ATLANTA — Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald hates sounding like a broken record, but that’s the vibe he’s been giving off the last few weeks while answering questions about his team’s deficiencies during a series of losses.
Whether explaining the lack of turnovers his team has forced, the defense’s inability to stop the run or his one-dimensional offense, Macdonald cycles through the phrase “it’s a team stat” the way a singer repeats the chorus on a catchy hit record.
The manner in which the Seahawks trounced the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday validated his message.
Seattle led almost the entire game and held a double-digit advantage the whole fourth quarter. Kirk Cousins and the Falcons eventually had to abandon what mostly had been a successful run game. As a result, a Seattle defense that entered Week 7 as one of the NFL’s worst at generating takeaways momentarily looked like the Legion of Boom when it was time to slam the door shut.
And slam it the Seahawks did — emphatically. Their defense turned Cousins over on all three of his fourth-quarter drives (rookie Michael Penix Jr. replaced Cousins on the final possession), and their offense converted one of those takeaways into a touchdown to put a cap on a 34-14 victory at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, snapping a three-game losing streak.
A team win, just as Macdonald hoped for.
“It feels good for us to mesh together and, as a whole team, get on their ass for real,” Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said.
Seattle (4-3) had forced just four turnovers entering this game, one of the lowest totals in league. The defense nearly matched that number during the final 15 minutes Sunday.
For one of those takeaways, outside linebacker Boye Mafe sacked Cousins on third-and-9 early in the fourth quarter, and outside linebacker Derick Hall returned the resulting fumble 64 yards to give Seattle a 31-14 lead. It was Mafe’s fourth sack — and Seattle’s second defensive score — of the season.
“We always talk about how slow (Hall) is, but he looked pretty fast right there,” defensive tackle Jarran Reed said, laughing at his young teammate.
THAT’S A DEFENSIVE TD!!! pic.twitter.com/O3atYPnaM7
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 20, 2024
On the next possession, Cousins overthrew receiver Drake London and the ball sailed into the hands of safety Julian Love. His runback set Seattle’s offense up for a quick field-goal drive to take a 34-14 lead with 7:10 remaining. Five plays into the next series, Cousins overthrew tight end Kyle Pitts and was picked off by safety Coby Bryant, starting in place of the injured Rayshawn Jenkins (hand).
Bryant ended his first career start at safety, in front of friends and family who made the trip from his native Ohio, with a win and his first career interception.
“They might be my good luck,” Bryant said, smiling.
Bryant was among a handful of new starters in Seattle’s secondary Sunday, due to a series of injuries. In addition to putting Jenkins on injured reserve, Seattle was without cornerbacks Tre Brown (ankle), Riq Woolen (ankle) and Artie Burns, who is on injured reserve with a toe issue. Cornerbacks Faion Hicks and Josh Jobe were called up from the practice squad to make their season debuts. Jobe ended up starting opposite rookie cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett, another first-time starter.
Despite all the new pieces on defense, Seattle’s focus entering this game was to generate turnovers, knowing that a positive turnover margin was the key to pulling the upset. They finished the day plus-3, thanks in no small part to the offense playing a clean game.
“Whew, they come in bunches,” linebacker Tyrel Dodson said of the three turnovers. “They gotta come more often, though. We need them like we need air.”
All three Atlanta turnovers came in obvious passing situations, something Seattle hadn’t forced many of during its three-game losing streak. And the Seahawks were able to put the Falcons in catch-up mode by playing complementary football for the first time since Week 3.
Seattle scored the first 10 points of the game, on a Ken Walker III touchdown run and a field goal, before the Falcons (4-3) cut the deficit to three on a Bijan Robinson touchdown run. The Seahawks reestablished their double-digit lead and headed to halftime up 17-7, because of a 31-yard dart from quarterback Geno Smith to DK Metcalf on third-and-15 with 10 seconds remaining. Instead of throwing a short pass and calling timeout to play for a field goal, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb chose to be aggressive — and the offense rewarded his faith.
