Well, that one wasn’t close. The Seattle Seahawks improved to 2-1 with a dominating 44-13 win over the New Orleans Saints. It was the first time the Seahawks scored 40 or more points since 2022. If you turned this game off after the first quarter, I don’t blame you. But at the same time, it felt refreshing. It felt like it had been forever since the Seahawks had won a game in blowout fashion, let alone a game where you didn’t feel like your heart was going to explode out of your chest.
It was Seattle’s first home win since Week 12 of last season. Going into yesterday, the Seahawks were 1-7 in their last eight games at Lumen Field — their worst home stretch since 1992.
They ended that streak with yesterday’s massive win, and the star of the show wasn’t a single player, it was the entire special teams unit. After Jaxon Smith-Njigba scored his first touchdown of the season on Seattle’s opening drive, the Seahawks forced the Saints to punt and were ready to receive the ball. That’s when it happened — Tory Horton received the punt at his own five-yard line, made a couple of Saints miss, and, with a few amazing blocks, went down the sideline and scored the longest punt return touchdown in Seahawks franchise history. It was Seattle’s first punt return touchdown since 2015.
The special teams unit didn’t stop there, as they also blocked a punt later in the first quarter and set up a long kick return for Dareke Young later in the game as well.
Horton’s punt return wasn’t his only touchdown of the game, as he added a receiving TD in the second quarter on a beautifully placed ball from Sam Darnold, making it back-to-back weeks with a touchdown for the fifth-round rookie out of Colorado State.
The Seahawks were missing quite a few key players in the secondary, with Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon, and Nick Emmanwori all out with injuries. But just like they say: “next man up” mentality, and the guys certainly stepped up. One of them being Josh Jobe, who has had a very solid start to the season. The other being Derion Kendrick, who recorded an interception in back-to-back games.
Seattle’s defense has gotten off to a very hot start, as they are the only team to allow 17 or fewer points in each of the first three weeks of the season.
As I mentioned earlier, it had seemed like forever since the Seahawks had blown a team out. Pete Carroll had a habit of keeping games close even when the Seahawks had a chance to pull away. Yesterday, the Seahawks were up 38-6 heading into halftime, and Mike Macdonald kept the foot on the gas, which I absolutely love. He didn’t give the Saints any hope, not even a whiff of stirring up a comeback, and that’s exactly what I want to see out of this team. When you have a chance to close a team out, slam the door completely shut. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Macdonald took the starters out at the start of the fourth quarter, unfortunately leaving Smith-Njigba four yards shy of his third consecutive 100-yard game. Kenneth Walker had two rushing touchdowns, and Sam Darnold finished 14-of-18 for 218 yards in just three quarters of action.
The Seahawks have a short week as they have a huge game coming up on Thursday night against the Arizona Cardinals. Both teams will head into the matchup 2-1, and with the NFC West tight as ever, a win Thursday will be huge in the standings.
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