SEATTLE – So, the Seahawks started their historic 50th season with a stunning, stupefying buzzkill.
It was all there, 9 yards away, a win over the rival San Francisco 49ers.
Such a statement it was about to make, the offense finally putting things together to complement what had been a very impressive defensive effort.
The crowd was cranking the decibels, higher and higher in anticipation. It was like old times; it really was.
Surely the Hawk fans knew that to punch in the game-winner in the final seconds would be the perfect way to wipe the smug look right off the faces of those many thousands of Niners fans who seemed to fill half of the lower bowl of Lumen Field.
Instead, new quarterback Sam Darnold lost a fumble on the Niners 9-yard line, allowing San Francisco to hold on for a 17-13 win.
Darnold said the ball slipped from his hand. The whole game went with it.
It was definitely an unfortunate chain of events, in which Niner ace pass-rusher Nick Bosa shoved Hawk right tackle Abe Lucas back into Darnold as he was winding up to deliver a pass.
San Francisco recovered and the stadium fell silent.
“The ending of that game makes you sick,” said receiver Cooper Kupp. “We shouldn’t have been in that position.”
He’s absolutely right in both statements.
The offense left a number of opportunities uncapitalized. Kupp, personally offered a mea culpa regarding his 6-yard catch on third-and-7 that left the Hawks settling for a Jason Myers field goal instead of advancing further into the red zone for a possible touchdown late in the game.
The obvious bright spot of the day was the aggressive and ball-hawking play of the defense, which kept creating new chances for the offense.
“I just feel for my brothers right now,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “The game never should have come down to those few plays at the end.”
True, again. Can’t blame Jones, who had eight tackles, two passes defensed and a leaping interception of a Brock Purdy pass.
Safety Julian Love also stood up and pointed at the obvious. “To lose a division game, especially to these guys … I can’t sugarcoat it, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Can’t blame Love, either, as he came up with 10 tackles, a sack and a blocked field goal.
While the defense looked to be starting this season as it finished 2024, as one of the better units in the NFL, it nonetheless spent too much time “bending,” allowing the Niners to convert half of 14 third-down situations, and both of their fourth-down attempts.
Further, despite exceptional play by the defensive front, cornerback Riq Woolen was once beaten on a deep route, and then lost a “jump ball” pass in the end zone for the Niner’s last touchdown.
“Our guys played really, really hard,” coach Mike Macdonald said of the defense. “There’s plenty of things we need to clean up, operationally, but we played physical.”
So many questions coming into this one.
How would Darnold play? Pretty average, actually, completing 16 of 23 attempts for 150 yards. Of his seven pass attempts on third downs, he connected on five, but just one for a first down.
How would the partially rebuilt offensive line perform?
It looked better than most of last season, with rookie left guard Grey Zabel performing well, plowing a path for a Zach Charbonnet touchdown in the first period.
But, the Hawks finished with a meager 84 yards rushing (3.2 yard average).
How deeply would they miss departed receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett?
Hard to say if this was a product of the scheme or other shortcomings, but of Darnold’s 23 pass attempts, 13 were directed at Jaxon Smith-Njigba. He caught nine, for 124 yards, but it created very little mystery for the Niners defense.
What would the offense look like under new coordinator Klint Kubiak?
Well, mixed results. But it’s pretty easy to look at one terrible three-and-out possession in the fourth quarter that looked like a severe brain-glitch.
San Francisco tied the score at 10-10, and on their first play of the next possession, Darnold threw what looked to be a tunnel screen to the far right sideline, when it was obvious that it was perfectly defended.
Smith-Njigba was tackled immediately for an 8-yard loss. It was a terrible call and lousy execution. Darnold should have checked out of it at the line or just dirt-ed the pass.
Then, on third-and-18, Darnold connected on a short slant-in, which Smith-Njigba then lateraled to a teammate, his throw wide of the mark and the ball dribbled out of bounds as a fumble.
The score against a dreaded rival was tied, in the fourth quarter of a home game, and somebody calls that atrocity of a play? Wow.
You always hear coaches talk about how hard it is to win games in the NFL. No kidding.
But it’s especially hard when you throw away possessions late in a tied game.
This defense might be good enough to pull them out of tight games like this for the season. But those guys were on the field 38 of the 60 minutes.
The offense didn’t pull its weight, and it ended in the most painful way.
Just slipping out of their hands.