Sam Darnold was in position to pull off a comeback win Thursday night, having rallied the Seattle Seahawks from a 14-3 deficit in the fourth quarter. Then he threw an interception. And another one. Darnold's picks late in regulation and in overtime doomed Seattle in a 17-14 loss to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. The defeat spoiled a brilliant performance from Seattle's defense and dropped the reigning Super Bowl champions to 3-3, 2.5 games behind the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West standings.
"No way to sugarcoat it," Darnold said. "That one sucked. Can't turn the ball over." While he was hardly the only one responsible for the offense's struggles, he has thrown seven interceptions in four games since returning from a glute injury in Week 3. He entered Week 6 ranked 29th in Total QBR (34.4). "I just think it's B.S for me to keep turning the ball over," he told reporters. "It's not fair to our defense, it's not fair to our special teams group, not fair really to the entire team."
Coach Mike Macdonald backed that assessment. "We have to take care of the ball," he said. "Our quarterback got hit too much today. We've got to do a better job protecting him and we've got to be more decisive with the football." Seattle managed just 91 yards at halftime, with one turnover coming on a fumble by wide receiver Rashid Shaheed. Darnold was sacked five times, his second straight game with five or more.
Late in the second half, Darnold orchestrated an 11-play, 67-yard drive that ended in a 1-yard rushing touchdown by George Holani, then hit Shaheed for a 2-point conversion that cut Denver's lead to 14-11. On the next drive he was intercepted while trying to hit Tory Horton on third-and-1. After Jason Myers' 34-yard field goal sent the game to overtime, Darnold threw another pick on a third-and-7 to Shaheed, saying he got "greedy" again by bypassing an open Cooper Kupp.
Source: ESPN NFL · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing