Seahawks Bring the Rain, Crush Commanders 38-14
By Jake Parr, edited by Charles Hamaker
Landover, MD - Sam Darnold had his best game as a Seahawk — and perhaps of his NFL career — tonight, throwing for over 300 yards in a cover-to-cover domination of the Washington Commanders. Darnold could do no wrong for the entirety of the first half, going a perfect 16 for 16 with four touchdowns. Seattle star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba became the first ever Seahawk to collect at least 100 receiving yards in four consecutive games with a 129 yard performance. But it was rookies Tory Horton and Elijah Arroyo who got to cap off the drives, collecting three touchdowns between the pair of them. As usual, Mike Macdonald’s ironclad defense was able to shutdown the opposing offensive engines. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, who unfortunately suffered a nasty elbow injury in the fourth quarter, simply had no good options to deal with constant pressure, and was sacked four times. As the Seahawks prepare for the second half of the season, this is the kind of performance they will be looking to replicate in order to stay on top of the NFC West.
Frames from Tory Horton’s first of two touchdown catches in the first half of the Seattle Seahawks’ road primetime win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at Northwest Stadium. (Photos via the Seattle Seahawks)
Good Old Darnold
From the very beginning, Darnold was in control. After the Seahawks defense forced a quick punt from the Commanders, Darnold began leading his offense on a long, 90-yard march downfield. The Commanders had no chance at stopping them. Even a 15 yard chop block penalty on fullback Robbie Ouzts did little to halt the momentum of the Seahawks’ onslaught. Kenneth Walker III made his strongest contributions of the night, picking up 21 yards across three consecutive carries. The final capper was a four-yard pass to the corner of the endzone that hit rookie Tory Horton perfectly in the hands. Even though star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (surprisingly) didn’t make the touchdown catch, he still made an impact on the play as, like a wandering star, he collected three orbiting Commanders defenders, leaving Horton in a 1-on-1 matchup. Sometimes fear of JSN is enough.
Darnold didn’t get much time to catch his breath on the sideline, however, as before the Commanders’ next drive could start to look threatening, an ill-advised howitzer pass by Jayden Daniels was picked off by Seahawks safety Ty Okada, sending Darnold and the rest of the offense back out. Darnold was quick to move the ball downfield, sending it to his favorite target, JSN for 24 yards within just two passes. After a few rushes picked up 11 yards, Darnold dropped back for his eighth pass of the game. To this point, he was a perfect 7 for 7 with 85 yards. Thanks to good blocking up front, he had all the time in the world to make his reads and find an open man. But on this play he only needed a few seconds. Tory Horton had broken wide open down the middle and had nothing but grass between him and paydirt. By the time he hauled in Darnold’s easy lob in the end zone, the nearest defender was still five yards behind him.
Frames from Tory Horton’s second touchdown catch in the first half of the Seattle Seahawks’ road primetime win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at Northwest Stadium. (Photos via the Seattle Seahawks)
But once again, Sam wouldn’t get a chance rest. On the ensuing kickoff, Commanders return man Jaylin Lane fumbled the ball, and Connor O’Toole of the Seahawks landed on it, giving Seattle the ball back with prime field position. But Darnold wasn’t having it. He demanded the usual rewards quarterbacks receive when they throw touchdowns: green Gatorade and screen time on the team laptop. But he had a job to do, and dropped back to pass on the first play of the new drive. Rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo was up the left side, surrounded by three different Commanders defenders. Meanwhile, JSN was all alone up the right side, having broken past his man on a devastating double-move.
But either Darnold has grown bored of throwing easy touchdowns to JSN or was simply showing a generous streak as he fired the ball towards Arroyo. The fact that this was the harder target didn’t matter, as Darnold’s throw perfectly threaded the needle and landed safely in Arroyo’s arms for the score. It was the 22 year-old’s first career touchdown. Just 11 seconds had rolled off the game clock since the previous Seahawks touchdown. In a normal football game, that throw is either sent to JSN or is batted away or intercepted by any of the Commanders who had a play on it. But this was no normal game. It was the Sam Darnold Masterpiece Game, and he could do no wrong.
After an absolutely dominant first half, Darnold perhaps took his foot off the gas for the second. Although he did not throw a touchdown pass in the second half, he did march his team down for another scoring drive. At the one yard line, Macdonald got a little creative with the play calling and had tight end AJ Barner take a direct snap for the score. It worked, like everything else did tonight.
Darnold did eventually throw a few incompletions, and even an interception — there’s that generous streak again — but it made no impact on the outcome of the game, and little impact on his stat line. He finished tonight with a 141.0 passer rating, picking up 330 yards and 4 touchdowns — Cody White caught the 4th when the Commanders left only one high safety to protect the deep ball — on a 21/24 line. It’s the type of production most quarterbacks never see in their careers. Perhaps most notably, he continues to lead the league in net yards per attempt, perhaps the stat most closely correlated to future success. Seahawks fans had big hopes for Darnold in 2025, and this level of play has more than lived up to them. It is time for Darnold to start getting national attention.
Frames from Ty Okada’s interception in the first half of the Seattle Seahawks’ road primetime win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 at Northwest Stadium. (Photos via the Seattle Seahawks)
Keep it simple, Seattle
The story beyond Darnold’s incredible first half is simple: defense did their job and the Hawks avoided penalties. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Mike Macdonald’s defense dominated by locking down the air game and putting pressure on the quarterback. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels was pressured on over half of his dropbacks, and was sacked four times for a loss of 20 yards. His 51 yards on the ground may be a silver lining, but it’s a testament to how often he had to scramble that he picked up that many. It’s worth noting that Darnold had exactly 0 yards on the ground since he always had the opportunity to throw the ball. Unfortunately, Daniels suffered a gruesome elbow dislocation late in the fourth quarter, and everyone here at CSS wishes him a speedy recovery.
Seattle also did well at mitigating the penalty bug that has haunted them from time to time. After a couple of offensive penalties slowed things down on their first drive, the Seahawks tightened up their discipline and were only penalized five times all night. And even those were just the occasional five yards for defensive holding, with Seattle only totaling 44 yards of forfeited yardage, a number inflated by that 15 yard chop block call in the first quarter. The Commanders, meanwhile, couldn’t get out of their own way, giving up 87 yards on just 8 penalties. The highlight was perhaps the clearest pass inference call of the season when Commanders cornerback Jonathan Jones bear-hugged JSN and pinned his left arm to his body. That cost Washington a full 28 yards. It’s bad manners to interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake, and the Seahawks certainly allowed the Commanders to make many tonight.
What’s Next?
After tonight’s big win, the Seahawks return home for next week’s divisional matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. The Hawks matched up with the Cardinals in Scottsdale back in week four, and came out on top 23-20. Since then, Arizona cannot stop losing, dropping five in a row, with their most recent game being a frustrating 27-23 loss at home to the Green Bay Packers.
Kickoff is at 1:05 pm PT on Sunday November, 9th. The game will be on TV at CBS and available over 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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