughts I have about some key players in this game.

Sam Darnold might have had his best game as a Seattle Seahawk

Yup, I said it, and I stand by my words.

I know that for most of the first half of this football, Sam Darnold looked flustered, but I also know that Atlanta has a defensive front and secondary that can do that to quarterbacks, and I love how Sam and Klint Kubiak adjusted to it right before halftime, and carried it throughout the second half of that game. I also know Sam has had games this year where he put up prettier numbers. The games he had against the Commanders, the Bucs, and the Saints were flashier, for certain, but this one might have been my favorite game of his on the year.

The way unfavorable circumstances revealed themselves early in this one, some questionable play calling by Kubiak in the opening offensive series, the pressure that Atlanta was sending at him, the sacks, and the INT he threw when the ball bounced off of Elijah Arroyo on third and long, it was a delight to see Sam overcome these by making big time plays with his arm, and legs with the game on the line heading into the half, and then carrying through with it in the third and fourth quarters. As mentioned above, the real question heading into this game was how Sam Darnold was going to perform against an exotic Atlanta pass rush that does a lot of the stuff that the Vikings pass rush did to him last week, and in totality, I thought Sam did really well against it once adjustments were made. This is a positive sign moving forward, I believe.

Credit also Kubiak for making great second half adjustments dealing with Atlanta’s pressure heavy defense, getting a good balance of run and pass, and especially getting Sam throwing on the move with play action. However, after a slow start to the game, it was clear that yesterday’s Sam Darnold seemed a lot like the one who was kicking major ass against the Buccaneers and Commanders over a month ago. He was efficient, decisive, and accurate, and it felt like he felt in total command.

This is the type of game I wanted to see from him. I knew the Falcons would send a bunch of pressures his way because they are a league leader in generating sacks, but I also wanted to see more from Sam than just hanging in, and surviving against it like he did against the Vikings last week. I wanted to see him beat it, and he did for 20 of 30 completions, 249 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 23 rushing yards. Bravo.

Rashid Shaheed finally had his coming out party and it couldn’t have come at a better time

Much like Darnold, I am a big believer in Rashid Shaheed, and I am bullish about his long term potential as a Seattle Seahawk. I understand, however, why a degree of fans have been growing impatient in seeing what the big to do is about him as a player post midseason trade.

For me, I felt like it was only a matter of time before he and Darnold would start melding more together, and it was good to see it finally happen in this one. As the game unfolded, it could not have come at a better time.

Even before he opened up the second half of the game with that electric 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, he was making impactful conversion plays as a receiver on offense. He made critical catches when the Atlanta defense was covering Jaxon Smith Njigba, and as the game wore on, he was posing enough of a threat that JSN started to find his opportunities open up in the second half when the offense started to take over the game much like their defense was.

I cannot stress enough how much exciting potential exists in this offense when Darnold and Shaheed start vibing with each other. It would further open up opportunities for JSN, and Cooper Kupp, and others. Seeing Shaheed take this step forward with four games left to go on the season is really exciting stuff.

It is clear that when Seattle traded for him, they had a vision. I suspect this vision is likely very similar to the one they had years ago when they traded for Percy Harvin. Shaheed can do things as a receiver, a runner, and a returner that few in the league can do to the level he can. If this game is but a glimpse of things to come, Seahawk fans are in for a very special treat down the round.

Nick Emmanwori was the best player in the game yesterday and it wasn’t close

All due respect for Shaheed’s brilliant kickoff return, JSN doing JSN things, Sam having a solid bounce back game, Spoon and Ernest Jones making plays all over the field on defense, but this game for me, quite literally, felt like the Nick Emmanwori Show. Let’s process his contributions to the day.

He took points off the board for Atlanta with a critical blocked field goal after Darnold’s INT. He made critical stops in the run game, and in coverage. He made a critical second half interception when the game was still somewhat in reach for the Falcons, and he had a late game sack Cousins that looked like vintage LOB era Cliff Avril coming off the corner.

He finished the day with 5 solo tackles, a blocked field goal, an INT, and a sack, which are impressive stats to look at by any measure, but to see and feel him on the field is to understand his true impact with the frenetic chaos that he throws at quarterbacks, receivers, and running backs. This guy is such a unique x-factor, that I don’t believe you can properly pin a position label on him. He is a safety, a linebacker, a corner, and an edge rusher all in one.

Seattle operates primarily out of a 4-2-5 defense; that’s four down linemen, two linebackers, and five defensive backs on the field. Emmanwori lists as a safety, but the fact of the matter is that he is almost position-less. He plays nickel corner, linebacker, safety, and now they are using him as a rush linebacker, as well. At 6-3, 220 pounds, with 99th percentile athleticism, size, and speed, and strength, he is becoming Macdonald’s ultimate chess piece as a defensive play caller, and he’s just getting started at what he can become.

He is becoming so unique to Seattle’s defense that I wouldn’t be surprised if their front office looks to draft and develop players who compare to his profile behind him just to add depth to this position that is position-less. That could be easier said than done, however. He is that much of a true unicorn player, or so it seems.

I have spent many times on this blog applauding Seattle’s selection of left guard Grey Zabel in round one last Spring of the draft, but the truth is that when Seattle traded up to the top of the second round to grab Emmanwori, they essentially landed two blue chip first round pick players. When you factor the fact that Emmanwori is a tireless worker behind the scenes picking up all of these roles that Macdonald gives to him in this defense, it absolutely blows my mind when I future trip out on what he and this defense can be for the next decade of Seahawk football.

As it stands today, I am just basking on what I see out of him on Sundays. Bring on the Colts, and Rams.

Football Players Make Football Plays

Long time former Seattle Seahawks head coach and legend Chuck Knox had a bunch of pseudo zen tough guy sayings that would come out of his mouth in the eighties that were colorful and soundbite worthy. As an impressionable teenager, one of my favorites was his sayings was “football player make football plays” in reference to the hard hitting blue collar approach of his eighties Seahawk teams that largely over performed against seemingly stronger competition.

Personally, I think Mike Macdonald has a bit of that old school Chuck Knox mentality about him. He doesn’t need a roster full of the flashiest guys. Instead, he wants guys who will play hard, and who will take the art of football playing very seriously.

Knox was a football fundaments driven head coach. He believed that the teams that blocked better and tackled better would win most games most often. I see this same mentality with Mike, but with maybe a bit more creativity on defense.

