The Seahawks higher just hope it’s October — and thus ghost season — and that’s why Sam Darnold is taking part in like he’s with the Jets again.
One season after main Seattle to a Super Bowl title, Darnold is back to taking part in rather uninspiring soccer and his two-interception, zero-touchdown efficiency doomed the reigning champs in their 17-14 time beyond regulation highway loss to the Broncos on “Thursday Night Football.”
Darnold threw his second interception of the night time on the first time beyond regulation possession to set up Denver’s game-winning discipline objective, and Seattle is now 1-3 since he returned from a Week 1 glute damage.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold struggles to hear during the second half of an NFL soccer sport against the Denver Broncos in Denver, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. AP Photo/David Zalubowski
“I think it’s BS for me to keep turning the ball over,” Darnold said after falling to 3-3. “It’s not fair to our defense, not fair to our special teams group, not fair really to our entire team. I got to be better that way.”
The Seahawks entered this 12 months seemingly in good place to repeat as Super Bowl champions, particularly after Darnold’s first season with the workforce in 2026 went so clean.
This 12 months has marked a notable regression for the former Jets’ first-round decide, who now has seven interceptions to seven passing touchdowns.
All the interceptions have come in the last 4 video games since he missed one contest due to an damage suffered on the first drive of the season-opening win over the Patriots.
Thursday night time marked his third multi-interception efficiency and prevented the Seahawks from profitable a sport in which the protection allowed just 168 complete yards.
Trailing 14-11 with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Darnold threw his first interception but obtained a second probability when the protection posted a three-and-out.
He led the Seahawks to a game-tying discipline objective, but the good emotions didn’t last when he threw an interception in time beyond regulation on a play he described as “greedy.”
That turnover gave the Broncos the ball at the Seahawks’ 43-yard line and they moved eight yards before profitable on a 53-yard discipline objective.
Darnold completed 27 of 51 for 278 yards.
Denver Broncos defensive finish Zach Allen (99) sacks Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold during the second half of an NFL soccer sport in Denver, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. AP Photo/Geneva Heffernan
“No way to sugercoat it. That one sucked,” Darnold said. “Can’t flip the ball over, that’s clearly at the forefront of my thoughts, but there’s just a lot that we can do higher.
“We just got to be better all around and it starts with me. We just gotta look at who we are as an offense and look at kind of things we do well, things we don’t do well and go from there.”
Darnold addressed his workforce after the sport, per coach Mike Macdonald, taking accountability for his lack of ball safety.
After throwing 60 touchdowns to 25 interceptions over the 2024 (Vikings) and 2025 seasons mixed, Darnold out of the blue seems like the weak hyperlink in the Seahawks’ operation.
He’s turned the ball over at least once in each of his 4 non-injury-shortened begins.
“When you have a defense and special teams group playing the way that they are for us, for me, I just gotta protect the football,” he said. “Dropping back and taking what they give me, I feel I did a pretty good job of that in the first half and then late in the second half, those two plays, just can’t have it.”
The turnovers particularly loom massive since Seattle now sits 2 1/2 video games behind the undefeated and division-leading 49ers, who own the tiebreaker after profitable in Seattle in Week 5, and the NFC West comprises another struggling but doubtlessly elite workforce in the Rams.
It’s not a given that the Seahawks can make the playoffs if Darnold continues to play like this, with Macdonald acknowledging the ball being in “jeopardy” as his major concern.
Said Macdonald: “We have to take care of the ball. Sam knows that. He told the team that.”
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