Field Gulls
After their first win in Jacksonville in 25 years, the Seattle Seahawks are now in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC West at 4-2. Both wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and tight end AJ Barner had 61-yard receptions, with JSN posting his second-highest receiving yard total for a single game with 162 on the day. Sam Darnold threw a pair of touchdown passes to put Seattle ahead by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, the former of which was the aforementioned catch by Smith-Njigba. Despite a Jaguars TD early on in the fourth, the Seahawks left Duval County with their fourth victory of the season, winning by a score of 20-12.
Next on the schedule is a Monday Night Football matchup against the Houston Texans, who just had their bye week following back-to-back wins. The Texans had a bumpy start to 2025, falling to 0-3 through three weeks after winning the AFC South division title in each of the last two years. Over Houston’s first three games, third-year quarterback C.J. Stroud had two touchdowns and three interceptions, his worst TD-INT ratio through three weeks of a season up to this point in his career. However, the Texans started to turn things around during the next two games, with Stroud passing for 477 yards and six touchdowns in Houston’s wins over the lowly Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans.
It’s also worth noting that each of the Texans’ losses last month came versus teams that are currently over .500, dropping contests against the Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jacksonville Jaguars to open the season. The Seahawks, meanwhile, have gone 2-2 against teams that are over .500, recording wins over Pittsburgh and Jacksonville earlier this year.
Monday’s game will be Seattle’s sixth matchup vs. Houston all-time, having won four of the five previous games. The Seahawks last hosted the Texans in Week 8 of the 2017 season, winning 41-38 on a Russell Wilson touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham at what was then known as CenturyLink Field (now Lumen Field). Seattle has not lost to Houston since Week 14 of the 2009 season, a 34-7 defeat at the then-named Reliant Stadium (now NRG Stadium) during Jim L. Mora’s one and only year as the Seahawks’ head coach.
FanDuel Sportsbook lists Seattle as 3.5-point favorites for the moment, a fair assessment considering the Seahawks’ close win this Sunday and the Texans’ recent victories prior to their bye week. The over/under is set at 40.5, which will likely only be surpassed if there is a lot of offense early on. Seattle’s only win at home so far this season was against the New Orleans Saints back in Week 3, a trend that head coach Mike Macdonald has a chance to work towards changing this coming week.
Will the Seahawks move to 2-0 vs. the AFC South in 2025? Tune in on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. PT to find out!