I think we are seeing this stamp of his play out with the Seahawks this season. We see countless times Seahawk players making timely plays, and it is not by accident. It is being coached up, and the guys are serious minded enough to have it show through at critical times in games, as was the case against the Falcons.

Jarran Reed is a really good football player, and it was highly instinctive of him to knock that football out of the steely grips of Bijan Robinson for a fumble recovery. Julian Love is a great football player who came into the game after a month on IR to make a critical pass defense early. Ty Okada is a great football player who, even with Love back on the field, found opportunities to make an impact against the Falcons offense. JSN is a fantastic football player getting the better of shutdown corner AJ Terrell, and so is Shaheed.

I could make a very long list of players on the Seattle Seahawks who are great football players who make great football plays. It is a testament to the front office, and the coaches, for sure, but it is mainly a testament to them.

This is the type of team I want to root for. This is kinda like the Chuck Knox team that made me first fall in love with Seahawk football as a kid many years ago now.

In truth, I don’t need flash. I don’t need kissing babies. I don’t need cool soundbites that go viral.

I don’t even need to feel a facade of rich athletes who do great things for the community. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is great if they do, but what I want, most of all, is to feel like I am watching a bunch of very smart, talented, really good football players that make good football plays on Sundays. I want to feel them as a dominant kick ass collective on offense, defense, and special teams.

I feel like we are getting this here in Seattle now, and it is just that start. I am excited about what this new standard of football can be here moving forward. Beat the teams who you are supposed to beat, and play tough opponents really fucking tough. I think that is kinda what this guys are as a team.

Final thought

Can these Seattle Seahawks win a Super Bowl this year?

I dunno. Part of me feels like they can, and another part of me believes that their offense might need another year to fully catchup to their defense. This is year one of Kubiak as the play-caller, and the zone blocking scheme, in general, takes time for blockers and runners to truly understand the nuances of it, and build proper chemistry. Seattle’s run game, while improving, still feels too frenetic for my comforts, at times. Then there is the competition they face in a tough NFC.

The Rams, Eagles, and even the 49ers have more recent pedigree on their side along with their talents, but I wouldn’t put it past these Hawks to be a surprise entry this year the way the entire league feels wildly wide open. Their defense feels championship worthy now, and there are tons of metrics going in favor of Seattle that Super Bowl winning teams have had in the past.

Darnold critics will say that you can never win a Super Bowl with him, but ultimately, they don’t know anything about it. It is just an opinion, and nothing more.

The Tampa Bay Bucs won a Super Bowl years ago with journeyman quarterback Brad Johnson. The Ravens won a Super Bowl in that same time frame with game managing Trent Dilfer, and the Eagles won a Super Bowl with backup quarterback Nick Foles. Even last year with Jalen Hurts, who has still has some limitations as a pure passer, the Eagles found ways to win another one.

For me, I think Sam has shown enough growth in these last two seasons for me to believe that he is a very good tier two quarterback in this league, and that is the same tier I would place Hurts in, and for what it is worth, I would also place Brock Purdy is this tier, as well. In fact, I believe if you placed this version of Sam in that Frisco offense with CMC and George Kittle, with Kyle Shanahan dialing plays, he would be lights out on Sundays for them, no question in my mind about it.

If I had to bet the farm on a wager, however, I would say that Seattle is still a year away from true championship contention, but they have four games left to change my views on that. I am excited to see what comes out of it, either way.

I will say that I really truly dig this team a lot this year. I love how this defense is trending, I love how Baby Harbaugh is coaching special teams, and I love the explosiveness I see on the offense. I love Mike Macdonald’s vision for this team. They have a lot of things that are working well for them that Super Bowl teams have had, and that is exciting stuff to think about, indeed.

These are good times.

Go Hawks.

There are things that the NFL media world does to hype up games that I think land firmly within the realms of ridiculous. The “revenge games” designated for discarded starting quarterbacks are a prime example.

Despite a really good breakthrough season last year, Sam Darnold was likely never going to be in the long term plans for the Minnesota Vikings. Not when they spent a top ten pick on JJ McCarthy after they signed him to a meager one year contract in free agency back in 2024. Perhaps they shoulda used the franchise tag on him for 2025, though, given how this year has gone for the Vikes, and McCarthy, but that is a whole other subject to consider, and waste time writing about.

The Seattle Seahawks took advantage of Darnold breaking out in Minnie last year as soon as they saw that he wasn’t going to get the franchise tag. I will never believe that trading 35 year old Geno Smith to the Raiders would have ever happened had they not seen the opportunity to get six years younger at quarterback for a player that was seen as comparable, at worst, and possibly even an upgrade, at best.

And for those who like to keep taps on Sam in Seattle, and Geno in Vegas, the Seattle Seahawks have very clearly won that slight gamble at quarterback. You can say what you want about Darnold’s performance against his former team yesterday, but he did not throw the five interceptions that Geno just did in a brutal loss against the Chargers.

So, that said, to get back onto my original point, I never really viewed this game at Lumen Field against the Vikings as Sam’s Revenge Game as others would label it. The Vikings had to see what they had in McCarthy, and Sam needed long term commitment from a franchise. I always viewed his move out of Minnie to the PNW as a very win win thing for him and his former club.

Another narrative that was pumped all throughout the NFL, the Vikings, and even the Seahawks media world last week was this idea that the Minnesota Vikings might have found their “Brock Purdy” in undrafted rookie quarterback Max Brosmer, who was going to make his first NFL start in place of concussed McCarthy. The truth of the matter is that media types were probably searching for ways to hype up what was set to be a very lopsided game in Seattle, and they saw an opportunity to pounce on some positive vibes the Minnesota coaches had on Brosmer during the preseason, and such. However, the levels that it was taken to all this past week was ridiculous, to say the least, though.

All last week, on various podcasts, on airwaves, and written throughout the press, there was this noise coming out of Minnie that Brosmer was this potential hidden gem as an intelligent, accurate, quick processor at quarterback and the Viking coaches felt great about his potential. Some were even trumpeting this match as a potential trap for the Seahawks with the Vikings knowing how to get to Darnold, and the Seahawks not knowing enough about Brosmer.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic was quick to cite quotes from scouts and coaches who were comparing Brosmer to Purdy. Hey, gotten get out on top of the news cycle in the slim chance Brosmer actually steps out onto Lumen Field and punks on of the best NFL defenses on the planet in Seattle on Sunday, amiright?

