Seahawks Make Martyrs of Saints, Win 44-13
By Jake Parr, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - The Roman emperor Nero would have envied the Seattle Seahawks as they slammed the gates shut on the New Orleans Saints today. The Seahawks overpowered the Saints on all sides of the ball, but most especially special teams. Back-to-back botched punts by the Saints in the first quarter led to Seattle jumping out to an early 21-0 lead early, the most points they’ve scored in the first since 2006. The NFC West is the only division in which no team has a losing record, making every win important as the Seahawks look to make up for last year’s disappointment and play in the postseason this winter.
Seattle special teams shows up
The New Orleans Saints attempted to make a dramatic statement early in the game when, facing a 4th and 2 from the Seattle 45 yard line, they elected to go for it. Analytically, it was the right call, however rather than run the ball and be content with a mere fresh set of downs, New Orleans quarterback Spencer Rattler attempted a deep pass that, if caught, would have led to a touchdown reception by Alvin Kamara. Instead, Rattler over threw Kamara, the ball bouncing off of Kamara’s outstretched right hand. That turnover on downs led to a quick touchdown for the Seahawks as quarterback Sam Darnold connected with wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for first a 29 yard gain and then a 12-yard touchdown catch.
New Orleans was stuffed on their next drive, suffering a three-and-out thanks to a false start penalty. The Saints learned from their last drive and sent out the punting unit to avoid another turnover on downs. They may have been better off kneeling, however, as Seahawks rookie wide receiver and kick returner Tory Horton was simply too fast to catch. The first two Saints to get close to him totally missed Horton, and actually tripped over each other. Horton benefited from a couple of good blocks by his teammates -- including Chazz Surratt absolutely destroying New Orleans punter Kai Kroeger -- but mostly simply evaded the Saints with his pure athleticism. His 95-yard return touchdown is the longest in Seahawks history and the first punt return touchdown for Seattle since 2015.
The special teams nightmare continued for New Orleans when their next drive ended in a three-and-out as well. Instead of being returned for a touchdown, their next punt was blocked cleanly by a totally unblocked D’Anthony Bell. Surratt nearly scooped it off the ground for a score, but it slipped out of his hands. No matter though, as Seattle took possession of the ball at the New Orleans 11 yard line and scored a touchdown in two plays. All of a sudden the Seahawks had a massive 21-0 lead in the first quarter. They would never even get close to taking the lead back. New Orleans had all but taken themselves out of contention thanks to back-to-back misplays by their special teams.
Saints can’t behave
While it’s true that the Seattle Seahawks won today’s game, it may be more accurate to say that the New Orleans Saints lost. In addition to the special teams disasters in the first quarter, they simply could not stop committing penalties. Seahawks fans, familiar with last year’s early struggles with penalties, will be quite familiar with how quickly a false start or holding call can disrupt a drive. The Saints committed 11 penalties, which cost them 77 yards. That total does not include declined penalties, such as an offensive holding call on the play that brought up fourth down and led to the blocked punt. That drive in particular was a mess for penalties, as the Saints lost 20-yards to flags on two false starts and an enforced holding. The Saints were facing 2nd and 25 from their own 17 at one point.
How many times over the years have we seen the Seahawks lose games because they were incapable of getting out of their own way? Seattle was one of the most penalized teams in the first few weeks of the previous season, but have taken a huge step forward in 2025. The Seahawks more than doubled their offensive penalty count for the season today, committing three when it previously stood at two. Discipline wise, they are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were this time last year. As they look to future matchups, the ability to force their opponent to foul while staying clean themselves could be a key part of Seattle’s game.
Sam Darnold is settling in
It’s been an unremarkable first season for new quarterback Sam Darnold so far. Since coming over from the Vikings to replace Geno Smith, Darnold has been a perfectly competent, slightly above average passer. This week, however, he took another step forward as the field general, marching his offensive unit down for five touchdowns. He threw for 218 yards on just 18 attempts, with two of those passes being house calls, and completing a career-record 77.8% of those. His performance was good enough for a 154.2 passer rating, very close to the maximum of 158.3.
His best play of the day, however, was in Seattle’s very first drive, just after New Orleans turned the ball over on downs. After Kenneth Walker III was stuffed for no gain on first down, Darnold dropped back to pass. The Saints pass rush got past the Seahawks offensive line for the only time all game (this is your reminder that sacks were a major problem last year) and threatened to bring Sam down. He slipped out of the grasp of the first Saint and scrambled to his left. Seahawks star wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba ran past the defender assigned to him, getting open about 25 yards past the line of scrimmage. Darnold dropped the pass perfectly into JSN’s chest and the two of them turned a 6-yard loss into a 29 yard gain. Smith-Njigba has always been an excellent receiver and seems to have the power to telepathically communicate with his quarterbacks. If he and Darnold can continue to link up like this, every secondary in the NFC will have to take notice.
What’s Next?
The Seahawks have a divisional matchup scheduled for week four, as they go back on the road to take on the Arizona Cardinals. Just like the Hawks, the Cardinals are 2-1 on the year, as they lost a one-point game to the San Francisco 49ers today 16-15. Just like last year, the NFC West looks like it’s going to be one of the closer divisions in the league, so a win over the red birds would be huge for the Hawks.
Next week’s game is the Thursday Night Football matchup for week four, and will be exclusively available on Prime Video. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:15PM Pacific time, and in case you’re still driving home when the game starts you can listen to it on the radio at both Seattle Sports 710AM and KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM.
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Check out our previous Seattle Seahawks articles here.
Check out our previous articles written by Jake Parr here, and his Lookout Landing articles here.
Cover photo via the Seattle Seahawks website.
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