Field Gulls
There are a lot of ways to break down a game, unless one team is so thoroughly outclassed that one inescapable conclusion remains: this was a nationally televised whoopin’ of other people’s bottoms. The type we used to see with the [redacted] Seattle Seahawks. You know, the brand of defensive suffocate-o-fest that temporarily got Seattle banned from primetime.
Seahawks 38, Washington Commanders 14 hardly conveys the power imbalance on display Sunday night. When it mattered, Jayden Daniels was so under siege, the Washington run game was so ineffective, and the Seahawks offense so lethal that halftime might as well have been the final buzzer. Add a pinch of improved ball security, and when the credits started to roll for real, Mad Mac’s road warriors had yet again laid waste to another foe away from home. That’s ten consecutive.
This is the season’s third such complete win for your darling, our darling, and the nation’s newest darling Seattle Seahawks. Remember, the Saints never had a chance, and the Texans hung around on fluky plays that were thankfully absent Sunday night. So here we are, gliding between Halloween and Thanksgiving; it’s definitely not early anymore, and will you look at that, nobody has a better record in the NFC. Nobody is better on the road. Only one other team has Seattle’s impressive +81 scoring differential beat, and by one single solitary point, at that. (It’s the Los Angeles Rams. Who are also the only better scoring defense. Why is it always those guys in our way, the Houston Astros of the NFL? Can anyone bring back those Sean McVay burnout rumors?)
Forget all that for a minute, though. For the second time in six weeks, Seattle thrashed an overmatched opponent in all phases, won the game in the second quarter, coasted in the third, and preseasoned their way through the fourth. A fan could get accustomed to a few of these comprehensive ass-kickings every year.
After a pretty nondescript Commanders opening possession — self-sabotaged by a Tyler Biadasz 15 yard personal foul — the Seahawks started at their own 10. Missing Cooper Kupp, Jake Bobo and Dareke Young, the Seattle offense figured to lean on its running game and tight ends more than usual. Well, someone forgot to tell Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The October NFC Offensive Player of the Month had 119 yards at halftime and the only reason he didn’t get into the end zone was Tory Horton and Elijah Arroyo pulled him aside to say, “Dude, we’re talking to America here.”
Fun fact that is actually fun: the Seahawks scored five touchdowns Sunday night, all by players ages 22, 23 and 24. Their biggest star didn’t find the end zone but that’s okay he’s only 23. And we’re going to get to the other rookies across the roster, but now’s as good a time as any to give John Schneider his props. That was one hell of a 2025 draft, two years after the JSN-Spoon two-step that brought real top-line young...
