Seahawks ugly early, perfect late to beat Grandpa Philip Rivers, Colts 18-16
Their fans booed them like they were 3-10, not 10-3.
Josh Jobe looked to the sideline with his palms up to the gray-blue Seattle shy. The cornerback stomped. He shook his head.
He had an entire Pacific Northwest stomping mad along with him.
The Seahawks defense, previously dominant, allowed 44-year-old grandpa Philip Rivers to complete seven consecutive, quick, short passes in the second quarter. The last was an 8-yard score on a 4-yard pass to Josh Downs past the ticked-off Jobe. That put the Indianapolis Colts, desperate enough to sign the quarterback out of five years retirement a few days earlier, ahead in this game 13-3.
But coach Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks defense held Rivers and his Colts to just three points from there. Rashid Shaheed had his best game yet since arriving in Seattle from New Orleans in an October trade. Macdonald gave his offense a final chance by deftly using all his time outs on defense to give the Seahawks a final chance at the ball.
Shaheed and Sam Darnold’s passes to him put Jason Myers in position for his team-record sixth field goal, from 56 yards with 18 seconds left.
That’s how the Seahawks escaped an embarrassing loss, winning without scoring a touchdown, 18-16 over Indianapolis at relieved Lumen Field. “Never a doubt, right?” Darnold said, with a wry smile.
Myers said: “The NFL is hard. Not every game is going to be a blowout.”
He’s now 37 for 42 on field goals, including 9 for 12 from 50-plus yards, this season. “Hopefully we don’t need to use him as much as we are,” Darnold said.
Myers credits his consistent process, including his kicking coach back home in southern California he consults with each week.
“You are trying to make every kick the same, right? Whether it’s a PAT in the first quarter (or a game-winner), just sticking to the routine,” Myers said. And just trusting that.”
He said it helped that he’d made a field goal from 52 yards to end the first half, cutting Indianapolis’ lead to 13-6. That allowed him to gauge how hard he needed to strike the ball through on-field wind conditions Sunday.
On offense, the Seahawks blocked no one. Their first nine running plays gained 3 total yards. On third and 4 in the first quarter, right guard Anthony Bradford pulled left and fell over Colts end Laiatu Latu, who had fallen to the turf to stack up the point of attack. Ball carrier Kenneth Walker ran into both of them for a three-car pileup and 1-yard loss. One three-and-out drive in the second quarter netted minus-10 yards into Seattle’s own goal line.
The Seahawks were fortunate to be down only 13-6 at halftime, while out-gained 157-80.
Even more fortunately for the Seahawks, these games last two halves.
“There is plenty we want to work on and improve,” Macdonald said, “but the way we closed that game out was just phenomenal just in terms of the fight. J-My’s six field goals, having each other’s backs.
Down 13-12 in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks had the ball backed up at their own 6. Darnold avoided a sack and decisively threw a dart to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The NFL’s leading receiver ran after the catch away from Colts for a 39-yard gain.
That got the Seahawks into position for Jason Myers’ fifth field goal and a 15-13 lead with 2:27 left.
Rivers completed a 16-yard pass on third and long to tight end Tyler Warren, beating Seattle cornerback Josh Jobe with 1:40 remaining. That had the Colts at midfield down 15-13. On fourth and 3, Colts coach Shane Steichen had kicker Blake Grupe try a 60-yard field goal.
He made it, with 47 seconds left in the game.
But Macdonald had used all three of his time outs on defense to preserve a final chance for his offense.
Shaheed returned the ensuing kickoff 28 yards to the Seattle 37 with 42 seconds to go. Darnold threw to Shaheed to the Colts 46 on first down, for 16 big yards.
“It was a play that we’ve been practicing for a long time. It was just coverage kind of dictated that I should have thrown the ball (to him),” Darnold said. “He runs a really good route, got open.”
Shaheed had his best day yet for the Seahawks: five catches for 73 yards. “It was huge,” Shaheed said.
“I knew my opportunities were going to come. I know my role in the offense. I feel like as long as I continue to do my job, obviously the opportunities will continue to come.”
Darnold to Shaheed for 8 yards got Seattle to the Colts 38. On third down, Darnold threw short incomplete toward the coverered Smith-Njigba.
Myers then lined up for a 56-yard field goal from the left hash mark with 22 seconds to go.
It was perfect.
Safety Coby Bryant intercepted the final pass by Rivers, with 11 seconds left. Rivers completed 18 of 27 mostly short passes for 120 yards, a touchdown and the final interception in his first game since Jan. 2021, also for the Colts (8-6).
