Rapid Reaction: Seahawks Caught Sleepwalking in Prime Time, Comeback Falls Short in 17-14 OT Loss to Broncos
A heroic effort by a prideful defense kept the Seahawks in position to eventually force Thursday's matchup into overtime against the Broncos. But turnovers once again did Sam Darnold and company in, leading to a second straight defeat.
Making a rapid comeback in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to force overtime, Sam Darnold threw his second interception to set up a game-winning field goal for Will Lutz as the Seattle Seahawks fell 17-14 to the Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football.
Under siege for much of the night taking five sacks and a bunch of quarterback hits, Darnold completed 27 of 51 passes for 278 yards with two costly picks, while George Holani scored the team's only touchdown and rushed for 20 yards on five carries and Jaxon Smith-Njigba eclipsed 100 receiving yards for the fifth time in six games. Nick Emmanwori led a stellar defensive effort with seven tackles, a sack, and two quarterback hits, while Devon Witherspoon had two pass breakups in coverage, including denying a potential touchdown.
Dropping to 3-3 on the season, here are five quick takeaways from a lackluster Seahawks performance on short rest in Denver:
1. Brian Fleury and offensive line fail big test as Seattle can’t find answers for Denver’s pressure, fails to protect Sam Darnold.
Rolling into Thursday night, the Broncos had yet to quite recapture their ferocious pass rush from last season, when they led the league with 68 sacks, 11 more than any other team. Still, with Zach Allen and Nik Bonitto leading the charge, the Seahawks knew they had to come in with a game plan to get the ball out of Darnold's hand quickly and not allow defensive coordinator Vance Joseph to unleash his bevy of exotic blitz packages on second/third down and long situations. Unfortunately, they couldn't do either of those things well beyond a few brief spurts of success.
On the game's opening series, Seattle quickly got past midfield, only for back-to-back sacks from cornerback Ja'Quan McMillian and linebacker Que Robinson to thwart the drive and force a punt. By halftime, Darnold had been sacked twice and hit five times, which ended up just being the appetizer for Denver's aggressive defense. Continuing to swarm Darnold from inside and out, the quarterback took a 14-yard sack on 3rd and 5 near midfield midway through the third when tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas both got beat off the snap. On the next series, Malcolm Roach and Justin Strnad got to Darnold again on third down, forcing yet another Michael Dickson punt.