The halftime lead came despite Atlanta’s hot start on the ground. The Seahawks through six weeks had one of the league’s worst run defenses, and the first 30 minutes of the game Sunday looked like more of the same. Robinson and Tyler Allgeier combined for 117 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries (7.8 yards per carry) in the first two quarters. At halftime, however, Seattle’s defenders made an adjustment to avoid getting gashed by Atlanta’s zone-running scheme.
“Just stop running lateral,” defensive tackle Leonard Williams said. “At one point in the game, they tried to get our D-line running sideways. We finally got to a point where we checked in with each other and were just like, ‘Let’s get vertical, let’s knock blocks back.’ The (Atlanta) running backs, they were really good at trying to stay alive, so we’re always talking about that second, third and fourth man in.”
In the second half, Robinson and Allgeier combined for just 22 yards on 11 carries.
When Atlanta trimmed Seattle’s lead to 16-14 with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Cousins to London, the Seahawks responded with a 63-yard scoring drive of their own, which ended with a 17-yard touchdown reception by Walker. The third-year running back had been listed questionable because of illness entering the game, but he played through it — on his 24th birthday, no less — and had 69 yards on the ground and another 24 receiving. Afterward, his teammates referred to this as “The Kenneth Walker flu game.”
“He was sick today, man,” Smith said. “Two touchdowns on his birthday — that was sick.”
YES HE KEN. pic.twitter.com/BNhmOXCBec
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 20, 2024
The Falcons came out throwing on their ensuing drive after Walker’s TD, and that set the stage for Seattle to unleash its pass rushers on Cousins, who had committed only five turnovers coming into the game.
On Love’s interception, Cousins felt pressure from rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, who returned to the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury. Seattle had nine QB hits and three sacks on Cousins, in all.
“We knew from the film (that) Kirk, he didn’t like pressure, so we knew there’d be so many (opportunities) if we could put pressure on him — picks, turnovers, strip sacks, whatever,” Murphy said. “That’s what we did.”
The Falcons were one of the teams to pass on Murphy in the NFL Draft, ultimately allowing Seattle to select him 16th overall. On Thursday, Murphy said he wanted to make Atlanta feel his presence in this game. Asked if he’d accomplished that goal, Murphy replied: “Yes, sir. They felt me, for sure.”
Smith completed 18 of 28 passes for 207 yards and the touchdown to Metcalf, who led the team with 99 yards on four receptions. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Metcalf injured his knee on his seventh and final target — a long pass thrown off-target near the sideline in the third quarter. Metcalf later was carted off the field after being evaluated. Macdonald said the severity of the injury is unknown, but “we’re optimistic at this point, so it doesn’t look too bad.”
Holding a lead throughout the game allowed Seattle to take some pressure off Smith, whose 32 dropbacks were his fewest since Week 1 (28). He had a season-low 10 dropbacks in the second half and attempted just two passes in the fourth quarter. Seattle would have liked to do better than the 19 yards on seven carries it had in the fourth quarter, but not needing to play catch up was a nice change of pace for a team trying to right the ship offensively.
“We were able to pass the ball when we needed to, and we were able to run the ball when we needed to, and that’s complementary football,” Smith said. “That’s what it takes in this league.”
Seattle found that balance with sixth-round rookie Michael Jerrell making his first start at right tackle, in place of the injured Stone Forsythe (hand), and rookie Christian Haynes continuing to rotate with Anthony Bradford at right guard. There were bumps in the road along the way, like when Jerrell gave up the Falcons’ only sack or when Haynes was flagged for false start on the next play, essentially destroying a drive. But on the whole, the offensive line was better than that had been in recent weeks.
On Walker’s 20-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, for instance, Seattle’s running back received a kick-out block from Jerrell and another key block from Haynes, who walled off linebacker Kaden Elliss and allowed Walker to get to the second level. That drive was the first of the year with Haynes and Jerrell in the game together, and it led to a touchdown as the rookies paved the way.
“All day, the protection was great,” Smith said.
The whole day was great for the Seahawks, really. Or, as Macdonald put it afterward, it was a “team win.”
(Top photo of Julian Love: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