Even more outlandish, Steve Mariucci went onto the NFL Network and recklessly predicted that Brosmer would throw for a whopping 485 yards against the same Seahawks defense that gave all world Matt Stafford fits two weeks ago. Frankly, I don’t know what I am more offended with, the absurdity to pump up Brosmer to poor destitute Viking fans, but the total disregard for Seattle’s stellar defense. There was no F’ing way this poor kid was going to have this sort of game in Seattle. No F’ing way. What total utter horse crap.

Here are the stat lines for the “Minnesota Purdy” yesterday. He 19 of 30 passing attempts for 126 yards, no touchdowns, and he lofted up 4 interceptions, and was sacked 4 times by Seattle Seahawk defenders. His passer rating in his first NFL start was a whopping 32.8. JJ McCarthy may not ever be the answer at QB for the Vikings, but I am here to break anyone’s bubble who needs it that Max Brosmer very likely is not the answer, either.

While Darnold, himself, didn’t have a stellar outing, the truth of the matter is that he didn’t need to have one, he just had to game manage effectively enough against a talented defense, and he did just that. Some folks will criticize Darnold for struggling against the blitz pressure sent at him, but for the most part, I thought he handled it well enough, especially with the adjustment’s Klint Kubiak made in the second half of the game. My impression on the early sacks, including the sack fumble, is that the blockers in front of him were not handling it well, and some of the play calling wasn’t perhaps, either, but by the second half, everyone settled in better.

Sometimes, this is why you pay the big bucks to a mature, capable, veteran NFL quarterback. You expect him to understand the type of game that he is going to be in for, and if he has to game manage against a very tough defense, knowing that his defense is going to have a day against an inexperienced rookie QB, then you expect him to manage it well. Sam did just that, and Mike Macdonald said as much post game.

It was painfully obvious for the opening two offensive series that this was going to be a day of potentially an epic defensive battle. The game very clear from the onset after kickoff that it was going to be that type of game.

Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores calls the same level of defense in Minnesota that he did in New England when the Patriots punked the LA Rams and Jared Goff in a Super Bowl matchup a number of years ago. He calls fronts that make it tough to run on, and he loves to send blitz pressures early and often on quarterbacks. In the world of NFL defensive schemes and coordinators, he is his own unique beast to deal with as a defensive mind.

In fact, if I am the owner of the Vegas Raiders and I want to make my star pas rusher Maxx Crosby very happy, I am seriously considering making a move in 2026 to make Flores my next head coach over 74 year old Pete Carroll. Flores got a bum deal when he was head coach of the Dolphins, and if any defensive mind out there needs another shot at being a head coach again, it is this guy. If I need to restart a franchise from the ground up, I am definitely looking at him over a hall of fame level guy in his mid seventies.

Sam Darnold knew what was coming with Flores, and he knew he had to give up his impulses to play hero ball against it. For the most part, he did just that.

Brosmer, on the other hand, is an undrafted quarterback for a reason, and again, it was utterly ridiculous for NFL media minds to build him up the way they did. He stood absolutely no chance against a dominant Seattle Seahawk defense, and the times he tried to for big plays downfield were brutal for any Vikings fan to watch.

Here is the very easy storyline of this football game. The Vikings defense absolutely played its ass off, but the Seahawks defense played better, and the Vikings quarterback played significantly worse than the Seahawk QB did. This was the game in a nutshell.

It was total lopsided domination led primarily by the kick ass Seattle Seahawk defense that can send pass rushers in waves, dial key blitzes against the pass and run in ways that can be overwhelmingly successful, and they have linebackers, safeties, and corners who are all really, really good in coverage. They are a year and a half into Mike Macdonald’s unique 4-2-5 defense, and they are absolutely humming now. This would have been a tough matchup for a lot of experienced NFL QBs, let along an undrafted rookie.

The Seattle Seahawks beat down the Vikings 0-26 because their greatness on defense matched against a massive disadvantage Minnesota had at quarterback. Any team that has concerns at quarterback probably doesn’t stand much of a chance against Seattle’s pass rush, and coverage. It’s too bleeping kick ass to match up against it.

If I am Kirk Cousins in Atlanta studying the Seahawks defense this morning, I am seriously considering pulling a Caddyshack Rodney Dangerfield “oh, my arm, may arm” stunt to get out of playing them next Sunday.

But that is neither here, nor there in terms of yet another beat down win the Seahawks put on an inferior opponent yesterday against the Viking.

The heroes of this game are the entire Seattle Seahawk defense led by bad ass middle linebacker and heart and soul team leader Ernest Jones with two interceptions and a pick six, the badass defensive tackle duo of Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy, and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, especially. D Law had a game as a pass rusher and run stuffer that felt, single handily, game wrecking for the overmatched Vikes who were trying to give it their all in this one.

As it stands now, the Seahawks hold a 9-3 record, tied with the Rams for first place in the division. They are beating all the teams on their record that they should beat, thus far. This is the sign of a very good football team, and there is nothing to think that this won’t continue through the rest of their five games on the year.

They are also winning games with perhaps now the very best defense in the league. In truth, this is how I vastly prefer my team to win ballgames. I am not a fantasy guy. I don’t care about the stats my star receiver gets on my team, or running back. While it is fun to see my starting QB put up gaudy numbers whenever it happens, I don’t need it. I want to see the defense of the team I root for wreck games and players of the opposition, and the Seahawk defenders do just that.

This game against the Vikings, a shutout loss that Minnesota has not felt in two decades of football, should be a message to all teams the Seahawks face on their remaining schedule as they aim for the playoffs. Fear them. Be afraid.

They are coming for you. They are dialed into a complex playbook, they play fast, furious, and various. They hit, cover, and tackle, and they know how to pass rush.. a lot.

I also like how complimentary the offense is becoming in finding more success with their run game. As this game against a very strong Vikings defense went on, quietly the Seahawks offense had another positive day running the rock, and this is now our games in a row that the Seahawks have ran pretty well.

Great defense paired with a dependable run game is exactly what you want to see out of your team as it gets into December, and aims for the playoffs. For all the style points that Jaxon Smith Njigba gets as a pass catcher in this offense, and Darnold often gets throwing the rock, it is good to know that this team is looking more built to win defensive battles whenever needed.

I like that a lot. I will take that. If you are a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, you should be pretty darn happy to see this level of football materializing before your eyes.

Go Hawks.

The Seattle Seahawks are a good football team this year. Sitting at 8-3, we should all know this by now. They have beaten every team on their schedule that they clearly should have handled, they beat a couple good teams on the road (Jacksonville and Pittsburgh), and they lost three games to clubs that we knew were going to be tougher matchups. They have done this minus numerous key starters to their defense, at times, and that speaks to their depth on their roster, and coaches on their staff. So, we should know by now that this is a very good football team.

