The Seahawks walked into Washington with a clean 2-0 record and a lot of confidence attached to it. They left with a 33-31 loss that felt like a gut punch, especially after Sam Darnold returned and Seattle still couldn’t finish the job.
This was the kind of game that turned fast. Washington came out as the aggressor, Seattle never looked fully settled early, and the Commanders took advantage when the Seahawks helped them along.
Rookie running back Jadarian Price coughed up a fumble deep in Seattle territory at the 21-yard line, and Washington made the short field count. Marcus Mariota found Rachaad White for a six-yard touchdown, and the tone was set.
Still, Seattle had enough life to keep clawing back. AJ Barner wasn’t the headline name going in, but he kept quietly making things happen with a pair of screen passes that turned into chunk gains. He picked up 32 yards on one and 15 on the other, the kind of hidden production that keeps drives moving.
The biggest spark in the comeback came from Eric Saubert. With Seattle down 24-10, Darnold hit him for a 13-yard touchdown, and Saubert fought through traffic to reach the end zone for his first score of the season. That cut the gap to one touchdown with a little more than six minutes left in the third quarter and gave the Seahawks a real pulse again.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba kept doing what he’s been doing all season. He entered Week 3 with four touchdown catches and added two more against Washington.
One came after a sharp end-zone route that should have been a touchdown before a penalty on Quan Martin wiped it out. A few plays later, Smith-Njigba grabbed a one-yard touchdown from Darnold, giving him five of Seattle’s first six touchdowns this season.
He finished with 128 yards on 10 catches and added another second-half score.
But Seattle’s comeback also had some hard edges. Emanuel Wilson, pressed into a bigger role after Price’s early mistake, never got the run game going. He finished with just 14 yards on nine carries, and the Seahawks’ inability to establish anything on the ground was a major problem.
Ernest Jones gave Seattle one last shot to swing the game. With Washington driving and Marcus Mariota looking ready to extend the lead on third-and-eight, Jones came up with a shoestring tackle in the open field that forced the Commanders to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown. That mattered, but only so much.
Darnold’s night ended with the stat line you notice first: four touchdown passes and two interceptions. The second pick hurt the most, a pick-six in the fourth quarter that pushed Washington ahead 33-24 while time was running out. Seattle still had chances, but Darnold couldn’t cash in when Jones gave them that opening.
In the end, the Seahawks had enough big moments to make this one feel winnable and just enough mistakes to make sure it slipped away.
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Seahawks Already Face A Rashid Shaheed Debate They Did Not Want
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For a Seahawks team trying to sort out its receiver usage, that creates an awkward early-season question. If Shaheeds role stays this small, Seattle may have to reconsider how it deploys its wideouts and whether his usage should be adjusted to get more out of a player the club clearly expected to matter more. [Read more 🡒]