How the Seahawks started a streak of 14 wins in 15 games
Seattle had no issues against the Jaguars and Texans, other than the ones they created for themselves
Up until Weeks 6 and 7 last season, there may not have been another time in franchise history that the Seattle Seahawks so thoroughly dominated teams in back-to-back games while only winning by one score each. The Seahawks beat the Jaguars 20-12 and the Texans 27-19 in a span of, fittingly, eight days (just like the scoring margins), holding these two AFC South playoff teams to a combined 527 yards. Barely more than 100 of those were rushing yards.
Were it not for Seattle’s self-inflicted wounds, including 19 combined penalties, and four turnovers, all of which were against Houston, the Seahawks should have won these games by at least two scores.
In a way, these outcomes could have been the confidence boost that Seattle needed to power through the rest of their schedule, as despite their best efforts to blow a lead via unforced errors, the Seahawks still manhandled two teams that won a combined 25 games last season.
After starting 3-2, the Seahawks won 14 of their last 15 games.
2025 season recaps so far:
Week 1 - 49ers
Week 2 - Steelers
Weeks 3/4 - Saints, Cardinals
Week 5 - Bucs
Week 16 - Rams
NFC Championship - Rams
Seahawks 20, Jaguars 12 (Condensed Game)
Trevor Lawrence sacked 7 times
Mike Macdonald was dialing up dynamic stunts throughout the game, leading to seven sacks, including two by DeMarcus Lawrence and Byron Murphy II, 1.5 for Uchenna Nwosu, one for Drake Thomas, and a split from Leonard Williams. Look at the hustle by Murphy on the first play of the game:
This continued throughout the contest, as Seattle sealed the win when Lawrence and Nwosu combined for a sack to force a Jaguars punt with 3:33 left. Jacksonville never got the ball back again. Mark Schlereth noted how the Seahawks were able to load up one side of the defense to get Thomas free for a sack in the third quarter, and the Jags’ offensive line was no match for players like Leonard Williams one-on-one; Schlereth called Williams a “game-wrecker” and a “war daddy”. I’d just prefer game-wrecker, thanks.
Outlook for 2026: They’re all back
The only front-seven player who hasn’t returned is Boye Mafe, but Derick Hall didn’t even play in this game. So in a way, if the Seahawks had to line up against the Jaguars again next season, the defense would be even better.
Sam Darnold has time to throw
Lawrence was pressured at least 25 times, whereas Darnold was pressured seven times. Five Seahawks had multiple pressures, compared to zero players on the Jaguars who had multiple pressures. Arik Armstead had a sack but it was a relatively relaxed day for Darnold.
Although Darnold only went 16-of-27, he averaged 13.1 intended air yards per target (highest of 2025) meaning that he was throwing deep passes more often than usual. Deep passes have a lower probability of a completion, but also carry greater reward. As such, Darnold had a season-best 200 completed air yards. This also included a rare drop by JSN and one by Elijah Arroyo.
Outlook for 2026: Darnold is stacking experiences
After experiencing almost nothing but losses over the first five seasons of his career, Darnold has now been on winning organizations in each of the last three, two of those as a starter. There’s no question that Darnold needs to get better—even he said that his Super Bowl performance was a huge disappointment—but there were clear strides from 2024 to 2025.
Consider how much he improved against the Rams during that time.
If there are similar improvements from 2025 to 2026, nobody will rank Darnold outside of their top 10 quarterbacks in 2027. He’s also gaining that much more chemistry with his receivers. Smith-Njigba’s 162 yards was the second-most he had all season and a season-high 15.6 yards before catch. It helped that Jaxon Smith-Njigba had one of two 61-yard plays by the Seahawks.
Kubiak Shows Off
Klint Kubiak didn’t necessarily land a head coaching job because the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. That didn’t hurt. But even when Seattle’s offense had a rough day on the ground, there were play calls throughout the season that made the Seahawks feel like juggernauts when the game was on the line. Like this 61-yard pass to A.J. Barner that all but won the game:
Safety Andrew Wingard is caught looking in the backfield trying to stop the run on 1st-and-10, which is when Darnold hits Barner over the top, who has gotten behind the defense for an easy catch-and-run. It feels like the old Seahawks would have proven Wingard right, and gone run-run-run to force the Jaguars to use their timeouts. This team wasn’t old.
Kubiak uses Jacksonville’s instincts against them to give Barner a 61-yarder, the longest play of his career.
