Rapid Reaction: Seahawks Sunk by Turnovers, Stunned by Commanders in 33-31 Defeat
Outscored by 20 points off turnovers, including a killer pick-six thrown by Sam Darnold to Kain Medrano late in the fourth quarter, the Seattle Seahawks fell victim to the underdog Washington Commanders in a stunning 33-31 defeat to lose for the first time since last November.
Playing in his first game since the opener, Darnold threw for 379 yards with four touchdown passes, including a pair of scoring tosses to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. However, his two picks led to 14 points for the Commanders, sullying an otherwise strong outing from the veteran quarterback. Defensively, Leonard Williams and Derick Hall produced a pair of sacks, but Marcus Mariota managed to throw three touchdowns against a normally formidable unit.
Suffering their first loss of the season, here are five takeaways from Sunday’s unexpected blemish at Northwest Stadium:
1. Losing the turnover battle as well as the points off turnover margin ultimately cost the Seahawks.
Prior to Week 2, the Seahawks had not lost a turnover since the end of the regular season back in January. But that trend has been turned upside down in the early stages of the new campaign, starting with rookie running back Jadarian Price struggling to protect the football in the run game. After losing a fumble in Arizona last week, the first round pick coughed it up again in the first quarter as cornerback Amik Robertson forced it out at the Seattle 21-yard line and Washington recovered. Only a few plays later, Mariota hit running back Rachaad White for a six-yard touchdown to put the home team out in front, and the rookie stayed on the sidelines for most of the remainder of the first half in what appeared to be an unofficial benching.
Moments after coming out of the halftime intermission, misfortune struck again, this time for Darnold. His first down throw intended for Smith-Njigba struck defensive tackle Tim Settle’s helmet, bouncing up in the air and allowing rookie linebacker Sonny Styles to run underneath it for the pick near midfield. Once again seizing the opportunity, Mariota threw a 30-yard touchdown to Terry McLaurin against cornerback Josh Jobe, who couldn’t get himself turned around to make a play on the ball in the end zone. In what wound up being the nail in the coffin, Darnold rolled out to his left on a bootleg on 3rd and long and telegraphed a horrible throw right into Medrano’s hands as the linebacker returned it 50 yards for six points.
2. Aside from two major mistakes, Darnold played a clean, efficient game with improved distribution to skill players.
Back in the lineup earlier than anticipated after sitting out Week 2 with a glute injury, Darnold looked healthy from the start, moving well when the Commanders forced him out of the pocket a couple of times on the Seahawks first two offensive drives. After checking down to short routes early, he started to sling the pigskin late in the first quarter, linking up with Smith-Njigba for 11 and 20-yard receptions before the dynamic duo connected on their first touchdown of the day. He threw for 179 yards in the first half, aided by a 32-yard screen play to AJ Barner and 20-plus yard receptions by Brady Russell and Cooper Kupp.
Coming out of the break, Darnold’s first drive ended abruptly with the helmet-induced interception. As he has done throughout his career, he immediately shook off the mistake, leading back-to-back touchdown drives that ended with touchdown tosses to Saubert and Smith-Njigba to knot the score back up at 24-24. After Washington re-took the lead on a Stevens field goal, he fired a perfect strike to Smith-Njigba for a 26-yard gain on an out-breaking route, only to turn around and make the ill-fated decision to try to squeeze a play action pass in to Barner, allowing Medrano to jump it for the back-breaking pick six. But again, short-term memory served the signal caller well as he coordinated a five-play, 68-yard touchdown drive to quickly cut the deficit back to two, with that scoring drive proving to be too little, too late.
3. The absence of Julian Love proved to be a significant one as Washington moved the ball well through the air.
Continuing to battle persistent injuries at the safety position, the Seahawks lost Love midway through the week with a calf strain, thrusting AJ Finley into the lineup as the latest next man up. The Commanders made it a priority to test the fourth-year safety, who had never started a game on defense in his NFL career. This included picking on him with Treylan Burks beating him with a slant in the second quarter, putting the Commanders up 14-7 at that point. He later allowed an 18-yard reception to Terry McLaurin that set up a field goal late in the first half, and those three points ended up being massive in the final few minutes.
Not having Love certainly made a major difference on the back end for Seattle, which had not given up a pass play of more than 19 yards in the first two games. Without him, however, Washington found a way to attack downfield a few times, most notably with McLaurin’s 30-yard touchdown against Jobe with Rodney Thomas not able to get over in time to provide extra support in coverage. The team also missed his presence in the closing moments as a run defender, as White broke contain on a 3rd and 9 run and ended up turning it into a 19-yard run and Mariota kept a read option for a nine-yard run on another third down to ice the game with no safeties coming up to help make a play.
4. Botched opportunities by the Commanders, including a touchdown wiped out by penalty, loomed large down the stretch.
Yielding 27 points, a season-high, Seattle didn’t play the standard of defense coach Mike Macdonald expects from his crew. Along with allowing several explosive pass plays that extended drives or resulted in touchdowns, missed tackles were a far bigger problem than they had been in the first two weeks. And in reality, the situation could have been much worse if not for Washington whiffing on a few chances to create more separation over the course of the game. Running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt rocketed past multiple Seahawks defenders for a 48-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, only for that play to be wiped out by an illegal procedure penalty against rookie receiver Antonio Williams. On that same series, receiver Dyami Brown couldn’t get his second foot down on what would have been a 21-yard reception along the sideline, taking away a chance to get at least three points out of the drive.
Then in the second half, McLaurin couldn’t get both feet down and bobbled a third down throw along the sidelines, leading to an overturned catch by replay and a Washington punt instead of an extended drive into Seattle territory. After Medrano’s pick six appeared to put the dagger in the ‘Hawks, Stevens missed the ensuing extra point, which kept the lead at just nine points before Darnold led a final touchdown drive. If Seattle would have gotten the football back, a field goal would have won the game instead of tying it, but that miscue ended up not being a big deal as Washington survived with gutsy third down runs by White and Mariota to seal the deal.
5. Subpar play from Seattle's special teams units served as yet another equalizer for the underdogs.
Posting a minus-three turnover differential by itself derailed the Seahawks on Sunday, but losing the field position battle also made life easy on the Commanders. Struggling to boot the ball in wet conditions, Michael Dickson had a rare off day, averaging 43.5 yards per punt with several of his kicks fluttering far shorter than usual and setting up Washington with great field position. He also had a punt bounce into the end zone for a touchback, again losing out on a chance to pin the Commanders back deep. In addition, Myers made a critical mistake in the fourth quarter with a kickoff that failed to reach the landing zone, giving the home team the ball at the 40-yard line. Stevens would split the uprights moments later as Washington re-took a 27-24 advantage.
Overall, the Commanders started drives at their own 40-yard line or better five times off punts, kickoffs, or turnovers, turning those series into 17 total points. That was yet another major advantage that the Seahawks simply could not overcome late and the third phase of the game will have to be much better moving forward to get back in the win column with every opponent giving Macdonald’s squad their best shot.