Yet, I sense that there is an anxiety out there amongst fans about them. Maybe it is the hangover for watching Sam Darnold throw 4 interceptions against a very tough Rams defense last week. Maybe it is simply still PTSD over the last handful of years of Pete Carroll era, but when rookie QB Cam Ward easily marched Tennessee’s offense down for a long time consuming opening score drive for a field goal, I wouldn’t blame you, at all, if you had a bit of doubt creep into your veins. In previous years, the Seattle Seahawks would drop games in a season that, on paper, they should have won.

I suspect there’s probably going to be many Seattle Seahawks fans who will look at this 30-24 victory on the road against what is now a 1-10 Tennessee Titans team, and not be very impressed with this outing. In previous outings against struggling teams this year, the Seahawks wrecked the New Orleans Saints 13-44, smothered the Commanders 38-14, and then pounded the Cardinals 22-44, and if you were expecting this level of beat down against the Titans, and didn’t get what you wanted to see, I get it. I kinda wanted that, too.

That said, I felt, overall, Seattle handily beat yet another bad this year that they were supposed to beat, and that is perfectly good enough for me. If the average fan peals back the layers on the Titans, they would see that Tennessee had been in many of the games they have played this year, and a lot of their losses were close ones against decent teams. If it wasn’t for a freaky Tennessee punt return for a touchdown, the final score out of this probably would have been more like 30-17, or such, and we would have felt more like this game was over by the third quarter, but the Titans, with their frisky rookie quarterback, gave it a good go in the fourth quarter.

I will say, for me, I felt heading into this game that Seattle caught a good schedule break with the injuries that came out of the Rams game with linebackers Ernest Jones, and Tyrice Knight, but in that, I was still nervous about how Seattle’s depth could get tested. I love what Drake Thomas has been doing at linebacker next to Jones, but having to call up Patrick O’Connell from the practice squad, and rely on him to play meaningful starting snaps at middle linebacker had me nervous.

In fact, the ease in which Cam Ward led the Titans to an extraordinarily long field goal scoring drive in the opening series of the game didn’t exactly settle these nerves for me. It was nice to see O’Connell step up, and make a number of impressive run stops and get himself a sack in this game, but Seattle seemed to give up a number of passes over the middle of the field where Jones would normally roam. Even having key reserve Knight in the game might have helped settle things, but in the end, Seattle’s dominant pass rush, and depth on the backend of their defense prevailed, yet again. I will take that.

As for the offense, I am happy they cleaned up the turnover issues, I am happy that they still found explosive passing plays, and they ran the ball well when they needed to do it. Like everyone else, I would love to see less procedural penalties, and I think there is still some work to be done limiting the turnover worthy plays at quarterback.

Still, scoring 30 points on the road, even against a bad team, is something that I would take every Sunday. After all, I have watched a peak Russell Wilson team with the LOB defense play to a 6-6 tie down in Arizona once, and will never forget that burning sensation in my eyeballs for it.

Here are some random musings on different aspects of this game, what I liked and what bothered me a bit. Mostly, I think there is a lot to like, and there are a few things that need a bit more cleaning up.

Sam Darnold had a solid bounce back game but there’s still a bit to clean up

On paper, Sam had a very solid bounce back game against the Titans. Going 16 for 26 in passing attempts, for 244 yards, 2 TDS and 0 INTs is a good day for any starting quarterback in the league. He didn’t turn the ball over, and he was much better at getting out of the pocket when he felt pressure. He largely looked like a solid starting NFL quarterback, and his explosive deep ball passing to JSN continued to be the big highlights of the day for Seattle.

On the whole, it felt like the good Sam Darnold was back in action, and if you can run the rock for over a hundred yards on the ground and a score, if your kicker also has a good day, and the defense holds in, you should win a lot of games, if you get this level of QB play. For this, I say bravo, and good job Sammy.

I will still say that there were probably about three plays out of Sam that were turnover worthy, and there were a couple of throws of his that he was off with to wide open targets. So, there’s that, as well.

He was going against one of the best pass rushing DTs in the league, though, in Jeffery Simmons, and that’s not a lot of fun for any guard or center to deal with for four quarters, so I can forgive him for a hurried throw, here and there. I would like for him to continue playing clearer, though.

I wrote extensively about Sam last week after the Rams debacle, and what he can do to get back on track afterwards, and take the next step as a passer. Essentially, I said he needs to shake the hero ball out of his game, and take the check down options when they are there. In this game, he demonstrated good examples of that when he felt the rush creeping in.

I also love that defensive minded HC Mike Macdonald isn’t hampering the playmaker qualities in Sam’s game as a deep ball passer. Sam’s deep ball should always be a threat in every game, and it most definitely was in this one.

I can recall a number of years ago when Russell Wilson was in an MVP campaign the team traveled to Buffalo, and he hit a wall throwing interceptions all game long. Afterwards, Pete Carroll put a clamp down on their explosive passing offense, and they went ultra conservative the rest of the way as they eeked into the playoffs. This was sorta the death nail in Russ’s tenure in Seattle. I am glad that Macdonald resisted such of an impulse on Darnold after that Rams game last week. Kuddos on the head coach for that.

Jaxon Smith Njigba cannot be stopped on Sundays and I am here for it

With eleven games played into this season, JSN has now officially broken DK Metcalf’s record in single season receiving yards. I wrote in my season primer that JSN would become a bonafide superstar in the league this year, and man, was I ever not blowing smoke up that.

JSN has a chance to break Calvin Johnson’s regular season record, he is the best receiver in the league, and I do not know how you can argue it otherwise. I knew he was going to have a big day against the Titans because they are so down on cornerbacks, but jeez Louise Swiss cheese, I honestly don’t know how he can be stopped on Sundays.

The mind meld he has with Sam Darnold is unlike anything I have seen between a quarterback and receiver in Seahawk uniforms, and I remember vividly Dave Krieg’s connection to Steve Largent in the 1980’s, and we all know Russell Wilson’s connections to Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett, and Matt Hasselbeck’s connection to Bobby Engram, as well, if you are an older millennial or Gen X or a boomer. This thing that Jaxon and Sam have together makes my Sundays, and I did not see this level of connection between them coming to this wild extent. Every Seattle Seahawk fan should savor this connection.

