‘Proud of Our Process’: Seahawks Trigger Avalanche, Curb Home Field Woes in 44-13 Win vs. Saints
SEATTLE, Wash. - Avalanches can be caused by a variety of factors, including new snow falling on a hardened pack, rapidly warming temperatures, howling winds, rain, or earthquakes.
With precipitation ceasing moments before kickoff on Sunday, however, the avalanche that took place at Lumen Field happened simply because of human activity courtesy of the Seattle Seahawks and their boisterous fans. Before the New Orleans Saints even knew what hit them, they had left them underneath several feet of proverbial snow trailing 21-0 mere minutes into the first quarter, allowing the home team to coast to an utterly dominant 44-13 victory that left coach Mike Macdonald’s team anything but complacent.
“Everybody obviously very pleased with our win. Just proud of our process right now,” Macdonald told reporters moments after the romp concluded. “The guy's attitude, our approach every day. I think the coolest thing about our group is we're not satisfied. We know we have room to grow as a football team. We talk about being decisive, shocking, relentless. I thought we were those things. But I also think, especially on defense, there's room for growth.”
From the outset, with the desire to snap their current three-game losing streak at Lumen dating back to last November, the Seahawks brought the dynamite to their opposition, starting with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba after the quarterback rolled out to his left on a bootleg play action pass. After the defense forced a fourth down incompletion from Spencer Rattler, rookie Tory Horton struck as quickly as a lightning bolt, setting a new franchise record with a blazing 95-yard punt return for six points.
Not even halfway through the quarter, Seattle already held a 14-0 lead with snow starting to slide down the mountain. Escalating the disaster to the next level, after New Orleans got flagged for three penalties on a drive that went nowhere but backwards, safety D’Anthony Bell flew off the edge unblocked to get a piece of Kai Kroeger’s punt, leading to a Ken Walker III plunge from three yards out two plays later that turned the impending doom into an all-out avalanche.
Stunned by the opening turn of events, while a Blake Grupe field goal briefly cut the deficit to 21-3, the underdog Saints couldn’t come anywhere close to orchestrating a rally down three scores, unable to get their best player - running back Alvin Kamara - rolling. The five-time Pro Bowler rushed for 41 yards before the half with a dismal 2.9 yards per carry average and caught just one pass, and with the game rapidly turning into a blowout, he became a non-factor from that point forward against a Seahawks defense that didn’t look like it was missing three starters in the secondary.
“We’re going to make it hard for you to run the ball on us,” Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones proclaimed. “And if you do, good luck to you.”
With Kamara locked down from the opening snap and the Saints’ punch-less on offense away from him, the Seahawks made sure to keep cooking with gas. Benefiting from great starting field position again after a 60-yard kick return by Dareke Young, Darnold feathered a beautiful ball to Horton for a 14-yard touchdown to beat tight coverage to extend the advantage to 25 and after a 45-yard downfield strike to Smith-Njigba on the ensuing possession, Walker powered his way past the goal line for a second time to push the score to 35-3.
Putting an exclamation mark on one of the most dominant halves in team history in front of a loud, charged-up sellout crowd that emulated their predecessors from the “Legion of Boom” era, Jason Myers booted a 56-yard field goal through the uprights before the half, and the Seahawks went into intermission up by 32 largely behind the contributions of Jay Harbaugh’s special teams.
“The story of the game today, honestly, is our special teams unit,” Macdonald said, crediting the group for directly leading to 30 points on the scoreboard. “It's pretty high powered stuff, so those guys deserve a lot of credit. Gave Harbaugh a game ball and Tory Horton just had a phenomenal game as well. D' Anthony Bell, the punt block, just great all around.”
Coming out of the break, Macdonald continued to play starters on both sides of the ball for most of the third quarter, and the Seahawks didn’t put their foot on the brakes just yet, taking out the frustrations that came with their previous struggles winning games on their own turf. Darnold led two more drives that ended with a field goal before he and several other offensive starters traded in their helmets for hats, with the veteran quarterback lamenting a pair of missed throws accuracy-wise to end his final possession before Myers came on to further pad the lead.
In a similar vain, Macdonald also felt Seattle’s defense missed several opportunities down the stretch, frustrated New Orleans found the end zone at the start of the fourth quarter on a touchdown throw from Rattler to tight end Jack Stoll. Always chasing edges, he felt three scoring drives of 10-plus plays by the visitors provided plenty of learning opportunities for his team, and he made sure to joke about Derion Kendrick - who did record a pick in the fourth quarter - missing out on a couple interception possibilities for a second straight week. The group isn’t close to where he wants it to be yet.
Nonetheless, even if the Seahawks didn’t feel like they played a perfect game, it’s hard to get much closer to perfection than what Macdonald’s squad did on Sunday. Shining brightly in all phases on a sunny mid-September afternoon with the aforementioned special teams performance leading the charge, Darnold and the starters went a perfect 4-for-4 in the red zone and scored points on all seven of their offensive possessions, while the defense held the Saints to 79 rushing yards and a 33 percent third down conversion rate while forcing a turnover and six punts.
Under normal circumstances, Seattle could spent a bit more time as onlookers enjoying the avalanche it manufactured at Lumen Field, especially after getting the monkey off its back after losing seven of its past eight home games. But life moves fast in the NFL, and with a critical divisional road game in Arizona looming on Thursday, focus has already shifted to mastering the process again on a short week for Macdonald and his players, ensuring the aforementioned lessons coming out of Sunday’s blowout win will immediately be applied towards the mission of continued improvement and pursuing a third straight win.
“Really proud of it, but now we got to go back to work. Got a game Thursday, got a great plan to get our bodies and minds right. We got to move on quickly because the game is coming fast.”
