Washington, on a three-game losing streak, has a crucial matchup against the NFC West leaders in Seattle.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold passes the ball against the Washington Commanders on Sunday. Nick Wass / The Associated Press
Washington ran 28 plays in the first quarter, one more than Seattle. That’s where the comparisons end between these teams.
On third down, Seattle is 5-for-5, and Washington 2-for-6.
Seattle has 330 yards (an amazing 12.2 per play) to Washington’s 140. The teams are effectively even on yards per rush, but through the air? The Seahawks are averaging 17.6 yards per pass … more than triple Washington’s average of 5.8.
The Seahawks added to their lead with a field goal as time expired in the first half.
Sam Darnold completed 16-of-16 passes for 282 yards and four touchdowns in a dominant first half. To add insult to injury, the Seahawks will receive the opening kickoff in the third quarter.
Jayden Daniels was only 7 of 11 for only 64 yards in his first action since Oct. 19.
Washington scores a touchdown on a short run by Jayden Daniels to cap a 10-play drive where its offense finally clicked, and finally was not felled by a costly penalty. Counting its possession that ended with a fumble on a kickoff return, Washington gets on the board on its fifth drive but still trails, 28-7.
A missed tackle on Cody White leads to a 60-yard touchdown for Seattle.
Sam Darnold has now 229 yards and four touchdowns in the first half. He hasn’t thrown an incomplete pass in 13 attempts.
Seattle leads 28(!)-0.
Deep in its own territory, it looked as though Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels had easily picked up a fourth-and-1 conversion on a designed run. But no sooner was he past the first-down marker did flags get thrown for a false start on Washington’s tight end. Washington did not want to try fourth-and-6, and punted with 6:44 to go in the first half.
That’s the third straight drive that has been cut short thanks to a penalty on Washington.
Seattle, after forcing a fumble on Washington’s kickoff, got the ball back and immediately made the Commanders pay, needing just one play and five seconds to score a third touchdown of the night, on a 26-yard touchdown pass.
The numbers for Washington’s defense are officially avert-your-eyes bad — allowing an average of 9.2 yards per play, and 14.2 yards per pass.
That was fast!
One play after the Commanders coughed up the ball on a kickoff return, Sam Darnold found Elijah Arroyo for a 26-yard touchdown pass.
Darnold already has three — three! — touchdown passes in the first half. The Seahawks are dominating right now.
Seattle leads 21-0.
Things are going from bad to worse for the Commanders.
Jaylin Lane just fumbled the kickoff following the Tory Horton touchdown, and the Seahawks recovered. Seattle has the ball deep in Washington territory with a 14-0 lead.
Wow!
The Seahawks were facing a 3rd-and-8 from the Commanders’ 25-yard line and Sam Darnold went for it all, finding Tory Horton in the endzone on a beautiful throw for a score. That’s the rookie Horton’s second score of the game.
Seattle now leads 14-0 with 8:52 left in the second.
For a second consecutive drive, a penalty on Washington ended what might have been a promising possession. A face mask on offensive lineman Chris Paul put the Commanders in third-and-17, which led Jayden Daniels to try to pick up the long first down by lofting a deep pass. It was intercepted.
Facing serious pressure on 3rd-and-17, Jayden Daniels threw up a prayer to the right sideline and was picked off by Ty Okada, who made a slick play to keep his feet inbounds.
The Seahawks will take over on their own 40 with a 7-0 lead.
Defensive back Josh Jobe is in the blue tent after some friendly fire by Ty Okada, who accidentally laid a big hit on Jobe while trying to take down Deebo Samuel.
Commanders wide receiver Luke McCaffrey is out for the rest of the game with a shoulder injury, the team announced. McCaffrey, the brother of 49ers back Christian McCaffrey, has 11 catches this season. The injury is a blow to the depth chart, as Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown are out tonight with injuries, also.
The Seahawks lead after a long touchdown drive in the game’s opening quarter.
The Commanders will have a fourth-and-short near midfield when the second quarter starts. Will Dan Quinn be aggressive?
Washington’s running backs weren’t great in the opening 15 minutes, gaining only 11 yards on four carries.
It’s troubling for Washington that so far it has allowed 8.7 yards per play. Sam Darnold has started 6-for-6 passing, which might be expected from one of this season’s most accurate quarterbacks. More damaging for Washington, however, is that one of the NFL’s worst rushing offenses is gaining more than six yards per carry.
