ClutchPoints
Sam Darnold just turned Sunday Night Football into a time machine. The Seattle Seahawks quarterback ripped Washington for four first-half touchdowns with a perfect passer rating, joining Michael Vick as the only quarterbacks in the last 20 seasons to post 4 total TDs and a perfect rating in the first half of a primetime game (Vick did it in Week 10, 2010 at Washington), via Jack Andrade on X, formerly Twitter.
The show started early. Darnold opened the scoring with a 4-yard strike to rookie wideout Tory Horton, then climbed the ladder to the same target on a feathery 25-yarder. He followed with a 26-yard dart to tight end Elijah Arroyo and a 60-yard bomb to Cody White, four TD tosses before halftime as Seattle sprinted to a 31–7 lead. The ESPN game log stacks the sequence in black and white.
If it felt Vick-ish, that’s because it was. Darnold didn’t force anything; he played point guard and hunted matchups. Seattle’s staff dialed up play-action shots and quick-game answers that let Jaxon Smith-Njigba stress the seams while Horton won outside. It was ruthless and clean.
By the break, the Seahawks had touchdowns on four of five drives, and Darnold’s passer rating sat at a pristine 158.3, per live tracking, as Seattle’s defense forced two takeaways to keep the Commanders in chase mode.
Seattle needed a national-TV flex like this, and Darnold delivered. The Washington Commanders adjusted after halftime, but the first 30 minutes told the story: protection held up, the scheme kept Washington off balance, and Darnold played the most efficient football of his Seahawks tenure.
It’s dangerous to overreact to one half, but the company here is elite. When your stat line sends you to the same sentence as Michael Vick in a primetime demolition, you’ve done something rare. Seattle will happily let the comps fly but the game isn’t over yet.
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