Halftime Observations: Seahawks’ Special Teams Ignites 38-6 Massacre vs. Saints
SEATTLE, Wash. - Putting together one of the most dominant halves of football in the franchise’s 50-year history, the Seattle Seahawks raced out to a quick 21-point lead behind their special teams on the way to building a 38-6 halftime advantage over the New Orleans Saints.
Leading the charge, Sam Darnold completed 10 out of 11 passes for 169 yards and threw a pair of touchdowns to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Tory Horton, while Ken Walker found the end zone twice on the ground. Horton raced 95 yards for a punt return for six points and D’Anthony Bell blocked a punt as special teams fueled the early surge, while Derion Kendrick generated a pair of pass breakups on defense.
Here are three quick takeaways from a first half laugher at Lumen Field:
1. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh had to be doing cartwheels in the sky box.
A year ago, special teams stood out as a red mark for the Seahawks for much of Harbaugh’s first season on the job, but so far, 2025 has been a 180 degree reversal in fortunes in the third phase of the game. One week after running back George Holani recovered a live ball in the end zone on kick coverage for a touchdown, Horton made history by catching a punt at the five-yard line, turning back to his left, and launching the afterburners to rocket 95 yards for the longest return in the franchise record books. On the ensuing possession, after the Saints shot themselves in the foot with three drive-killing penalties, safety D’Anthony Bell came flying off the edge and blocked Kai Kroeger’s punt, setting the home team up in the red zone for Walker to score a few plays later.
Continuing to make game changing plays on special teams, Dareke Young bolted 61 yards on a kick return past midfield immediately after New Orleans scored a field goal, setting Seattle’s offense up nicely again with Darnold throwing a touchdown to Horton a few snaps later. Later, Jason Myers tacked on a 56-yard field goal to expand the lead. Making contributions that wouldn’t necessarily show up in the box score, kudos to linebacker Chazz Surratt, who made a crucial block to spring Horton on his punt return for six and also blew up a kick return with a bone-jarring hit, highlighting as perfect of a half of special teams as you’ll see in the NFL.
2. Efficient offensive play capitalizes on outstanding starting field position.
Statistically, the Seahawks actually had less yards of offense than the Saints inside 10 minutes to go in the second quarter, but that’s all circumstantial because of the gifted field position consistently in opposing territory courtesy of the defense and special teams. And that discrepancy didn’t last long with Darnold turning around and lofting a 45-yard completion to Smith-Njigba in triple coverage to set up Walker’s second touchdown of the half. On their first four offensive possessions, they cashed in with six points every time, scoring red zone touchdowns on all four occasions with Walker punching it in twice and Darnold tossing a pair of touchdowns.
Even more impressively, the Seahawks only had one third down attempt on offense during the entire half until their last possession, and though they didn’t convert, a post-play unnecessary roughness penalty on Saints defensive tackle Bryan Bresee extended the opening possession. Darnold made them pay rolling out to his left on a bootleg play action pass and delivering a strike to Smith-Njigba for the touchdown. After that point, they didn’t even make it to third down again until the final two minutes of the half while putting a crooked number on the board.
3. A stellar defensive half could have been even better cashing in on a few misses.
Being the defensive-minded coach that he is, Mike Macdonald will always look for things to nitpick coming out of games regardless of the score. There wasn’t much to be frustrated about holding the Saints to two field goals, forcing three punts, and getting a pair of stops via a fourth down incompletion and missed field goal. Cornerback Josh Jobe took away New Orleans’ lone touchdown opportunity with a pass breakup in the end zone, safety Ty Okada made a smashing hit on Brandin Cooks on a third down completion that led to the missed field goal, and the defense held perennial Seahawk-killer Alvin Kamara to under three yards per carry in the run game in a stifling effort.
Still, there were some plays left on the field, including a second straight week where cornerback Derion Kendrick had a gift-wrapped interception chance handed to him that he couldn’t bring in and an interception by Jobe that was wiped out by his own illegal contact penalty. The defense also failed to finish off Rattler despite getting a bunch of pressure on him, only generating two quarterback hits and no sacks as the young quarterback completed 22 pass attempts at a 75.9 percent clip with an underwhelming 5.3 yards per attempt. Coming out of the break, the ever-so-meticulous Macdonald will be aiming for more production from the pass rush and finishing better on the ball in coverage.
