A sobering win

Seahawks fans react to beating Colts AND the refs, Philip Rivers' return, and the importance of Jason Myers to Seattle's record

One of my non-negotiable daily habits is that I have to clean or organize for at least 5 minutes a day. That may seem like a short bar to cross, but as any kid will tell you “chores suck!” so to be honest it’s still by far my least favorite thing that I have done every day for the last five years. Being short is also the point:

Set a bar that is attainable and that you know you won’t quit.

Oftentimes that means merely sweeping for 5 minutes or wiping down tables and chairs for 5 minutes, but I don’t negatively judge my daily habits. I showed up and I completed the assignment and I’m happy with that. Tomorrow is another opportunity to improve.

Seattle’s 18-16 win over the Colts on Sunday was their “chores game” of the season and no matter what we think of how they played in Week 15, the Seahawks showed up and completed the assignment. This week is another opportunity to improve.

Maybe I can’t avoid the sweep, but the Seahawks need to this Thursday against the Rams.

Every week after the Seahawks games you post your reactions in the Seaside Joe comments section. There were over 130 this week! So that leaves a lot of great insights on the cutting room floor, but I’m grateful for everything that the community shared this week. Read all the comments if you missed it.

And Join Regular Joes! It’ll get you access to the hottest Seahawks club in the world.

Rusty: Did I yell at the TV? Yes I did. Did I curse at the Seahawks offense in the first half? Oh you know I did. Did I initially mock Rivers only to end up being impressed? Yes I did. But am I happy with a win? Yes I am. I see NO style points in the standings.

Ray: A lot has been said about Seattles uglest loss, but this might be Seattles uglest win. Ten years from now nobody will care, but boy, this was ugly.

So ugliest it was uglest! (I know it’s just a typo but kind of a fitting one, don’t you think, Ray? Not just ugliest…uglest! Because it was!)

It was said elsewhere in the comments that the Seahawks are doing a better job of protecting the ball lately. Is it maybe the best kind of ugly win when you don’t even turn the ball over one time?

In the last four games, the Seahawks have turned it over three times (fumble by Darnold against the Vikings, fumble by Riq Woolen against the Vikings, interception on a dropped pass) and one of those was by a DEFENSIVE player! Only five teams have turned it over fewer times in that span, including the Dolphins and they haven’t played this week yet.

Regression is very real.

Seattle’s season-worst 50 rushing yards and drops and penalties (and I know, the refs) overshadows the franchise-breaking day on field goals and a defense that puckered at the right times; if Riley Leonard had actually started this game, I think the Seahawks would have won by at least 10. Rivers isn’t physically capable anymore, but he knows what mistakes to avoid.

He just can’t move the ball down the field.

By the way, I didn’t get into the history of winning while scoring 0 touchdowns:

• Teams were 0-27 this season when scoring zero touchdowns, prior to Seattle being the first team of 2025 to win a game with 0 touchdowns.

• The Seahawks were one of only six teams to win a 0-touchdown game in 2024 (6-3 win over Bears)

• Since 2001, there have only been eight instances of a team winning when they don’t score a touchdown and they give up over 10 points

Yeah I’m not going to sugarcoat the fact that Daniel Jones would have changed the complexion of the game (including maybe the Seahawks would’ve been more aggressive and scored more points) but to me this speaks to the quality of Seattle’s defense and special teams. Other teams are 0-27 with no touchdowns. Winning without scoring touchdowns may be more impressive than winning with a touchdown.

But what do you think? More or less impressive?

John DeLorie: ok, we’re not talking about this game without noting that the Colts got away with uncalled DPI and unnecessary roughness.

Some are calling 2025 the worst officiated season in NFL history, which is of course hyperbole and nobody can assess the quality of officiating year-by-year (let alone off the top of their dome), but I can assure Seahawks fans that you are not alone. I think every fan base has cursed the officials this season and that’s just this week. Even Mike Vrabel is doing it.

If the Rams got calls on Sunday and Seattle didn’t get the calls, does that mean the pendulum has to swing to the Seahawks on Thursday?

KHammarling had a great explanation about officiating and the “Full-time” aspect in the Seaside Joe comments on Sunday which you can read here.

Stephen LeGrand: This was a classic trap game. A chance for an old dude to come back and make a statement, which he pretty much did. The Colts defense was really played some tenacious D (sorry). And our pass rush was limp. I feel like the word going in was that we were gonna go hard on rushing Rivers. Put the old man down hard. That mostly did not happen. He had much more time than Darnold through most of the game. Our offense was not able to make third downs.

I wanted to stop you there to highlight Seattle’s third down struggles.

In the past four games, the Seahawks are 16-of-48 on third down, which is 33.3%. That number ranks 25th in the NFL in the last four games.

