The ugliest shutout in Seahawks history?
What Seahawks fans have to say about Kubiak, Bradford, JSN, and an all-time defense
One day after beating the Vikings 26-0, it’s finally settling in that the Seahawks just won a game in which they passed for 94 yards. It’s the first time that Seattle has won a game with under 100 passing yards on offense since 2018, a 21-7 win over…the Minnesota Vikings. (The Seahawks were pitching a shutout for 59 minutes of that game.)
Going a step further, it is only the fifth time in the past 12 years that any team has won a game by at least 26 points while passing for under 100 net yards. The last time the Seahawks did that, they went to the Super Bowl that season:
Imagine that: Matt Hasselbeck going 8-of-15 for 98 yards, Shaun Alexander only gaining 49 yards on 19 carries, but Seattle dominated a relatively average NFC opponent by intercepting backup quarterbacks 4 times and two months later they were playing in the Super Bowl. Is it really that hard to believe that this Seahawks team could do the same?
It seems like every time the Seahawks win this season we can look for ways to still be annoyed by “how” they won, but Seattle enters the home stretch with 9 wins in 12 tries. That’s rare. 50 seasons into their existence as a franchise, this is only the 5th time it has ever happened.
2 of the previous 4 times, the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl. And Roger Goodell isn’t the head of some Professional Football Playoff Committee. There’s no phone call happening at the 11th hour of the playoffs to say, “Hey Seahawks, you won the most games but we don’t really like how you won.”
Professional team sports eliminate every other factor except the end result: Did you WIN or Did you LOSE?*
*did you tie? :(
The Seahawks are 9-3 and nobody in the NFC has a better record than they do. Should Seattle find a way to win their last five games, they will win the NFC West and I’m all but certain earn the number one seed. Certainly the Seahawks have to evaluate and fix their problems week-to-week regardless of whether they won or lost because the struggles that they had against the Vikings with Max Brosmer could be a lot more costly against the Rams and 49ers and playoff teams.
But the Seahawks could also play flawless football for the next 5 games and still be flawed in January, so winning under any conditions is the primary goal because there is no bigger advantage in the playoffs than SKIPPING AN ENTIRE WEEK and avoiding every potential postseason pratfall until round 2.
With only 94 passing yards, the Seahawks are one step closer to that goal.
Your post-game comments!
All that being written, of course we still have to talk about what went wrong on Sunday and how the Seahawks could fix it in order to earn the NFC’s top seed.
Every writer should be reading their comments for feedback and alternative viewpoints because if I just got up here and yelled at you from a soapbox, I wouldn’t be half as informed about the Seahawks/football as I am after I get done going over your replies to each newsletter.
In this community we have coaches, we have former players, we have fans who have been following the team since day one! We have fans who intently watch the offensive line, fans who understand why Jaxon Smith-Njigba only had 23 yards, and fans who might be able to articulate that one point that you think you know but didn’t know how to say it.
I’m not just trying to flatter you. I would be so much more ignorant of what actually happened every week if I didn’t read the comments and take them seriously. The “content creator” archetype I can’t stand is the KNOW-IT-ALL and now it feels like that’s almost every single one of them.
I learn so much from the comments. So if you haven’t been reading them, give it a shot with me in today’s newsletter and please join us next time! I’m sure I could be learning something unique from you!
West Seattle Tim: Its a weird feeling to say they didn’t look great on offense while winning 26-0, but it did feel a little flat when we had the ball.
JIMMY JOHNSON: How many times do the passes to the right side need to be knocked down before the OC wonders if he should hesitate calling it again? And again. And again. I counted 4 or 5 in the 3rd quarter alone. Feels like a wakeup call to Kubiak. And frankly, I am tired of blaming Darnold for the offense’s sad performance when our Defense is Kickn Ass all day.I am no longer concerned Kubiak will be getting whisked away any time soon.
mfwords: I get it. Seattle played super conservatively, knowing Minnesota was playing with D only. The only way Seattle loses this game is if they give it away. Still, if Darnold’s kryptonite is the blitz, then teams will blitz. Later in the game Seattle managed, somewhat, to game plan around it. Until, of course, they didn’t, and kicked FGs.
Bret: It feels like our offense was exposed today, just like our defense was at the end of the cardinal game and the end of the last game against the Titans. I probably have unrealistic expectations. In fact, I’m sure I do. I didn’t like how porous our offensive line looked when pass blocking.
Last night I had a dream that the Seahawks hired Kellen Moore to the staff. Now this would be impossible because Moore is still the head coach of the Saints but it indicated to me that Seattle was preparing for the eventual loss of Klint Kubiak after the season.
