The Seattle Seahawks walked into Week 3 with a 2-0 record, a battered roster and plenty of reason to think they could keep rolling. Instead, they left Landover with their first loss of the season, a 33-31 defeat to the Washington Commanders that exposed how thin the margin can be when turnovers and defensive breakdowns pile up.
The setting mattered, too. Seattle was already without starting safeties Julian Love and Ty Okada, and the weather was a mess, with steady rain and gusty winds hitting hard in Maryland.
The recent Nor'easter made this feel like the kind of game where conditions could matter just as much as the opponent. In the end, though, Washington made enough plays to win it.
That was the difference. Seattle did manage to claw all the way back from a 24-10 deficit, but even that rally had a strange feel to it because Washington kept answering whenever it needed to.
The Commanders got a 50-yard pick-six, then later picked up a first down on third down near the end of the game to force Seattle to burn its timeouts. When the moment demanded a play, Washington found one.
The Seahawks, meanwhile, were undone by their first turnovers of the season. That’s not a coincidence. Washington turned those mistakes into the sort of game-changing swings that decide tight NFL games, and Seattle simply didn’t make enough of those winning plays itself.
Jadarian Price was at the center of that problem. He’s clearly the most talented running back on the roster, but the ball security has become an issue in a hurry.
He has fumbled in two straight games, and that’s the kind of trend that gets a player yanked, which is exactly what happened in the first half. Price may be productive down the line, but if he puts the ball on the ground again soon, he can’t be on the field.
AJ Finley also had a rough afternoon, and it’s hard to see how Seattle can keep leaning on him. He has never started an NFL game for a reason, and the coverage issues showed up again.
He’s respected in the locker room and works hard, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he doesn’t have the coverage skills to be a good player. He was also flagged for a bad penalty in the fourth quarter, though that call wasn’t on him.
The bigger issue was everything else he gave up.
Seattle should get help soon if Ty Okada and Julian Love are able to return. With either of them in the lineup, the Seahawks likely win this game. But the NFL doesn’t hand out mulligans, and the loss was there for Seattle to take.
There’s still a long season ahead, and this probably won’t look like the Seahawks’ cleanest performance when they’re able to get back on track. The mistakes were careless in a way that hasn’t fit a Mike Macdonald team. At the same time, a group that had gotten used to winning just got a reminder that losses happen fast when the details slip.
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