The Seahawks didn’t just beat the Chiefs on Sunday night. They pushed back on the noise that had been building around this team and did it in front of a national audience at Lumen Field, rolling to a 20-3 win that ended a two-game skid and got Seattle back to 4-3. Kansas City, which came in unbeaten, fell to 5-1.
The headline from the night was the same one that had followed Seattle into the game: Kenneth Walker III. But this time, the story went nowhere for the Chiefs.
Walker finished with 36 yards on 14 carries and no touchdowns, and Seattle’s defense made sure that number never budged into something dangerous. The Seahawks held him to just eight yards in the second half, and he was never able to take over the way some had expected.
That’s why the reaction around the win centered so heavily on the defense. Mike Salk called it the end of “the dumbest narrative of the football season,” arguing that Walker is a good player who got hot early and then ran into a unit that wasn’t interested in cooperating with the storyline. He also pointed out that Seattle’s defense was not going to roll over after losing two straight games, especially with an undefeated team on national television.
The performance was the kind that changes how a team is talked about. Salk described it as dominant and said it should serve as a warning to the rest of the league.
His point was simple: if people want to keep selling the idea that this team can be defined by a Super Bowl hangover, they can try. The Seahawks clearly had no interest in letting that version of the story stand.
Bob Stelton had the same basic takeaway, starting with the size of the result itself. He called it “a HUGE win for the Seahawks,” and the numbers behind it back that up.
Kansas City arrived with a top-five offense averaging 28 points per game and the league’s second-ranked scoring defense, allowing 16.6 points per game. Seattle still controlled the game from start to finish.
Stelton also highlighted how thoroughly the Seahawks handled Walker’s day. The league’s leading rusher was bottled up far below his season standard, and Seattle never let him turn the game into a track meet on the ground. From there, he said the team looked like the group everyone expected before the season.
Sam Darnold was part of that turnaround too. Stelton credited him for bouncing back after weeks of criticism, even while noting the interception he threw in the end zone to close a strong first half. Darnold finished 20 of 28 for 257 yards, a touchdown and that pick.
And then there was JSN, who again drove the passing game. Stelton said he is the best WR in the league and noted that defenses know where the threat is coming from, but still can’t stop it. JSN caught nine passes on 12 targets for 150 yards and a touchdown.
The final number that mattered most was the one on Kansas City’s side of the board: three points. Stelton said he could not say enough about what Seattle’s defense did to a team that came in unbeaten, averaging 28 points per game and carrying one of the league’s best scoring defenses of its own. Instead of meeting a heavyweight punch with one of their own, the Seahawks dictated the game and left no doubt about who controlled the night.
In Other News...
Seahawks Offense Took Another Hit At The Worst Possible Time
Seattles offense was already working with a careful, ball-control plan, and the personnel losses only made the margin for error thinner. The Seahawks finished with 87 rushing yards and 257 through the air while trying to manage the game late, but the picture got shakier when wide receiver Rashid Shaheed was ruled out for the rest of the night and running back Velus Jones Jr. went down with a hamstring injury.
Zach Charbonnets lingering knee issue adds another layer to the concern, because the Seahawks were already leaning on a methodical approach to keep things in reach. They had a late lead before the opponent stretched it out, and now Seattle has to sort through more questions about health and depth at exactly the moment it needed stability most. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Added Insult To Chiefs First Loss In Brutal Fashion
The Seahawks did more than hand Kansas City its first loss of the season in a 20-3 rout. They also turned a milestone night for Travis Kelce into one of the more memorable postgame social media moments of the year, after the tight end moved past Tony Gonzalez for the most combined regular-season and playoff receiving yards by a tight end.
Seattles jab landed after the game, when the teams social account leaned into Kelces profile off the field with a reference to Taylor Swift, his wife, along with a friendship bracelet image and a lyric quote from one of her songs. It was a sharp, very public bit of shade attached to a frustrating afternoon for the Chiefs, and it added another layer to a loss that already stung in more ways than one. [Read more 🡒]
Seahawks Suddenly Face A Rashid Shaheed Concern They Didnt Expect
Rashid Shaheeds afternoon took an unexpected turn in the third quarter when the Seahawks receiver exited with a knee injury and headed to the locker room with a trainer. He was quickly listed as questionable to return, leaving Seattle to sort through the immediate impact of losing one of its most dynamic playmakers in the middle of the game.
The Seahawks have already had to adjust their offensive approach without him, a reminder of how quickly a game plan can change when a key receiver is unavailable. His status will be one of the bigger things to monitor as Seattle tries to navigate the rest of the game and, if needed, plan ahead for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]