SEATTLE – There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the temperature was a balmy 59 degrees at the 1:05 p.m. kickoff.
And then there was the game – a surprisingly easy 44-22 rout of the usually pesky Arizona Cardinals in which the Seahawks led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter and 38-7 at halftime.
True, three turnovers helped give Arizona a momentary, if barely beating pulse.
“Just a little funky there in the second half,” was the way Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald put it. “Just kind of a weird game all the things that happened.”
The Seahawks quickly readied the ship to assure the game finished as the blowout it was from the beginning.
And aside from that blip, it was a day in which Seahawks fans could not only look out as far as the eye could see at the exquisite surroundings, but also to what could be a limitless future for the home team.
Seahawks players were enjoying a similar view.
“I can definitely see we’re building something special,” said defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, maybe the biggest star of the game on a day when there were many. He picked up two fumbles from Arizona quarterback Jacoby Brissett, forced by Tyrice Knight, and returned them for touchdowns in the first half – one in each of the first and second quarters.
“There are some things that we can clean up and get better at, but that’s a testament to the detail that we put into our work each and every day. Again, the sky is the limit from here.”
After the Seahawks’ fourth straight win, which improved their record to 7-2 and kept them in a tie for the NFC West with the Rams, receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba shared the same thought.
“What we’re building here, we all feel like we have something special,” said Smith-Njigba, who got the party started with a 43-yard touchdown catch from Sam Darnold to cap the Seahawks’ first drive of the game. “And we just want to keep it going and protect what we have.”
It was a game that showcased all of what the Seahawks can be.
The offense scored TDs on drives of 65, 81 and 76 the first three times it had the ball with Darnold completing 9 of his first 10 passes for 167 yards in the first half alone, which included a 67-yard pass to Cooper Kupp that set up a TD that made it 35-0 with 8:33 to play in the first half.
The running game took over in the second half, with 121 yards on 25 carries to finish with a season-high 198.
The Seahawks were over 200 rushing yards, at 202, before kneel downs on the final series.
“It’s huge,” said Smith-Njigba of the best running day of the season. “We want to have a great balance. We put up some numbers rushing today, so I’m excited for those guys.”
The Seahawks, in fact, ran it on all 12 plays of a 79-yard drive that spanned the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth that ended in a Jason Myers field goal that helped restore order.
“It was great to put the game away on offense with some of those four-minute drives, running the ball and closing it out,” Macdonald said.
It added up to a game in which the Seahawks never punted for just the third time in franchise history.
Then there was the defense, which harassed Brissett into the two early fumbles and returns for TDs that turned the game into a rout.
Knight, starting in place of the injured Ernest Jones IV at middle linebacker, came over the right side on a blitz on Arizona’s first possession of the game to hit Brissett as he threw with the ball falling to the turf and Lawrence running in for as easy a TD as could be from 43 yards out to make it 14-0.
In the second, with the score 21-0, Knight came up the middle on another blitz and knocked the ball out of Brissett’s hands just as he threw, the ball again landing on the turf and straight to Lawrence for another TD, this one from 22 yards out.
Lawrence referred to himself as “the lucky recipient” of two great plays by Knight.
“I’ll take it every day,” he said with a smile.
Macdonald said each were blitzes that the Seahawks have had in its game plan all season but hadn’t called before Sunday. Macdonald said he didn’t call them necessarily because Brissett is more stationary than Arizona’s usual starting QB, Kyler Murray. But it sure seemed to make sense if he did.
Seahawks second-year defensive tackle Byron Murphy II said the Seahawks were aware Brissett would offer a contrasting style.
“Oh man, it was a lot different because Murray, he likes to run around in the pocket and Brissett, he’s just a guy he sits there, he’s a sitting duck,” Murphy said. “Sometimes he likes to escape in the pocket stepping up, so it was really just push the pocket back on Brissett and try to keep him in a phone booth.”
The Seahawks sacked Brissett five times and hit him 10 while they got their hands on 10 of his passes.
Oddly, the Seahawks’ defense hadn’t forced a fumble all season until Sunday.
The two fumble returns for TDs by Lawrence were the first time it happened in an NFL game since 2020, the second since 1948 and only the fourth ever.
More fun with numbers?
• The 38 points were tied for the third most in a first half in team history – and tied for the most in a first half this season, also accomplished on Sept. 21 against New Orleans;
• It was the second time in two games the Seahawks have jumped out to leads of 28-0, doing so last Sunday at Washington. According to Mike Renner of CBSSports.com, only two other teams since 1967 (or the Super Bowl era) have also taken 28-0 leads in back-to-back games;
• It was their ninth straight win over Arizona and improved their home record to 3-2 after going just 3-6 at Lumen Field last season.
“Got beat pretty damn good, and that falls on me,” said Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon, who hoped his team had turned a corner after ending a five-game losing streak with a 27-17 win at Dallas on Monday night. “So (we) just got behind early versus a good team. It’s tough to dig yourself out, so not a lot of good from out of that game.”
Maybe most important, along with the 7-2 mark this season the Seahawks are 13-4 since the midway point of last year, a run that is continuing to establish themselves as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
“When we do it right,’’ Macdonald said. “We play really good ball.’’
The truest test for the Seahawks this season lays await in L.A. against a Rams team whose only two losses came on the final play of the game and has won each of its last for by 14 points or more.
The game will also be a homecoming for Darnold, who grew up in the area and played at USC, as well as Kupp and Jones, part of the Rams’ Super Bowl winning team in 2021.
“I don’t think our minds have really shifted to that yet,” Kupp said. “We’re getting ready to prepare for what that team presents to us, and I think they’re playing good ball right now. Shoot, just looking forward to another great challenge. Go out there and go this week and try to go 1-0.”