In that time, Seattle is 21st in first downs BUT they’re seventh in points and second in point differential and they’re 4-0. If the Seahawks had lost just one game they would have fallen behind the 49ers in the standings. That’s the downside of playing in such a tough division; the margins are so thin!

So where does the credit go?

In the last four games, the Seahawks defense is:

• 1st in third down rate (26.4%)

• 1st in first downs allowed (14.5 per game)

• 1st in points allowed per game (12.5)

• 1st in yards allowed per game (236)

• 1st in passer rating against (57.8)

I see a lot of people calling the Houston Texans “the best defense” in the league. Maybe they are, I don’t know. I haven’t watched them as close as I have Seattle. It’s fair to point out the opponents they’ve faced recently. It’s fair.

But if I’m Mike Macdonald and Aden Durde and I know the team is facing the highest-scoring offense on Thursday, I’m pointing to those numbers and telling the players, “People are saying you can only do this against Max Brosmer and Philip Rivers, do you want to prove them wrong or not?”

Hawkdawg: Disappointed by first half run D. The only was the Rivers thing was going to work out for the Colts was if the Colts could run. D finally came around, but it took too long...

Seahawks held the Colts to 2.7 yards per play in the second half, 17.4% first downs, which is Seattle’s best second half defense of the season (for an already elite defense). Because of Indy’s situation at QB, they could only squeeze out 12 second half pass attempts, the fewest of any team against the Seahawks all year long.

• Rivers was 8-of-11 for 38 yards and a pick in the second half.

• Jonathan Taylor had 9 carries for 30 yards (3.33) in the second half.

Colts TE Tyler Warren’s OROY campaign has fallen apart as Indy’s quarterback play has eroded: Warren has gone from 60 yards per game in the first 11 games to 18 yards per game in the last three.

It’s hard to even assess play against an offense this bad but Seattle’s definitely going to take it and move onto the next game at 11-3.

Jerod: Why does it seem like the run blocking went back in the toilet with Sundell coming back? Feels like I’d rather see him take Bradford’s place and let Olu keep playing C.

It could be the right decision, but I’ll just say that Mike Macdonald addressed this lineup himself last week (Olu Oluwatimi at center, Jalen Sundell at RG) so he’s clearly aware of the possibility and the team decided to go with Sundell at center anyway. For some reason. It’s not a lack of awareness of the problem, so given that we did see Oluwatimi for so long, I have to imagine that coaches were underwhelmed in some manner otherwise they wouldn’t hesitate to keep him there.

I don’t think that Oluwatimi is a great center, but maybe the Seahawks will come out Thursday with a new lineup anyway because it wasn’t working this week.

By the way, Charles Cross was injured on the final field goal. Macdonald said on Monday morning that he’s hurt and is “going through it” but didn’t have an update on his status for Thursday.

Bob: Uuuugly Win beats a loss...but I used up my considerable stockpile of expletives on that one. So, the question looms like the monster in my closet...can the Hawks find a running game by Thursday? More Charbonnet perhaps? Can we beat the Rams if we only throw two interceptions? Inquiring 12’s need a stiff drink about now.

Is there any explosive element left in Kenneth Walker’s game?

• Walker had three 30+ yard runs in 2023. He only has one in the last two years combined.

• Walker hit 20+ MPH four times as a rookie in 2022. Three times in 2023. Two times in 2024. And one time in 2025.

• Walker is averaging 2.9 yards after contact per carry, which is down from 3.2 last season

The top RBs average over 4.0 yards after contact per carry. Walker’s number is ranked 42nd out of 49 qualified players. We can’t blame everything on the offensive line…it seems to me that Walker’s best overall season was his rookie campaign. (Full disclosure: At times this year I’ve said that 2025 is Walker’s best career season, but new information necessitates updated assessments.)

Zach Charbonnet is averaging 3.6 yards after contact per run, but he’s clearly a step slower than Walker. Seattle’s probably handing it off to Rashid Shaheed once per game because they need someone who threatens the defense with his speed and right now it doesn’t feel like that player is a running back.

Maybe we’d be reminded how fast Walker is if he ever broke past the second level, but since he never does that it’s a moot point. Walker hasn’t broken any big runs since his rookie season. None. You can’t put all of that on the offensive line.

To hedge my bets though, the Lions and Eagles both gave up on D’Andre Swift and now on the Bears he looks like one of the best backs in the league. That success could be fleeting (wouldn’t at all be surprising if he disappears in 2026) but it’s something to think about; Walker could be ebbing this year and flowing next.

Holidays:

mfwords: If the offense plays as poorly Thursday in the first half they could be staring up at a 28-point deficit. You cannot give the Rams a huge lead. They’re playing almost exclusively 13 personnel and it’s working because it’s a painful matchup problem. Nick cannot cover three tight ends and it’s not clear how to cover that scheme with Seattle’s D. Probably more LB in coverage and then that means they’ll run it down your throat.

