As Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold walked to a podium in the interview room after Monday night’s 27-19 win over the Houston Texans, he paused and quickly gathered his thoughts, thinking of what to say to the assembled media.
Then he came up with the only four words that were really necessary to describe the three-and-a-half hours everyone had just witnessed.
“What a weird game, Darnold said.
How weird?
The Seahawks won despite losing a season-high four turnovers while getting just one, being penalized a season-high 12 times for 93 yards and converting just 2 of 14 third-down attempts, a season-low 14.3%.
According to NFL research, teams that were penalized 10 times or more, had a turnover margin of minus-three or worse and converted fewer than 25% of their third downs in the same game were 0-31 since 2000 before the Seahawks pulled off the unlikely feat in a victory on Monday.
“You love coming out of these hard games with the W as we did," receiver Cooper Kupp said. “Do everything you could offensively to lose it."
The Seahawks won because the defense showed again that on its good days and nights it can be as stingy as any in the NFL, allowing just 3.7 yards per play, breaking up 12 of Houston QB C.J. Stroud’s 49 pass attempts, allowing the Texans to convert just 1 of 4 fourth downs, and giving up only one offensive touchdown — and that not until 2:04 was left in the game, after which the Texans never got the ball again.
To Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, it was a good example of one side of the ball playing well enough to overcome mistakes on the other side.
“We pick each other up all the time," Macdonald said. “I thought our defense played outstanding."
The offense did, too, for a little while, driving 44 and 80 yards for touchdowns on its second and third possessions to give the Seahawks a 14-0 lead as the first quarter ran out.
At that point, the Seahawks had a 117-5 edge in yards and they seemed as if they might be on their way to a rout, which would have served as needed balm for a Lumen Field crowd that spent much of the first hour of the game hanging on to every pitch of the Mariners game in Toronto.
At 8:01 p.m., just as the first quarter ran out, it became official that the Mariners' season was over.
Then the Seahawks game got a bit more angst-ridden then seemed necessary.
Kupp threw an interception on a pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a trick play on a first-and-10 at the Houston 21 when a touchdown might have ended the suspense for good.
“It was just a bad play," said Kupp, who is 0 for 5 passing in his NFL career. “Just a bad play. Don't have a good record when it comes to throwing footballs in the NFL right now, so …"
Said Macdonald of the call: “We just want to stay aggressive. We want to keep the foot on the gas. That's really where it came from. Trust Cooper. Have to trust Cooper Kupp, right? I think he's earned that. Look, you don't like the result of the play, but we want to stay aggressive, keep the foot on the gas."
A blocked Jason Myers 53-yard field goal that could have put the Seahawks up 17-3 at halftime instead led to a Houston field goal that cut the lead to 14-6.
Still, the Seahawks seemed in control at 17-6 midway through the third quarter when they faced a third-and-seven at their own 7. Darnold took a shotgun snap and dropped into the end zone where he found no one open, turned to his left and ran into Houston standout end Will Anderson Jr., who jostled the ball away and fell on it in the end zone to cut the lead to 17-12 (Houston’s two-point try was no good).
Darnold began the next series with a 26-yard pass to Smith-Njigba — who had another marvelous day with 123 yards receiving save for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for dunking the ball over the cross bar following his first-quarter touchdown — to set up a 47-yard Myers field goal and put the Seahawks ahead 20-12.
And the way the defense was playing, that seemed like it might be enough.
On the next series, Houston went for it on a fourth-and-one at its own 41 and running back Woody Marks went nowhere over the left side of the line, stopped for a 2-yard loss by DeMarcus Lawrence.
The offense took over from there and drove quickly for a 2-yard Charbonnet TD run and a 27-12 lead that seemed to put the game away.
For all the mistakes the offense made, the points it scored were the most Houston has allowed all season as it came into the game ranked first in the NFL giving up just 12.2 points per game.
Lawrence’s fourth-down stop was one of just a handful of big plays that included an interception by Ernest Jones IV in the third quarter that set up a Myers field goal, and a fourth-down stop when Houston reached the 1 and was called for a false start and failed after being pushed back to the 5.
“I think it all comes down to a mentality that we play with on defense," defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “I was saying that on the sidelines to (teammate Byron Murphy II) and some of the guys next to me that this has been the best defense I have been a part of, not because of stats or anything on paper, but just like the type of mindset that we have. The togetherness, the brotherhood that we have on this defense is really special."
The Texans had just 127 yards through three quarters and the Seahawks defense could have had two safeties.
Macdonald was still questioning what happened on a play in the first quarter when Uchenna Nwosu broke through to sack Houston QB C.J. Stroud for a loss of 18. Stroud appeared to have his knee down in the end zone, but it was ruled he was down at the 1. Macdonald wanted to review it, but was told he couldn’t since Stroud was ruled down by forward progress, which can’t be reviewed.
“I saw them signal safety," Macdonald said. “I thought it was a safety. All of a sudden it wasn't. I'd like more of an explanation."
An Elijah Arroyo fumble in the fourth quarter and a Darnold interception on the next series kept putting the Houston offense on the field and the Seahawks defense having to stop the Texans.
The defense bent just enough to allow a touchdown with 2:04 left. But a Houston unsportsmanlike conduct penalty allowed the Seahawks to run out the clock and improve to 5-2 and stay in a tie with the Rams and 49ers in the NFC West and improve to 2-2 at Lumen Field.
“We're finding ways to win games," Macdonald said. “Which is, like I said, really difficult to win. You got to celebrate those things. Look, we could be 7-0 and have won every game by 30 points and trust we're going to find stuff we're going to want to improve on. When we watch the tape, we'll go back and regroup, self-scout, try to get those answers for next week. … I'll tell you what, they're going to be really determined coming out of the bye.
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