For my money, though, JSN needs to be considered in the MVP conversations. Should Seattle make a deep playoff run, I don’t know how you argue against it. There are no limits to his game. He can play inside at slot, and he can play the perimeters on all levels of the defense. He can route up any quality DB. He’s a bigger faster version of Doug Baldwin, and Largent, and he is ours. You should thank your stars every day for this, if you are a Seattle Seahawk fan.

Slowly but surely, Seattle is finding its run game and it is happening at the right time

A month ago, I sensed a lot of fans stressing out about Seattle’s run game, wondering how they could sustain their explosive passing offense without production out of the running backs. Yesterday, Seattle’s offensive line went up against one of the best defensive tackle rotations in the league and they ran it against them for 114 yards. That will do.

Last week, against a very dominant Rams defense, they ran it for 135 yards, and they lost a close game by merely two points because of those INTs that Darnold tossed. This is the same Rams defense that murdered Baker Mayfield and the Bucs on national television last night.

The week before that, the Seahawks ran on the good Cardinals defensive front for nearly 200 yards. The run game was a major reason why Seattle blew the doors off of the Cardinals along with their stellar defensive play.

This is a three game stretch where Seattle is running well against good defensive fronts. I suspect that their offensive line is gelling more together, the running backs are better understanding the nuances more of Klint Kubiak’s zone blocking attack, and the receivers and tight ends are also syncing up more with it all. It feels like it is really coming together now.

I suspect that by the end of the season, we are going to see the Seattle Seahawks as one of the better running teams in the league. This should come at the right time, and I am absolutely going to be here for that.

Grey Zabel is an absolute bad ass throwback

God bless John Schneider for listening to reason, and drafting left guard Grey Zabel in the first round this year. I love Nick Emmanwori, and I think JSN is probably the best player on the Seahawks this year, and I am excited about Bryon Murphy, and I think Sam Darnold has the stuff to be the franchise quarterback for the next several years, but Grey Zabel is absolutely the player Seattle needed this year for their football team.

The Dude twisted up his knee at the end of a tough loss to the Rams, and instead of taking a game off to rest up for the Vikings, he looked at all world defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, and said “yeah, I think I can give it a go.”

How absolute bad ass is that?

Very. It is very old school bad ass offensive line mentality, and it is foolish to assume that his knee was a hundred percent in this game.

Football is life, man. It is not easy. There are people out there who will break your heart, there are jobs you will rely on that will evaporate, and if you work in the trades like I do, your body will physically break down, but you have got to keep plowing forward with it.

Grey Zabel is a plower. He is a tone setter, and an example maker. I cannot overstate the importance of having a roster full of players like him. I cannot stress enough why this matters in the violent blood sport of American football. It is a sport made for the mentality that Zabel possesses.

This team needs more Grey Zabels. They absolutely do. You win Super Bowls with Grey Zabels.

Go get me another one next year, Schneider. Do it!

The defense held in fine but they need to start getting healthier down this stretch

As stated above, for as much as the Seahawks defense put pressure on Cam Ward, I think the lack of Ernest Jones at middle linebacker was probably felt, and that is not knock on the fine play of Patty O’Connell, and Drake Thomas. They played fine, but Jones is the quarterback of this defense, and he’s a playmaker. I don’t want to go too many games down this final stretch without him.

Can Seattle fend off the Vikings next week without him? Yes, they certainly can, but I would feel better going into that matchup if 13 was on the field commandeering the defense.

It is worth noting that, during this game, reserve-safety-thrust-into-starter Ty Okada ended up with an oblique injury, and Seattle doesn’t seem to have much depth at safety past him. I think that contributed to passing yards given up in this game, as well.

So, it would be great to get Jones back, and starting safety Julian Love, as well, for the Vikings game, and the final six games of the year, but we will see. When Macdonald was asked about Love post game, however, he kinda pumped the breaks by saying “we will see” – calling his situation day to day and wanting to not rush him back too soon, if he needs to work through that hamstring longer.

It will be interesting to see what Seattle does next week at safety if Love isn’t ready and Okada isn’t able to go. Do they drop rookie hybrid sensation Nick Emmanwori into the deep safety role? Do they roll with D’Anthony Bell, who is more of a traditional box safety? Do they call up rookie Maxen Hook from the practice squad and plug him into the spot like they did this week with O’Connell this week at middle linebacker?

Personally, I don’t think Macdonald will want to take Emmanwori out of his specialized nickel roll in the 4-2-5 defense that he has Seattle largely operating out of. This defense is very much the staple characteristic of this team, and Emmanwori feels like their Sunday cheat code in that nickel role and all the disguising that Macdonald can have them do out of that.

Against the inexperience of JJ McCarthy, I think Macdonald will want to throw the sink at him much like he did with Ward yesterday, and Emmanwori at nickel feels too necessary to move him out of there, and risk taking away that dynamic. Therefore, I feel like we will have to hope Bell holds in if Love and Okada won’t be ready to go. The way this defense has played without starters, though, there is perhaps little reason to believe that with a week’s worth of prep, Bell can’t functionally do the job, however.

I will say that what Macdonald is doing with his reserves is one of the most impressive things I’ve even seen a coach do. Seattle plays very thin at linebacker and safety and they still manage to make opposing offenses look overwhelmed on Sundays.

I don’t know much, but I really, genuinely sense that Mike Macdonald is one of the absolute smartest minds in all of football, and I am glad he is the Seattle Seahawk coach for years to come.

But it will be good to see the projected starters return down this final stretch. I hope we get Ernest Jones back next Sunday, and I cannot wait to see Julian Love return to this defense, along with defensive badass tackle Jarran Reed.

Final thoughts

I thought at the beginning of this season, if all goes well enough for Seattle, that they would probably be a 11-6 team with a chance at the division title. They are now at 8-3, and this feels it was an accurate projection. With six games left in the year, it feels like eleven wins is very doable, and more wins than that is not unreasonable to consider. Here is why I feel this way.

I like how Seattle is running the ball now. In fact, I really like that a lot.

I think it is really important in these next six games for Sam Darnold to show how efficient he can continue to be, and also how much cleaner he can be with the football. If he is supported with a run game that is clicking more now, I like his chances a lot to do just that.

Sam should not feel like Seattle needs to win games because of his hero ball antics, but rather he should feel like he can manage games along, and look for his kill shots whenever they are clearly there. Knowing that the run game is gelling should go a long way towards that.

The LA Rams appear to be very real this year. They feel like the best team in football right now, but I also think that when Seattle gets a bit more of their pieces back on defense, they are as good of a football team as any to give them a run in the NFC.

