An imperfect Seahawks blowout: What of Darnold’s turnovers, Reed’s surgeries?
Sam Darnold: Mostly fantastic. The Seahawks’ defensive front: Mostly dominant.
Their second consecutive blowout win: Mostly brilliant.
Seattle is 7-2. The team is in first place in the NFC West. It’s won seven of the last eight games.
Yet going into their showdown this coming weekend at the Los Angeles Rams (7-2) for the division lead, the Seahawks have problems with the leaders of their offense and their defense.
Wait, issues?
Their 44-22 victory over Arizona Sunday at Lumen Field was 35-0 in the second quarter. Darnold had another remarkably efficient day. He threw a season-low 12 passes, completing 10, yet for 178 yards. That included a 43-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the first quarter and a 67-yard catch and run by Cooper Kupp later in a runaway first half.
But Darnold also lost control of the ball. Three times, in fact.
The NFL’s leader in yards per pass attempt and completions over 20-plus yards mishandled the third snap from Olu Oluwatimi, after the backup center who replaced injured Jalen Sundell in the second quarter. That lost fumble gave Arizona the ball at the Seattle 2-yard line, and gifted the Cardinals their first touchdown.
Coach Mike Macdonald absolved Darnold from most of the blame for that one.
“Well, the first one was with Olu. I think was the first snap, so that’s something we have to be better at,” Macdonald said.
“Happened again over there in the four-minute (drive late in the fourth quarter) with Drew (Lock) and (third-string center) Bryce (Cabledue). Can’t have the ball on the ground on snaps.”
Sundell injured his knee. Macdonald did not immediately know the starting center’s status to play the Rams Sunday.
In the third quarter Darnold against Arizona was 9 for 10 passing for 167 yards and the touchdown to Smith-Njigba, the NFL receiving leader. Then Seattle’s QB did as he did late in the Seahawks’ 38-35 home loss last month to hand Tampa Bay the winning field goal. He got pressured into throwing a pass off a lineman’s helmet.
This time, his throw went off the top of pass-blocking tight end AJ Barner, who was getting pushed into his quarterback by the Cardinals’ Baron Browning. Arizona’s Denzel Burke intercepted the carom at the Seattle 23. That gave the Cardinals their second touchdown.
Later in the third period Darnold stepped up in the pocket trying to avoid a sack by the Cardinals’ Josh Sweat. As he did, Darnold allowed Sweat to swat the ball from his grip. Sweat recovered Darnold’s third turnover.
After that mishap, Darnold put his palms to the sunny, twilight sky and shook his head.
Considering the Seahawks’ defense made two goal-line stands in the second half, without Darnold’s turnovers on Sunday Seattle likely would have won 44 (or more) to 6.
“I felt like I could have gotten the ball out a little bit quicker on that pass that got deflected there, or the fumble as my hand was going back,” Darnold said after the win. “So I can always do better that way. Again, that’s part of the game at the same time. Those things are going to happen. You don’t want them to happen, but they are going to happen sometimes.
“Then, again, the deflection off the helmet, the hand, I don’t know what that was exactly...those things happen in football. And it’s just how fast can you move on and go to the next play.”
For the season, Darnold has thrown six interceptions and lost four fumbles. That’s 10 turnovers in nine games. The four lost fumbles are particularly alarming given his offensive linemen have protected him well most of the season. They have allowed him to be sacked only 10 times through nine games.
Four fumbles on 10 sacks isn’t good. Put another way: The Seahawks won’t beat the Rams Sunday with their quarterback (and Oluwatimi, who may be the center again this week) turning the ball over three times.
The News Tribune asked Darnold if he’s concerned about his ball security so far this season.
“For me personally, I got to continue to get the ball out,” Darnold said, meaning more quickly, before pass rushers get near the ball.
“I think that’s a big thing.”
Jarran Reed’s two surgeries
Each game day at the end of pregame warmups, Jarran Reed gathers all 50-plus of his Seahawks teammates around him at the center of the field. The 32-year-old, 10-year veteran then gives a fiery pep talk, complete with shouts and exaggerated points of his hands.
The big defensive tackle’s going to have to do those in sweatsuits and a cast for at least the next month. Reed injured his right hand late in Seattle’s home win over Houston last month. When the Seahawks had their bye that next week, the team sent him to have surgery in the off week. Macdonald revealed that following the game Sunday.
Reed played the first game after the bye, Nov. 2 at Washington. But coming out of that blowout win, his right hand and wrist were bothering him again.
He practiced all last week. But after practice Friday the team’s medical staff sent him to get more imaging tests. Those found he needs a second surgery.
Seattle put Reed on injured reserve Saturday. Sunday, he was on the sidelines joking with and congratulating DeMarcus Lawrence after the second of the defensive end’s two fumble-recovery returns for touchdowns off sacks of Arizona quarterback Jacoby Brissett. Reed tapped Lawrence — with his good, left hand. Reed’s right hand and wrist were protected and immobilized by a dark, cast-looking cover.
“Look, this just tells you how tough this guy is. He’s like an all-time physically tough player — mentally, all of the above. Comes back in two weeks and plays after having, basically breaking something in his hand or wrist,” Macdonald said. “We thought it was good to go. We thought it was ready. But we had a setback in the (Washington) game.
“Just tells you how tough he is. He was thinking throughout (last) week, ‘Shoot, my hand is sore.’ So we got it re-imaged and turns out he has to have another operation.”
Macdonald called it “a setback” for Reed.
The coach said the team believes he can be back soon after the minimum four weeks a player must spend on injured reserve, per NFL rules. That would be by perhaps mid-December, for the final regular-season games and, the Seahawks hope, a push into their second playoff appearance in four years.
Reed has 17 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks playing just under 50% of Seattle’s defensive snaps this season. Quinton Bohanna came up from the practice squad and played short-yardage downs against Arizona. Mike Morris got more interior defensive-line snaps with Reed out.
Bohanna and Morris don’t come close to Reed’s proven production, or his locker-room leadership.
“Your heart goes out to him. It’s some adversity for him,” Macdonald said of Reed. “But hopefully this will really give him some (chance to) stabilize it and alleviate the pain.
“First you’re concerned about him for the long run, and then when he can come back (to) play great football for us.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