What an opening drive by Seattle.
The Seahawks traveled 90 yards in 12 plays for a touchdown, overcoming a 15-yard penalty along the way. Seattle took over eight minutes off the clock with the possession.
Sam Darnold capped the drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to Troy Horton.
The Seahawks lead 7-0.
Washington’s defense hasn’t been awful at limiting third-down conversions this season, but by ranking 18th, they’re lower than league average. This opening drive by Seattle has shown their deficiencies in that respect, as the Seahawks are 2-for-2 so far on third down.
The Seahawks’ star wide receiver has one run for 12 yards and two catches for 27 yards on Seattle’s opening drive.
Washington used a lot of plays to not go very far on the game’s opening drive. Six plays and 12 plays later, it punts to Seattle, undone by a 15-yard penalty for a blindside block that pushed the Commanders too far back to overcome.
The Commanders enter tonight 3-5 and sitting third in their four-team division. Dallas, Washington and New York all have been outscored overall this season.
The Seahawks come into tonight on a nine-game win streak on the road, a franchise record. Overall, they are 10-1 on the road under coach Mike Macdonald.
Seattle scores nearly two more points on the road than at home on average, and on defense it gives up nearly four points on the road. It also turns the ball over far less frequently on the road. Per NBC Sports research, Macdonald joins George Seifert, Paul Brown and Sean McVay as the only NFL coaches ever to win 10 of their first 11 road games.
Washington is 2-1 at home this season.
With an average age of 28.6, the Commanders have the oldest roster in the NFL. The Commanders also have already lost as many games (five) this season through eight weeks as they lost all of last season.
For the first time this season, the Commanders will wear their “Super Bowl Era” jerseys. The uniforms draw inspiration from the jerseys worn when Washington won their three Super Bowls (1982, 1987 and 1991 seasons).
They will also wear the jerseys in Week 13 vs. Denver and Week 17 vs. Dallas (on Christmas).
The Seahawks will also be wearing their throwback royal blue jerseys on Sunday night.
For as good as quarterback Sam Darnold has been during his first season in Seattle, the Seahawks’ ground game has ranked among the NFL’s worst. Their average of 3.7 yards per rush is second-lowest in the league, ahead of only San Francisco.
Macdonald, Seattle’s coach, said that Seattle “can’t throw it 70 times a game and be the type of team we want to be,” but running has proven difficult considering defenses have put eight defenders close to the line of scrimmage against Seattle at a higher rate than against any other offense. Running backs Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet could have opportunities to gain ground tonight against a Commanders defense that has allowed 128.8 yards per game, which ranks in the league’s bottom-10 defenses.
Hall of Fame WR Art Monk will have his No. 81 jersey retired on Sunday. Monk spent the first 14 seasons of career with Washington (1980-1993) and was a member of all three of the franchise’s Super Bowl winning teams. He is Washington’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Joe Whitt Jr. was named Washington’s defensive coordinator prior to last season, taking over a unit that ranked last in the NFL in both total and scoring defense in 2023. After taking big strides forward last season, the defense has regressed in Year 2 under Whitt.
Washington has allowed 24+ points and 350+ yards in six of their last seven games. The only team with more games allowing 24+ points and 350+ yards this season is the Bengals (7).
Washington head coach Dan Quinn spent four seasons over two stints with Seattle, serving as the Seahawks’ assistant head coach/defensive line coach in 2009-2010 and as the team’s defensive coordinator from 2013-2014.
In both of Quinn’s seasons as Seattle’s DC, the Seahawks reached the Super Bowl.
This will be Quinn’s first time facing Seattle as the Commanders head coach. He previously faced the Seahawks five teams as head coach of the Falcons (including playoffs), going 2-3 in those five meetings.
In the backfield, Jacory Croskey-Merritt (7th round pick out of Arizona) has taken over as RB1 for Brian Robinson Jr., who was traded to the 49ers in August. Croskey-Merritt leads Washington in carries (82), rushing yards (402) and rushing TD (4). He is the only Commander with multiple rushing TD this season.
Croskey-Merritt has started the last four games. In his first career start (Week 5 win at the Chargers), he had 14 carries with career highs in rushing yards (111) and rushing touchdowns (2). He became the first Commander with 100+ rushing yards and 2+ rushing touchdowns in a game since Antonio Gibson in 2020.