The Bucs felt like the best team in the NFC over a month ago, but are struggling now. Green Bay and Detroit aren’t exactly impressing much, and while the 49ers have a favorable schedule, they don’t feel like world beaters this year, either. Then there is the Eagles who just lost to Dallas, and share the same 8-3 record as Seattle has. Do we believe in the 8-3 Bears who play perhaps the easiest schedule in the league next to the Niners?

The thing that I love about the Seahawks this year is that they are beating the teams that they objectively should beat. That hasn’t felt that case for the Seahawks in many years now. I like that for them moving forward in the Macdonald era of Seahawk football.

And for all the talk about how they and Darnold haven’t beaten good teams this year, they beat a good Jaguar team on the road that appears likely to be a playoff team, and they beat the Steelers on the road, as well, who are still in playoff contention.

The narrative that Darnold doesn’t play well in big games feels a bit overblown. I get why it is out there, and I am aware enough about myself to see that I will be one of the staunchest Darnold defenders you will find, but the simple fact is that he’s only played in the playoffs once in his career (last year), and during the regular season last year for Minnesota (and this year with the Hawks) he’s had his big moments. He beat a very good Green Bay and a good Seattle team on the road late in December last year for the Vikings, and I look forward to seeing more from him as a Seahawk this year, and beyond.

And I look forward to these Seahawks to continue kicking ass. This feels like a kick ass team chock full of kick ass players in the trenches, and that is exactly where you want to kick ass. There is kick-ass-ed-ness all throughout this team, in fact. They have kick ass corners, receivers, tight ends, and running backs, safeties, and linebackers. They have a kick ass kicker, in fact.

So, enjoy this time of Seahawk football. It is okay to buy some stock in it.

Go Hawks.

As we get further into Mike Macdonald’s tenure as the Seahawks head coach, we are starting to learn his ticks and phrasings. When he describes his ideal vision for this professional football team, he often using the term “shocking effort” when asked about what he wants them to be.

It is not just the traditional defensive minded head coach philosophy of wanting to establish the run, play strong defense, and limit turnovers, shrink the clock, flip field positioning, etc. It’s the spirit and character that he wants his players to embody that fuels it.

What he appears most interested in is fielding a ball club that will shock and awe the opposition each and every Sunday. He wants explosive plays on offense, whether they come through the air, or on the ground, and he wants to see a collective effort on defense that will overwhelm an opposing quarterback. This is what he means when he says he wants a team that plays with shocking effort.

The shocking effort we now see in throughout his defense feels different than the great Legion Of Boom defense. It’s faster on all three levels with more versatility, and the collective of defenders are molding into group of connected badasses who can do seemingly anything asked out of them. Guys who rush can cover, guys who cover can rush, and Macdonald can expose a different opponent’s offensive weakness differently week in and week out on Sundays, it now feels with them.

In terms of the shocking effort we see out of the offense, we see it led by an athletic veteran quarterback who can make everything throw with accuracy, and is unafraid of taking the kill shot with his superstar receiver at any point in the game. He plays with a young offensive line that pass blocks well, and is starting to round out together as a better run blocking unit. They added a piece to the offense at the trade deadline who can kill a defense as a receiver and runner. They have speed at running back, receiver, and tight end, and they have an offensive play caller who treats each down as an opportunity to move the chains for a first down. They, as much as the defense, have the stuff that can shock and awe opponents at any down in the ballgame.

For two Sundays in a row, we have bared witness to Seattle’s shocking effort taking down weaker opponents. They did this in Washington when pundits felt the Commanders would give it a good fight, and they did this yesterday against the Cardinals when there was a narrative that AZ would give it a strong go.

This should be a trend that continues against struggling teams, and gone should be the days of the Seahawks playing down to a weaker opponent. Mike Macdonald won’t stand for that happening. That is what my gut tells me based on what we have been seeing.

The 22-44 final score of the Seahawks dominating the Arizona Cardinals does not do this game much justice. Midway through the second quarter of the game, Seattle got ahead 0-35, and thus forced Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon into a rare decision making process of dictating that his offense needed to go for it on all four downs from there on out.

The result is that Seattle’s defense stayed on the field during this game for what felt like a century of football. In result, Seattle’s offense was twice backed up towards its own end zone after failed fourth down attempts near the goal line, and could not get out of it’s own way with fumbled center snaps between Sam Darnold and backup Olu Oluwatimi, and a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage for an interception in an inexplicable play action pass play that was called.

Some people will look at this game as an uneven one from Darnold, but nuance would show that he was barely had many opportunities in the second half to guide Seattle to more scores. Yet for the day, he was 10/12 in completions, he passed for 178 yards, a touchdown, and that funky assed interception from his own end zone when OC Klint Kubiak decided to dial a play action shot from the pocket against a strong defensive line.

The fumbled center exchange, the INT, and a second half strip sack fumble won’t make Darnold’s MVP hype rise much this week, but on the whole, I thought this was yet another solid day for the veteran passer. He impressively completed 90 percent of his passes, and the truth of the matter is that Seattle’s offense gashed a strong AZ defense on the ground for 200 yards, and he didn’t need to throw much in this one for Seattle to score points.

For as much as Seattle’s defense was yet again dominating, it was their offensive ground attack that most raised my eyebrows in a positive way on Sunday. I have been hearing all the past week that Seattle sucks at running the football.

In fact, Mina Kimes went on one of her podcasts and stated that if she were the Cardinals defensive coordinator, she would drop both safeties back in coverage and dare Seattle to run against a lighter box because they suck so much at running it. Well, I guess now maybe Kimes wants to revaluate that strategy, and assertion about Seattle’s running attack.

On Sunday, against a vaunted AZ defense that held a high scoring Dallas Cowboy offense to 17 points on Monday Night Football, Seattle’s offense ran wild, and scored 30 points. In fact, as the game wore on, it was Seattle’s offensive line and running backs took the game over as Darnold and Jaxon Smith Njigba took a backseat. That effort on the ground paired with a strong defense is most definitely a winning recipe moving forward.

I wrote about this as soon as the Seahawks made the trade for Rashid Shaheed. Shaheed’s presence in Seattle’s offense is likely going to open up their run game. Defensive coordinators will be apprehensive to load up the box to stop Seattle’s ground game when they know Seattle now has two receivers who can take the top off of a defense that isn’t playing coverage. If you play Seattle’s heavy offensive sets with two deep safeties, as Mina Kimes proposed, the ground game will then probably open up.