“It was a blast, but obviously the emotions now are disappointment, right?” Rivers said. “Disappointment. This isn’t about me. We got a team that was scrapping like crazy to try to stay alive and get in the postseason.”
With his running game going nowhere — again — Darnold completed 22 of 36 passes for 271 yards. Most importantly the league’s leader in turnovers didn’t commit any.
The Seahawks improved to 11-3. It sets up a battle royale with the Los Angeles Rams for first place in the NFC West Thursday night at Lumen Field.
“Turn the page on this one,” Bryant said. “Learn from the mistakes, and get ready for Thursday.”
Seahawks took a while
In the third quarter, the defense did what it set out to start the game doing. They limited NFL rushing leader Jonathan Taylor, who had 16 carries for 58 yards in the first half, to three rushes for 11 yards — while being able to stay in planned, two-deep safety coverage rather than crowd the line. That put Rivers in long-yardage situations. Advantage: Seattle.
Linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said there were some angry Seahawks inside their locker room at halftime. “We came in at halftime talking about what type of game this was and what type of team we want to be,” Nwosu said. “We made up our minds on how we want to go out there in the second half and perform.
“We knew the first half wasn’t up to our standards. So as men, we made up our mind and went out there and executed.”
On offense, Smith-Njigba (seven catches, 113 yards) began getting free in soft areas of Indianapolis’ zone coverage, which the Colts used because of injuries to their top cornerbacks, including All-Pro Sauce Gardner. Smith-Njigba’s 27-yard catch and run down the middle of the field on a third and 3 put the Seahawks at the Colts 17 at the start of the fourth quarter with the score 13-9.
But Zach Charbonnet ran for just 1 yard. Darnold’s short pass to Walker didn’t get the run after it, for a gain of just 2. On third down, Darnold threw way wide of Cooper Kupp at the goal line incomplete. Seattle settled for Myers’ fourth field goal, and still trailed 13-12 with 13 minutes to go.
“Yeah, we’ve got to improve, be better, start faster,” Macdonald said. “We’ll look at our openers here. Couple games where our openers (first series of plays on offense) weren’t hitting as well as we want. We’ll look at it.”
Philip Rivers’ start
Rivers began 1 for 5 passing, and 3 for 9. Early in the second quarter the father of 10 and grandfather of one had his first truly Grandpa play. He simply fell down as Seattle linebacker Boye Mafe came rushing in on him. Rivers got up and fell again, next to DeMarcus Lawrence. It was the easiest Seahawks sack this season.
After early cushions way too deep given how Rivers’ passes were fluttering so soft and short, the Seahawks coverage got tighter. At times it felt they could have put all 11 defenders across the line of scrimmage and Rivers would still have thrown the ball at or near the line.
“We could have probably forced more situations,” Macdonald said. Middle linebacker Ernest Jones said: “I never felt threatened, I never felt like we were going to lose the game. Just the situation, stuff was happening that we weren’t able to control.
“Of course we didn’t know what they were going to do. We didn’t know what Philip had. So, we were just out there trying to play our style, play our game. We noticed that there were some things that they were purposely trying to do to just get us out of our element.
“So, we just went in at halftime, made a few smaller tweaks, realized what type of game we were in. And we were able to come out and stop them.”
Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon said Rivers was throwing passes so soft and slow, the Seahawks had to adjust how they were playing balls in the air Sunday.
Rivers threw so quickly so often, the one time he went for a big pass play, his receiver ignored the throw. Leading 13-9 midway through the third quarter, the Colts had a third and 4 at midfield. Rivers saw Jobe press too hard in coverage and receiver Josh Downs race past him on a deep go route down the left sideline. Rivers shot-putted his farthest throw of the game, nearly 20 yards. Downs was so sure Rivers wasn’t going to throw farther than 5 yards that he didn’t even look up for the ball until too late, as it landed at his feet a couple yards inside him.
It would have been a touchdown and Seahawks deficit of 20-9. Instead, the Colts punted with Seattle still trailing only 13-9.
Returnees right in
Jalen Sundell came off injured reserve Saturday and started at center Sunday, as he had for the first nine games. Anthony Bradford started again at right guard.
Tight end Eric Saubert came off IR Saturday and played on special-teams and as a blocking tight end against the Colts.
Two drives into the game, rookie Rylie Mills made his NFL debut at defensive end, 12 months following reconstructive knee surgery that ended his Notre Dame college career. He was a regular rotator on the D-line throughout the game.
“He’s going to learn from some of those things about what it’s like,” Macdonald said. “Got to give him a lot of credit. He is out there. He’s battling. And hadn’t done it in a long time. So it was great to have him.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM.
