Seahawks Survive the Chargers, and Themselves

IMG. USAToday

By Bo Crouch ~ Football Talk

SEATTLE — The Seahawks needed a get-right game on Sunday. They got the win. The "get-right" part is still a work in progress.

Seattle beat the winless Los Angeles Chargers 30-23 at Lumen Field, building a 27-6 lead early in the third quarter and then nearly giving it all back. The Seahawks improved to 3-1 after last week's 33-31 loss at Washington. The Chargers fell to 0-4, their fourth straight loss to open the season.

A Start Nobody Has Seen in Decades

Justin Herbert threw an interception to Drake Thomas on the first snap of the game. Sam Darnold answered on the very next snap, throwing one to Tuli Tuipulotu. According to ESPN and Elias Sports, a game hasn't opened with interceptions on its first two plays since at least 1978, as far back as their data goes.

The Chargers cashed in first, with a 40-yard Cameron Dicker field goal. Seattle's answer came on a gift. Derius Davis muffed a Michael Dickson punt, Connor O'Toole recovered at the L.A. 23, and Darnold hit Emanuel Wilson on a screen for a 23-yard touchdown, the first of Wilson's Seahawks career. It was 7-3 with 9:55 left in the first quarter.

Control, Then Chaos

The offense sputtered for a while. Four of Seattle's first six possessions ended in punts, and the other was the first-play interception. Then came a third-and-16 in the second quarter, when Darnold hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 28 yards. Four plays later, Rashid Shaheed lined up in the backfield, took a toss to the left and went 28 yards for a touchdown. Jason Myers missed the extra point, and it was 13-3.

A few minutes later, Herbert threw another one, this time to Ernest Jones IV, who returned it to the Chargers 20. Two plays after that, Wilson scored from 8 yards out to make it 20-3. A 26-yard Herbert scramble and a Nick Emmanwori personal foul set up a last-play Dicker field goal, and Seattle went to the half up 20-6 after outgaining L.A. 190-92.

The Seahawks opened the second half with an eight-play, 68-yard drive, capped by a 6-yard Darnold touchdown pass to Tory Horton. That made it 27-6.

The Flags

That's when the game turned into a penalty parade. Seattle was flagged 14 times for 150 yards, a franchise record for penalty yardage. The Chargers had 16 for 130, and the 30 combined penalties tie for the second most in a Seahawks game.

Mike Macdonald didn't hide from it. He called seven personal fouls "unacceptable on any level." Among them were Emmanwori's head-butt of a Chargers lineman, a low-hit roughing call on DeMarcus Lawrence, and roughing the passer on Derick Hall. Uchenna Nwosu said the team let frustration with the calls get the better of it.

Herbert found Kimani Vidal for a 9-yard touchdown late in the third, and Myers answered with a 35-yard field

goal to make it 30-13. But the fourth quarter belonged to Los Angeles. The Chargers outscored Seattle 10-0 and outgained the Seahawks 138-11 over the final 15 minutes. Omarion Hampton ran in from 2 yards out, and Dicker's 36-yard field goal cut it to 30-23 with about two minutes left.

Nwosu Ends It

Troy Dye sacked Darnold on third down to force a Seattle punt, and Herbert got the ball at his own 11 with 1:42 to play. The Chargers got one first down before Nwosu, who started his career in Los Angeles, got around backup left tackle Logan Taylor and stripped Herbert. Hall fell on the ball, and that was that.

The Numbers That Mattered

Wilson became the featured back with Jadarian Price on injured reserve and Zach Charbonnet still working back from a torn ACL. He carried 21 times for 81 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 39 yards and another score. Shaheed added 33 yards and a touchdown on two carries, plus a 20-yard catch. As a team, Seattle ran for 138 yards a week after managing just 44.

Darnold finished 13 of 22 for 168 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and was sacked three times. Smith-Njigba caught five passes for 76 yards but didn't score for the first time this season.

The defense did the heavy lifting. Seattle took the ball away four times, three from Herbert (two interceptions and a lost fumble) plus the muffed punt, and turned those into 14 points. Herbert finished 19 of 31 for 189 yards.

The Chargers actually outgained the Seahawks 301-286, but the turnovers were the difference.

Seattle also got through the game mostly intact. Leonard Williams went to the medical tent with an ankle injury in the second half and returned for the Chargers' final series. Macdonald said it doesn't look serious, though Williams was headed for more tests. Chargers cornerback Donte Jackson left in the first quarter with a hamstring injury.

What's Next

The schedule doesn't get easier. The unbeaten San Francisco 49ers (4-0) visit Lumen Field next Sunday at 1:25

p.m. PT, and the Seahawks head to Denver for Thursday Night Football on Oct. 15. The Chargers host Denver next Sunday.

Seattle is 3-1 and still hasn't played a clean four quarters. The 49ers won't need the help.