Arizona chose to play two deep safety looks in this game, they dared Seattle to run (as Kimes proposed), and when Mike Macdonald probably ordered Kubiak to not muck around anymore passing it in the second half, Zach Charbonnet, Ken Walker, and George Holani went off as runners. Shaheed, himself, saw action at running back once, and also ran on a jet sweep. He had two carries for 20 yards.

In one game, Seattle showed the league multiple ways that they can hit you with the run. How fun.

I believe what we saw out of Seattle’s run game yesterday is just the beginning of things we will most likely see from their offense during these final eight games. Seattle has always been committed to running the ball this year, but now I think we will see significantly more production on the ground catching up to that dedication of running it.

If defensive coordinators decide to load the box in order to stop the run, and dare Darnold to throw, he now has Shaheed with JSN to kill defenses deep with. So the question moving forward is what does a defensive play caller choose to try to limit and take away, and what do they choose to potentially be beaten with in result. This is why the Shaheed trade mattered for Seattle.

The Sam Darnold Jaxon Smith Njigba Connection has been a fun storyline to the Seahawks this year, but I think we start seeing the run game now catch up to it. This is one of my predictions for this team moving forward this year.

If defenses load the box against Seattle, they have too much fire power to torch them for it. I would rather play two high coverage against this offense, and hope my linebackers and defensive linemen do their jobs stopping Ken Walker, and company than watch Sam Darnold throw easy layup touchdowns to Tory Horton against me. I would rather choose death by a thousand paper cuts with the run game than instant evisceration with the deep ball.

My other prediction is that Seattle’s defense going to continue becoming the talk of the entire league. They have been playing without pro bowl safety Julian Love for weeks, and their secondary feels formidable. They played without their best linebacker in Ernest Jones yesterday, and Drake Thomas and Tyrice Knight played like pro bowlers in his place. The defensive line was without stud defensive tackle Jarran Reed, yet you couldn’t notice much of a difference. The Seattle Seahawks are showing the prowess of their defensive depth chart, and it is a glorious sight to behold.

Tyrice Knight, in particular, in place of Ernest Jones, might be my player of the entire game. He created not one, but two sack fumbles on Jacoby Brissett that were scoop and score touchdowns for edge rusher DeMarcus Lawerence. Okay, let us process that for a moment.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE AND INSANE THAT IS?!

In all my years of watching football, of playing Madden while my family sleeps, I have never, ever, seen such a thing occur.

This. Just. Does. Not. Happen.

Yet it was beyond a thing of glory that it did in this game.

By the time that second sack fumble by Knight turned scoop and score by Lawrence happened in the first half, this game was over. There was no way AZ was coming back, yet Gannon kept insisting that Brissett keep throwing on fourth down. What else could he do as a coach?

It was valiant effort from Brissett that he held in strong against Seattle’s dominating pass rush, but my God, man, this poor soul of a journeyman was sacked five times, and he completed only fifty percent of his passes. With every missed pass or deflected pass, the clock of this game that was long over with before halftime painfully stopped. My goodness was that ever annoying to watch, but I get why Gannon would continue going for it on fourth downs.

Brissett was too savvy and strong in the pocket to look like the confused and wounded animals that CJ Stroud and Jayden Daniels were against this defense in recent weeks, but he also showed us why he’s always been a journeyman player. He doesn’t move that well, and hangs onto the ball too long. Because of that, we got a second half of football out of his that showed toughness and unflinching grit, but also saw his limitations.

If the Cardinals ever do find a quality franchise quarterback to replace Kyler Murray, they will be a very dangerous team with all the talent they have been drafting in recent years. The gritty tough guy play of Brissett showed us that, and I suspect they will be a team giving other teams fits as they battle forward this season. I will root for them when they play San Francisco next weekend, and I do not think that game with be a gimme for the 49ers.

But for them against the Seahawks this Sunday, it was just not a thing to be. Seattle is legitimately riding high right now, and this likely won’t be their last beat down victory we see out of them this season.

Game balls go to Knight for being the second coming of Mike Singletary in place of Ernest Jones, Jason Myers for kicking three field goals and breaking a franchise record of field goals made, reserve cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett for one of the best touchdown preventing four down pass breakups I’ve ever seen, Shaheed for providing a sneak peak spark on special teams and on the offense, and all the Seahawk running backs for being badass and awesome.

Special nods to Darnold for being ultra efficient again, Cooper Kupp for making a splashy run after catch play, and JSN for continuing to be JSN, and Leonard Williams for continuing to be Leonard Williams, and Riq Woolen for continuing to turn the corner towards being a special cornerback again.

Extra special nod for safety hybrid player Nick Emmanwori for being my new favorite member of the Seahawk defense. It is an incredibly exciting thought to think that he is just scratching the surface of what he will be for this franchise. Right now, he feels like the team’s biggest cheat code on that side of the ball.

Next week, the 7-2 Seahawks will travel to LA to face the 7-2 Rams. Both teams look and feel like clubs that can make deep playoff runs.

I will not be surprised if Seattle does not win that game, but I will also not be surprised they pull off a win, either. They are playing that good right now, and it is fun to watch, and next week’s game against the Rams should be a really good one. Objectively, as a fan of football, I am looking forward to this matchup.

Go Hawks!

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I had been suggesting, for a good while now, that perhaps the Seattle Seahawks would target one of two receivers who played for offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak last year in New Orleans. Chris Olave or Rashid Shaheed made too much sense for a 6-2 Seahawk team to not explore acquiring, and it makes sense for the dismal 1-8 Saints team to acquire as many draft picks as possible to finally do a proper rebuild of their roster that they have been putting off for a while now.

Seattle surrendering their 4th round and 5th round picks for Shaheed was fair compensation for a young number two receiver who is an electric deep threat, a run after catch artist, and a lethal returner on special teams. Think of all the value he adds to this offense and special teams, and consider what you will likely get in the back half of rounds four and five next April.

It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that he is on the last year of his contract, and will be set to hit free agency this March. He has nine games to make his mark in Seattle on a team that now leads the league in total DVOA as they push towards the playoffs. If he proves productive, if he fits in well with the coaches, and culture, John Schneider will likely work in the offseason to retain him, and Seattle will be set up to have one of the most dynamic receiving rooms in the league once again. They will have the cap space to pay him, JSN, Charles Cross, and Devon Witherspoon all within the next couple years.