After missing four games (Weeks 4-7) with a quad injury, WR Terry McLaurin returned on Monday night and had three catches for 54 yards with one touchdown in Washington’s loss at Kansas City. However, he re- injured his quad in the loss and has been ruled out for this week.
This past summer, McLaurin held out for the beginning of training camp and eventually requested a trade out of Washington before agreeing to terms on a new 3-year, $87 million extension ($29 million AAV) to stay with the team.
Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba is having one of the best seasons of any wide receiver in the NFL this year. Despite already having had a bye week, he has an NFL-high 819 receiving yards through Week 8 and has tallied 100+ receiving yards in five of Seattle’s first seven games (most games with 100+ receiving yards in NFL this season).
Smith-Njigba is on pace for what would be an NFL-record 1,989 receiving yards this season. Only two players have ever posted 1,900+ receiving yards in a season: Calvin Johnson in 2012 and Cooper Kupp in 2021.
This past offseason, the Seahawks traded Geno Smith to the Raiders and signed Sam Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million contract (from Minnesota). Through his first seven games with Seattle, Darnold has a 68.2 completion percentage, throwing for 1,754 yards (250.6 yards per game) with 12 passing TD and six turnovers (4 INT, 2 fumbles). Smith and the Raiders are 2-5, with Smith throwing 10 INT this season (T-most in NFL).
Darnold’s 1,754 passing yards and 12 passing TD are both the most in a players’ first seven games with the Seahawks in franchise history.
Deebo Samuel, who was acquired via trade (from San Francisco) in March, leads the team in receptions (37) and receiving yards (326) while catching three touchdowns (tied for second on WAS). He also has one rushing touchdown (4 total touchdowns are tied for the most on Washington).
But after grabbing eight catches for 96 yards with one receiving touchdown in the Week 5 win at the Chargers (his fourth total touchdown in the first five games), Samuel has just seven catches for 26 receiving yards total in his last two games played (he missed Week 7 at Dallas with a heel injury).
Darnold had a passer rating above 110 in four straight games from Weeks 3-6. In the Week 3 win vs. New Orleans, he had a 154.2 passer rating (second-highest of career) as the Seahawks scored a season-high 44 points. In the Week 5 loss vs. Tampa Bay, he had a 135.4 passer rating (third-highest of career), completing 82.4% of his passes (tying his career high as a starter) with 341 passing yards, four touchdown passes and one INT.
After losing at Kansas City in Week 8, the Commanders are now entering a crucial stretch of the season. Their next two games are against Seattle and Detroit before traveling to Madrid, Spain to face the Dolphins in Week 11. They then have a bye in Week 12 before hosting the AFC West-leading Broncos in Week 13.
Washington enters Week 9 in third place in the NFC East, three games behind the first-place Eagles (6-2).
On offense, veteran RB Austin Ekeler suffered a season-ending torn Achilles in Week 2, while both of Washington’s top wide receivers, Terry McLaurin (quad) and Deebo Samuel (heel), have missed games. McLaurin had missed four games with a quad injury before returning to play against the Chiefs in Week 8.
However, he aggravated the injury against KC and has been ruled out for SNF.
LT Laremy Tunsil, who was acquired via trade (from Houston) this past offseason, suffered a hamstring injury in Monday’s loss against the Chiefs. His status for Week 9 is TBD.
On defense, defensive ends Deatrich Wise Jr. (quad) and Dorance Armstrong (knee) have both suffered season-ending injuries. Armstrong posted 5.5 sacks (most on Washington) in the first six games this season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Week 7 loss at Dallas.
Safety Will Harris started the first three games of the season before breaking his leg in the Week 3 win vs. LV. He is currently on IR and could miss the remainder of the regular season.
After a historic rookie season, Jayden Daniels is 2-3 in five starts this season, throwing for 206.2 yards/game with nine total touchdowns (8 passing, 1 rushing) and three turnovers (1 INT, 2 fumbles).
Veteran QB Marcus Mariota (in his 11th NFL season) is 1-2 in three starts this year.
Andrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital.
Rohan Nadkarni is a sports reporter for NBC News.
Greg Rosenstein is the sports editor for NBC News Digital.
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