As things currently stand who would actually replace Kubiak? Well there are internal options (Jake Peetz, Andrew Janocko, Justin Outten, Rick Dennison) and eventually a few external ones (we don’t know if Moore will survive, for example). I tend to agree with JIMMY in that I think it’s okay if the Seahawks lose Kubiak, but I also see the side of those who believe Kubiak is well above the average OC.
What if the Seahawks OL is hitting “the rookie wall”?
Grey Zabel is literally a rookie. Abe Lucas has not played this many games since he was a rookie. Anthony Bradford just isn’t a good player.
Last week on The O-Line Committee, the two former NFL offensive linemen broke down what it’s like to weight train throughout a season and why “the rookie wall” is a real thing. I queued it up for you here:
That opened my eyes to just how hard it’s going to be for some of these young players to be battle-tested for 5-6 months once the playoffs are underway. Not saying this is a deathknell, but it’s a consideration for why maybe the offensive line hasn’t looked that good the past couple weeks. Perhaps that’s not all on Kubiak or Darnold.
Largentium: I haven’t watched any tape to verify, but it felt like they always had a safety on (JSN’s) side of the field to bracket him in coverage. The one time he looked to be one on one (with :19 left in the first half), they motioned Kupp over to his side and the safety made a significant adjustment to bracket both guys. It was really frustrating to watch that happen. Darnold should have audibled and left JSN alone so he could take advantage.
Nicholas Donsky: Smart move not putting JSN in harms way. As long as future Hall of Famer Anthony Bradford plays on the right side, nothing good wiil happen there! He flat out can’t play.
How crazy is it that in a game with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Justin Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, and Jordan Addison, those four receivers COMBINED for 87 yards! The Vikings suffered from bad QB play, the Seahawks may have suffered more from QB protection.
Jefferson’s 0.1 yards per route was the lowest mark of his career. Jefferson may beg for his way out but his contract makes him virtually untradeable in 2026.
But it would probably be more appropriate to say that the Seahawks and Vikings both boast elite defensive fronts. I wrote about Minnesota’s front-7 on Saturday — ranked 1st going into the season — and Seattle found out the hard way that there’s no shortage of talent there for the Vikings.
Even so, the Seahawks aren’t done facing good defensive fronts and especially so when they make the playoffs. Kubiak and Darnold need to come up with better ways to counter that pressure in the future. This per Next Gen Stats:
Sam Darnold was blitzed on a career-high 63.3% of his dropbacks, while completing 14 of 26 passes for 128 yards overall in Week 13 against the Vikings. Darnold faced quick pressure on a season-high 23.3% of his dropbacks and was sacked four times, including twice against the blitz. As a result, he recorded an average time to throw of 2.47 seconds, his quickest in a game since Week 16, 2022 against the Lions when playing for the Panthers (2.38 seconds). When holding onto the ball for more than 2.5 seconds, he completed just 3 of 7 passes for 17 yards.
Darnold completed one pass beyond 8 yards and that went for 10 yards. He was 0-of-1 on passes beyond 14 yards. In other words, Seattle was too conservative to take their normal amount of deep shots and that’s fine because they won 26-0. If it was 26-20 we would have seen a different game plan. But clearly Darnold was still bothered by the blitz.
Bill: Breaking!!! Let me know if you heard this somewhere else but Anthony Bradford is TERRIBLE! How can there not be anyone better than him to put at RG?
BEASTMODE808: Haynes was also bad...
Largentium: Most of the game what you saw was Bradford missing blocks, looking for someone to block and not seeing players that should have been blocked, or him standing around doing nothing. He needs to go. He did have a couple of good blocks on running plays, but they are so few and far between, pretty much anyone has to be better.
Paul G: There are a lot if bad guards out there. Bradford is basically replacement level.
Mike Macdonald indicated on Monday that the Seahawks will consider using a different combination of players at G/C when Jalen Sundell is able to return from IR. Maybe Sundell will be the new RG and Olu Oluwatimi (who is shockingly 10th in Pro Bowl votes at center) will stay in the lineup.
Sea Hawk Run!: Had Darnold played this conservatively against the Rams, the team would be 10-2. The Seahawks learn and adjust.
Mike McD: The hawks are smart. Run the ball protect the QB and star WR and let’s keep this train moving. Onward, great win (I’ve seen too many Colt McCoy wins in Seahawks stadium to take Brosmer lightly). A win like this against any NFL is impressive. The D Line was dominant. What a game
This box score will reside somewhere forever with an asterisk because Max Brosmer is so out of his element in the NFL. That being said, the Vikings would have probably played this poorly with J.J. McCarthy too. They were already dead last in turnovers! Yes someone is worse than the Seahawks in turnovers!
Brosmer had an EPA of -35.8 on Sunday, the single worst game by any quarterback in 2025!