What Shaheed brings to Seattle now is an explosive deep threat that they don’t presently have on offense, and he carries with him a familiarity of Kubiak’s offense. It might take him a few games to get the full playbook fully back in his body, and build chemistry with Darnold, but I think once we get into the later stages of November, we should see a connection forming.

The importance of his deep threat ability added to this offense is two fold. It will certainly help make a league leading explosive passing attack all the more lethal downfield, but it will also likely help the run game. Allow me to explain.

Seattle plays mostly out of heavy looks that either have two tight ends on the field, or a tight end and a fullback. Accompanied with them is two receivers. Through eight games, defensive coordinators have chosen to load the boxes against these looks, bringing safeties down to take away the run. They have been choosing to run the risk of getting beaten over the top by JSN and Cooper Kupp in order to snuff out the run, creating second and long scenarios that will hopefully lead to third and longs. Sometimes, they have paid for it, but other times, their loaded boxes have worked stalling out Seattle’s run game through stretches in games, and we have all felt these moments.

If Klint Kubiak decides to trot out Rashid Shaheed in these heavier personnel sets instead of a slower Cooper Kupp, theoretically, that could put a defensive play caller in a greater bind. Do you drop a safety down to stop Ken Walker, and risk a play action pass where a red hot Sam Darnold now has a quality target who can jet past corners and safeties downfield along with the deep route running prowess of JSN? Or do you lighten your box against this heavier look, and risk one of the most explosive running backs in the league gashing past slower second level defenders who are getting blocked up by tight ends or a fullback?

If you load the box with Shaheed on the field with JSN, you risk Darnold putting up even more absurd Madden numbers against your secondary, but if you play you safeties two deep, you run the risk of your defense getting gashed on the ground. Personally, I suspect Mike Macdonald would love nothing more than to see defenses shift to two deep looks against his offense’s heavier packages. While I am sure he loves what Darnold and JSN have been cooking together, seeing he run game further opening up to better compliment his defense would certainly be his chef’s kiss through the second half of the season.

Therefore, I believe this addition of Shaheed was made to put a further bind on defensive play callers, and it comes at the right time of the year when Seattle will continue to face some pretty formidable defenses. They will face one this weekend when Arizona comes to town, and they will face another one when they travel South to face the Rams in a week and a half.

This addition of Shaheed also provides an insurance should JSN get dinged up at any point in the remainder of the year. Some Seattle fans were probably more than a bit nervous to see Cooper Kupp show up on the injury report heading into the SNF matchup against a desperate Washington team playing for their season, and they were probably equally more than relieved to see rookie Tory Horton step up, and show out.

With Horton, Seattle Seahawk fans should feel hope for now and the future. Now, if something were to happen to JSN, and Seattle had to operate for a little while with Horton, Shaheed, and Cooper Kupp, with the way Sam Darnold is spinning it, I think a lot of fans would feel okay about it, and Kubiak would feel like he could stay within his full playbook. This matters, if you want to see this team in a deep playoff run this year.

This is why I wanted this trade to happen, and I’m not even spending much time discussing what Shaheed’s value will bring as a returner on special teams. We know Seattle is trending to be having one of the top defenses in the league, and we know their offense has been surprisingly explosive. Now they have a returner who can make their return game lethal each and every Sunday that they play.

If you enjoyed the way Seattle took care of business against the Commanders, and the way they made the game against the Saints over before halftime in back in September, you should be pumped that they added Shaheed to their offense and special teams. There are games on their schedule where we could easily now see similar outcomes in favor of Seattle where by the fourth quarter, we are watching Drew Lock throwing to Jake Bobo in garbage time minutes, and handing the ball off to George Holani to kill clock.

Yeah, for all these reasons, I love this trade.

I know most wanted to see Seattle trade for a right guard, but no team was going to trade away a player at the position who is better than Anthony Bradford. Good interior offensive linemen do not get traded mid season. It just doesn’t happen. The Browns, and Titans are miserable teams going nowhere this year with good veteran guards, and they held onto them.

I also allowed myself to have some pretty highly unrealistic hopes that Seattle would try to make a play for Maxx Crosby in Vegas, or Myles Garrett in Cleveland like some podcasters were suggesting that perhaps they would make a run at. Who knows if they tried, but I think the reality is that even though guys are getting a bit older on bad clubs, and perhaps cashing in on a major draft haul for them would be right for those organizations to do, it would be a brutally awful pill for any GM to force upon their tortured fanbase, and ask them to swallow it for the hope of a brighter future down the road.

Crosby and Garrett are generational talents, and they are superb leaders, and if you trade them away for capital that you hope will provide you your next franchise quarterback, and that player never materializes, you will become a league wide laughing stock for years. That is the risk.

If there was one position that I would have liked to have seen Seattle make a play for in a trade, it would have been linebacker, given the knee situation with Ernest Jones. The fact that this type of trade wasn’t made does give me hope that his injury suffered against the Commanders isn’t a bad one, and that Macdonald feels good about the depth behind him with Drake Thomas, and Tyrice Knight, and he also likes what he is seeing from his practice squad guys. It is very possible that Macdonald feels better about that position group than casual fans do, and I think we have to trust him on that given that linebacker coaching is his forte.

I will end this piece with a final thought about the trade deadline for the Seattle Seahawks. I am glad that they didn’t trade away Riq Woolen. I know he has been a subject of frustration for fans the last few years, and I, myself, have speculated on this blog whether he is a fit for Macdonald. I also know that there is a real chance that the team chooses to let him walk in free agency this Spring, but given the injury to Julian Love at safety, and the concussion to Josh Jobe last Sunday, I didn’t want to see Seattle thin out a deep cornerback room.

Woolen has played pretty well the past couple games. He still possesses a physical talent level profile that is incredibly rare in this league, and I get the sense that he is a good locker room fella. I think he has taken this trade speculation noise around him over the past couple months in good stride, and that says something about his character.

He now has an opportunity to really show his net worth in these final nine games. If he continues playing well, if that contributes to Seattle going on a deep playoff run, he will set himself up for a massive payday either here, or somewhere else next Spring. I like those intangibles being a factor for this defense moving forward this year. In fact, I like that a lot.

I like how Woolen is trending lately. I want him to be a part of this thing this year, and maybe even beyond. Through these last two games, I have come more around on Woolen from where I was with him over a month ago. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do during this second half of the season push.

But I really do love this trade for Rashid Shaheed. This was the right thing for this team to do at the trade deadline. He is a luxury addition to this team that was worth making, and I think Seahawk fans are going to have a lot of fun watching him on Sundays. I am excited about that.

Go Hawks!