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Seahawks, Sam Darnold doomed by turnovers as 12-game win streak ends

Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times on

Published in Football

LANDOVER, Md. — An unfunny thing happened on the Seattle Seahawks’ road to a hoped-for second consecutive Super Bowl ring and NFL immortality — a stunning 33-31 loss Sunday to the Washington Commanders.

The Seahawks, who played a sloppy game all day on a wet field, seemed poised to complete yet another comeback win before Washington linebacker Kain Medrano broke in front of a Sam Darnold pass intended for AJ Barner and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown with 3:57 left.

The pass was a rare mistake for Darnold, who otherwise provided much of the Seahawks’ offense on a day when the running game was stagnant and included a lost fumble by rookie Jadarian Price that led to an early Commanders touchdown. It was Price’s second fumble in two weeks.

Darnold touchdown passes to Eric Saubert and Jaxon Smith-Njigba allowed the Seahawks to rally from a 24-10 third quarter deficit and tie the game at 24 with 11:53 left.

After the Commanders drove for a field goal to take the lead with 4:34 left, Darnold had the Seahawks moving again before, on a second-and-15 play, he rolled a couple steps to his left, stopped and threw to Barner, with Medrano stepping in front of it.

The Seahawks appeared dead after Medrano’s 50-yard return.

But the Seahawks needed just 1:06 to move 68 yards in five plays to score on a 7-yard pass from Darnold to Cooper Kupp to cut the lead to 33-31 with 2:51 left.

That was Darnold’s fourth touchdown pass and it appeared as if he might be poised to lead a comeback on the field as improbable as his own from a glute injury suffered just 18 days ago.

But facing a third-and-9 at their own 34 with 1:55 remaining, the Commanders handed the ball to Rachaad White, who burst over the right side for 19 yards. The Seahawks appeared to think a pass was coming and linebacker Drake Thomas and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence appeared to get caught inside.

Washington then ran for it again on a third-and-7 with Marcus Mariota scrambling over the right side for 9 yards.

That allowed Washington to run the clock out on the 33-31 win.

 

The loss snapped a franchise-record 12-game winning streak for the Seahawks and dropped their record to 2-1 this season.

It’s the first loss for the Seahawks since they lost 21-19 to the Rams in Los Angeles on Nov. 16.

The game exposed issues with the Seahawks’ running game, which managed just 44 yards on 18 carries.

Darnold threw for four touchdowns but also had two interceptions, and the three turnovers ultimately proved their undoing.

Darnold returned to the starting lineup after missing just one game after suffering an injury in the opener against New England that was initially feared as potentially being a dislocated or fractured hip.

Instead, he got the good news quickly that it was a soft-tissue injury to his glute. He returned to practice this week and was pronounced good to go on Friday and played every snap Sunday and threw for 379 yards.

That the Commanders were 0-2 and forced to go with backup quarterback Mariota in place of starter Jaden Daniels — who suffered an elbow injury last week — might have led to the Seahawks thinking they might be able to replicate its easy 38-14 win here last Nov. 2, a game the Seahawks led 31-7 at halftime.

The Seahawks were favored by as much as 8.5 points in closing lines Sunday.

But sluggish conditions — there was a steady rain throughout — led to a sloppy game.

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©2026 The Seattle Times. Visit seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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