Kenneth Walker answers doubters, Charles Cross dominates, Seahawks offense works
Mike Macdonald says his Seahawks don’t have set yardage measures to define an “explosive” play.
“It’s more like, you know it when you see it,” the coach said this past week.
He saw it and knew it Sunday in Pittsburgh. Many times. And from the two guys whom they perhaps need to see it from most this season.
After running mostly to nowhere in Seattle’s ugly, mistake-filled first half, Kenneth Walker exploded on the Steelers after halftime. He romped for 79 yards on eight carries in the final two quarters. That is why the Seahawks outscored Pittsburgh 24-3 in the second half of a 31-17 victory at Acrisure Stadium.
Nearly half Walker’s carries Sunday were explosive runs, six in all. That’s by the league’s NextGen Stats definition of runs 10 or more yards. Four of those six long runs came on outside-zone running plays, the staple of new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s offense that had stalled in an opening loss to San Francisco a week earlier.
Charles Cross steamrolled Walker’s way.
The left tackle mauled Steelers after halftime. Walker ran behind Cross for romps of 15, 20, nine, nine and 19 yards Sunday. The 19-yarder was on third and goal — from the 19. Looking to run off more time with 4 minutes to go leading by seven points, Kubiak called for quarterback Sam Darnold to pitch the ball quickly to Walker outside to the left. Tight end Eric Saubert blocked down right, from outside left. Cross pulled around him to the sideline and wiped out cornerback Brandin Echols, who was playing because Pittsburgh starter Joey Porter was injured.
Walker could have steered an aircraft carrier through the resulting hole. He ran past Cross burying his man. He hopped across the goal line for the clinching touchdown. It put Seattle up 31-17 with 3:41 left.
The game ended that way. The Seahawks had their first win entering the coming week’s home game against New Orleans (0-2).
“It was an incredible play to watch from my angle,” Darnold said of Walker’s TD on third and goal from the 19.
“I was kind of pitching it just telling him, ‘Hey, stay inbounds here. We need the clock to run.’ And getting ready to send the field-goal unit on. ...
“But Ken’s got a chance every, single play he touches the rock. It was an incredible play by him, and our offensive line.”
Walker wasn’t having that stay-inbounds-run-down-the-clock talk on his game-breaking run.
“Every time I touch the ball I’m trying to score,” Walker said.
“The offensive line opened up a hole to the left side. I really didn’t have to make anybody miss. They made my job easier.”
Walker’s breakout half came a week after he had just 20 yards on 10 carries in Seattle’s opening loss to San Francisco. The team’s lead running back for the fourth consecutive year played fewer snaps, had fewer carries and rushed for fewer yards than number-two back Zach Charbonnet against the rival 49ers. The Seahawks lost to the team they must beat to win the NFC West for the seventh time in eight meetings.
It was far from what Walker wanted to begin the final season of his rookie contract.
In the days between that loss and Sunday in Pittsburgh, Pacific Northwesterners wondered aloud if Charbonnet, and not Walker, was Seattle’s lead back.
Asked if Walker’s snap counts would change to go above Charbonnet, coach Mike Macdonald said: “It’ll be adjustable as the season unfolds.”
Noticeably, the coach didn’t say “yes.”
Sunday, Walker showed he is Seattle’s undisputed number one.
He plowed for 105 yards on 13 carries, actually still fewer than Charbonnet’s 15 rushes in Pittsburgh. But Charbonnet gained just 10 yards on his 15 runs. Walker gained more than 8 yards per carry, for his eighth career 100-yard game.
It was his first 100-yard day since week one of last season. It was only his third in 28 games dating to the start of the 2022 season. Five of his career 100-yard games came in his rookie season, after Seattle drafted him in the second round in 2021 out of Michigan State.
Walker said after Sunday’s game (which long-time, iconic Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo watched from a suite) that, yes, he heard the noise last week asking whether Walker was still Seattle’s lead back.
“Yeah,” he said.
“I believe you’ve got two good backs. ‘Charb’s’ a great back. I feel like I’m a good back, as well. That’s expected. That comes with it.
“You just can’t really listen to the noise outside.
“You know, we’re brothers at the end of the day.”
Charles Cross’ big day
Cross would have been playing the final year of his rookie contract as Seattle’s first-round pick in 2022. But this spring the Seahawks opted for a relative rarity in the 16 years John Schneider has been their general manager: They picked up the fifth-year contract option on Cross. He’s guaranteed $17.56 million for 2026 on that option.
Schneider would like to do with Cross what he did this month with right tackle Abe Lucas: get his other bookend tackle and Seattle’s surest offensive lineman under a multiyear extension beyond 2026. The motivation to get Cross done for more years is to get the team a better salary-cap charge for next year than Cross’ scheduled $17.56 million.
When Cross’ agents from the Klutch Sports Group he hired this summer negotiate with Schneider on a longer-term deal, they are likely to use the second half at Pittsburgh, and Cross smashing Steelers with rookie left guard Grey Zabel for exhibits of why their guy should get his.
Cross repeatedly obliterated Steelers out of holes. He opened running lanes as wide as freeways.
“He did great,” Walker said. “We work it all through practices, so when it comes to the game it makes it easier for us.
“He did a great job. Our whole O-line, they did a great job.”
Asked what worked for him in particular Sunday against Pittsburgh’s front which had allowed 183 yards rushing the week before in beating the New York Jets, Cross said amid music blaring off the locker-room walls after the win: “Man, just my teammates. The guys in the (O-line) room we came up big and kept working, man.”
Macdonald and his coaches emphasized Seattle’s offensive linemen “targeting” better than they did against San Francisco. That is, blocking the right defender at precisely the side, the angle and the height Kubiak’s play call requires. If the call mandates a block into the right side of the near-side shoulder, don’t block the middle of the defender’s torso, for example.
Cross said targeting was a huge reason for Walker’s 100-yard day.
“We did well today as a team, targeting our runs and getting in the right spots,” Cross said. “We were fitting up, and finishing blocks.”
Walker’s romps behind Cross’ crunches made Kubiak’s outside-zone offense that runs “first and foremost,” Darnold keeps saying, look like it did in training camp. It looked like it did in preseason games.
Walker’s 100-yard day came while Darnold completed 22 of 33 passes with two touchdowns, overcoming two early interceptions. Five different receivers caught at least two passes. Jaxon Smith-Njigba had eight receptions for a second consecutive 100-yard receiving game. Cooper Kupp had his first extensive Seahawks contribution with seven catches on nine targets for 90 yards and five first downs. Rookie Tory Horton’s first career target and catch became his first NFL touchdown. That ended Darnold’s 4-for-4 drive on the game’s opening possession.
It was the first time in 24 games dating to 2023 Seattle scored a touchdown on its first offensive drive.
The offense had Darnold taking direct snaps under center 60% of the time, versus 38% of the time in a shotgun-dominated slog against the 49ers.
It looked like Kubiak’s schemes are designed, for the first time in a Seahawks game that counts.
“Look, this is what we do,” Macdonald said. “We’re an under-center team with ‘gun change-ups, and at some point you have to pass the ball.
“Yeah, marrying the run and pass, staying on schedule, creating explosives. ...
“Again, let’s use this now. ...We need(ed) to make a big jump from week one to week two. I feel we did.
“We’re not satisfied. We need to keep growing and getting better as a team.”
This story was originally published September 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