Outlook for 2026: Brian Fleury should hit ground running
Who knows. But whereas Kubiak was told to cook dinner with ingredients that had never been mixed together before, Fleury is given a recipe with detailed instructions.
I don’t know if you watch the Great British Baking Show or not, but it’s sort of like the showstopper round versus the technical challenge. In one of those, contestants are given a recipe (partial, but still a recipe of sorts) and in the other one they have to figure it all out on their own. Fleury has the recipe of a dish we already know is excellent. Now he just has to execute.
Seahawks 27, Texans 19 (Condensed Game)
‘The Best Defense in the NFL’
If the Texans had a quarterback as good as Darnold and a special teams unit as valuable as Seattle’s, then maybe Houston would have won the Super Bowl last season. And as we’ve seen with the Seahawks, winning the Super Bowl is the icing on the cake that a team really needs to have their defense considered among the all-time greats.
Even so, many insist that the Texans had the superior defense last season, they just didn’t win the Super Bowl because C.J. Stroud was so awful against the Patriots. Well, they didn’t beat the Patriots, and Seattle’s defense was better against New England’s offense than Houston was in the divisional round.
In this game, both defenses proved their mettle:
Texans forced 4 turnovers
Texans held Seahawks to 2/14 on third down
Seahawks held Texans to 56 rushing yards (2 YPC)
Seahawks held Texans to 2/15 on third down
But ultimately, between the games we actually can compare, and the contextual evidence like Houston playing in the weaker AFC, and the gauntlet that the Seahawks had to survive to earn the number one seed and win the Super Bowl, there should be no doubt which team had the better defense last season. Seattle’s 2025 defense is one of, if not the best, of the past 10 years.
Just look how hard it is to move this defensive line:
C.J. Stroud vs. Sam Darnold
To continue this point, maybe in a couple years we’ll be talking about Stroud as a quarterback who improved later in his career like Darnold, and certainly Stroud is off to a much better start than Darnold’s. But in this game and most of the games I’ve seen of him, Stroud’s been below-average or worse.
If the Seahawks get back to the Super Bowl this season, the Texans could be the team that Seattle faces when they get there. However, if Stroud does not improve as much as Darnold did when he got to Minnesota and then Seattle (which may not be a huge leap for Stroud but will make all the difference) then everything else in Houston is wasted. Their defense couldn’t carry him when he had four picks against the Patriots, just as the Seahawks couldn’t win that 4-pick game against the Rams last year.
7 punts, 3 TOs on downs, 1 INT
It is worth remembering, because we don’t tend to memorize drive charts, how dominant Seattle’s defense was this week:
Over Houston’s first 4 drives: 16 plays, 19 yards, 4 punts
Next 2 drives: 13 plays, 89 yards, 2 FGs
Next 6 drives: 23 plays, 38 yards, 3 punts, 2 turnovers on downs
Next drive: 11 plays, 47 yards, turnover on downs
Final drive: 8 plays, 50 yards, TD
This is not how “the best team” is supposed to play, as many were calling the Texans last year. Were it not for Seattle’s two interceptions (one by Cooper Kupp!), a lost fumble by Arroyo, a lost fumble by Drake Thomas after he recovered a forced fumble by Ernest Jones, a blocked field goal, and 12 penalties, the Seahawks win this game 40 to “not many”.
Had it not been for a late penalty on third-and-16, Seattle at least wins 27-12 despite those mistakes.
The point isn’t that the Texans were a bad team or overrated. The point is that the Texans were a good team and they still needed this many breaks just to get within eight of the Seahawks. Had Houston reached the Super Bowl, I think the outcome would have been an even more lopsided Seattle win than what they had against the Patriots.
Outlook for 2026: Learn from mistakes
The Seahawks went on their bye week after this and when they returned they beat the Moons and Cardinals by a combined 82-36…and were still turning the ball over too many times. It seemed like Darnold really locked in after the first Rams game and knew better when it wasn’t time to try to do too much.
The Seahawks went 9-0 when he didn’t have a turnover.
Given that these could have been the two best teams in their respective conferences last year, this was a perfect choice for Monday Night Football. And yet, there’s really not that much to say about it other than what’s already been written: The Seahawks were far better, if not for the Seahawks getting in their way.
If Seattle plays like they did against the AFC last year (5-0), they could still be the top seed in the NFC next season. But if the Seahawks play as well as they’re capable of playing without these errors, they will be unstoppable.