This game showed some odd weaknesses on Seattle’s D. We’ve already seen their aggressiveness used against them with screens and something similar worked with crossers today. I would expect McVay to test all of that and more. As complete as this D has looked, they somehow couldn’t suss out a grandfather QB for most of today and that’s super worrying. If there’s any grace in this experience, it should be humility.

This is a truncated version of your longer, exceptional comment, sorry I had to cut it down for space but wanted to highlight these parts.

Let me highlight Nick Emmanwori some more: 7 stops this week, tied for the fifth-most of any player in Week 15. Back-to-back games with a sack. I thought Emmanwori was drafted for 2026-2027…he’s having a better rookie season than Kyle Hamilton did.

It’ll be really interesting to see what these two coaching staffs have planned for the rematch, especially on a short week and in colder weather: Stafford had a season-worst 53% completion rate, season-worst 4.6 Y/A, and second-worst 89.9 passer rating. What’s he going to do if Davante Adams misses the game and the weather is colder/wetter and he rested for 3 days?

You’re right, the Seahawks need to lock in for 13 personnel and a top-ranked rushing offense because the outcome will be about more than just Stafford and Puka. Fascinating game!

zezinhom400: JSN had a gazillion yds after the catch, shifty little feller and sneaky fast. Great to see him above 100yds again

JSN stats updates:

• 1,541 receiving yards

• 5 catches shy of a franchise single-season record

• 10 games with 7+ catches and 90+ yards

• Only 6 players have ever done that^^ in a full season

• Cooper Kupp is the only player to do that^^ more than 12 times

Other than JSN himself, we may not see another Seahawks receiver put up numbers like this for a long time.

Grant: My son was born this morning a few hours before the game…while I had the game on, I didn’t watch it quite like I normally do, but I had a new buddy to watch it with. Normally I nitpick wins, but I’m just glad I got to see them get a W any way possible on day 1 of his journey as a 12!

Probably you and Philip Rivers both. Congratulations!

Rozone: First Seahawk to make 6 of 6 FGs. Now, that begs the question: Was he also the first Seahawk ever ASKED to make 6 FGs in a game?

The history of six kicks by a Seattle kicker:

• Jason Myers, 6-of-6 (2025 W)

• Olindo Mare, 5-of-6 (2010 W)

• Todd Peterson, 5-of-6 (1999 W)

• Norm Johnson, 5-of-6 (1987 W)

• Olindo Mare, 4-of-6 (2009 L)

• Todd Peterson, 3-of-6 (1999 L)

Funny how important making those field goals actually turned out to be…if Myers went 5-of-6, the Seahawks would have lost.

Watching a kicker make a field goal is often one of the most boring highlights to review because some 45-yard make is just so routine that there’s usually nothing to see. Yet the stakes are huge…it’s points! Often the points that decide the game. It just so happens that Myers’ last field goal was also his most difficult and if he had missed from 56, it wouldn’t even matter that he had already made five others.

IdahoFred: Rylie Mills got some game experience. Next week he is going to blow up LA.

Final stat line for Mills was seven snaps, including six run play snaps. Mills can definitely rush the passer, so getting just one pass rushing snap in his debut doesn’t really even allow him to emphasize one of his strengths.

Mills was maybe a borderline third round guy prior to tearing his ACL at the end of the college season. As he ramps up in the final few weeks to shake the rust off, he could definitely make a difference.

Brendan Schwartz: I feel like we were overlooking the Colts and they are a playoff team if Dimes is still there. We also miss Tory Horton worse than they thought. Is he coming back?

I’m not aware of any updates on Tory Horton. He’s eligible to be activated this week, but I’m not sure how realistic that is or not especially with only a couple of practice days. But maybe he’s ready.

Danno: Two ugly drops by JSN and Brady Russell. I was a little shocked by Ouzts being a healthy scratch.

Don Ellis: Not sure what is going on with Outzs. I’ve watch a bit of Outzs’ play since he came back and he does not look like the mauler he was early in the season.

It has to be a special teams decision. Brady Russell leads the team in special teams snaps. I can only imagine that Ouzts doesn’t bring much to the third phase. When I look at the fewest overall snaps, I see guys who play special teams and provide depth at important positions (Jake Bobo, Cody White, Derick Hall, Mike Morris, etc.) and Ouzts being active would mean that Seattle is essentially carrying two fullbacks on Sunday. Because Russell is going to be active every week.

The sadly hilarious part is that drop was Russell’s first and only target of the entire season. Maybe the lesson is just don’t throw him the ball.

Seaside Joe 2478