KHammarling: What I liked seeing was our TE’s in run blocking, they were dominant on every snap it seemed! Terrific support to the OLine and that kind of grinding effort is the sort of play that wins you tight nasty games in January. OLine could have done better, but rather than being outplayed they were more just outschemed and overwhelmed. No OLine would stand up against that many rushers, so don’t draw conclusions there.
I think that sounds like a totally valid point!
West Seattle Tim: I was struck with how fast Woolen caught up to Jones on his pick 6. Woolen was at least 10-15 yards behind the play and caught up to him on the 10, passing every other player still playing. That dude is fast. But he really should have slide after his pick.
Don Ellis: Woolen’s catch was very wide receiver like and I didn’t even mind the fumble at the end. I was just ecstatic he got a pick.
JIMMY JOHNSON: The good news is both Darnold and Woolen qualify for group rates in classes teaching how to protect the football.
KHammarling: Riq annoyed me on his return, play the team game and just protect the ball and not your own numbers, but it’s a minor complaint because the game was long over by then.
So one thing I’ll say about the Tariq Woolen interception is that I hated to see bodies flying around to block for a return that didn’t matter. I don’t want to see Uchenna Nwosu running downfield trying to find someone to block. I don’t want to see Brandon Pili throwing his body at a Vikings offensive lineman to try and get 5 more yards. It’s hard for me to be overly critical of Woolen on this particular play because his mindset is probably fine, but it did put a pit in my stomach.
As far as being fast, he certainly is.
Bryant: I read a comment elsewhere that I’ll paraphrase- “the meanest thing the Seahawks did to the Vikings was to intercept the ball and then fumble on the same play, forcing the Viking offense to stay on the field.”
Oof! And true.
Charley Filipek: When Seattle traded for Leonard Williams numbers of pundits were saying that our game wreaking All Pro didn’t have much left in his tank. W R O N G. Thanks, NY Giants.
Chris H: Byron Murphy is dominating at the point of attack. Nobody is moving him, and he’s getting more and more clever with his hands. He’s an absolute problem that has several years of improvement yet to go. Great pick, and when Leo retires or moves on, Seattle has their big man on the d-line already in place.
I wrote this in the comments on Sunday, but even if the Seahawks defense isn’t quite built entirely off of “Castoffs”, it does seem like these players were practically freebies that the league let get away:
Ernest Jones, traded by Rams AND Titans in a matter of weeks
DeMarcus Lawrence, very cheap free agent pickup
Leonard Williams, a 2nd and a 5th for a DPOY candidate
Drake Thomas, the RAIDERS didn’t think he was good enough
Josh Jobe, waived by Eagles in 2024 camp
Ty Okada, undrafted
Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen, day 3 picks
You could even argue that the most budding of stars, Byron Murphy II, had no business falling to pick 16. Uchenna Nwosu was a good bargain find when the Chargers let him leave in free agency too. What am I missing?
Grant Alden: This is a joke from the NFLSE podcast (somebody’s comment, not the hosts), directed at the Cardinals’ defense. But I think we’re entitled to steal it for this D, if we wanna: Legion of Whom.
“Whom” to them. “THEM” to us. (I usually hate it when someone is called HIM, but I find it pretty funny to call an entire defense THEM.)
IdahoFred: This was the Vikings prove-it game and they have been waiting all season for it. They wanted to prove to everyone that they didn’t make a mistake letting Sam go. They wanted to prove that Seattle made a mistake signing him. They wanted to prove that they knew all Sam’s weaknesses and that the game today would be a repeat of his last two games as a Viking. How did they do?
They didn’t do good, Fred. They didn’t do good. Begaw.
Seaside Joe 2464
Just before the regular season started I upped my Seahawk win total from 12 wins to 13 wins, and had them winning the division. I had them splitting with the Rams and the 49ers. During the bye I changed my win total for the Seahawks from 13 to 14 wins, losing only to the Rams in LA. I felt they had as good a chance as any team to go to the Super Bowl and I still do. There have been some disappointing performances by the offense, but I feel they are constantly working on getting better. I think they are the team to beat in the NFC. I can’t wait for the next Rams game!
MM gave a very strong defense and endorsement to Bradford in his morning show on Seattle Sports, but I still have this idea that when Sundel returns to the lineup, it could be at RG with Olu remaining at Center. Olu had missed too many snaps with his injury in the preseason to get back in the competition with Sundel. But now he’s had a few weeks to gel with the O-line starters. Even if Sundel would be slightly better than Olu at center, perhaps his quickness and athleticism might be a bigger improvement at RG than replacing Olu. MM actually said at the start of the season, that if Bradford suffered an injury, Sundel would be the replacement for Bradford, and Olu would become center. I think this is a very real possibility. When Sundel returns, our five best O-linemen might not include Bradford.
At least the Seahawks aren't paying Bradford Will Fries money. I laughed on the first Vikings drive when Leanord Williams went right by Fries. Fries did a great Bradford impression on that play.