Why Seahawks defense is built to survive life without Sam Darnold

Seattle's defense gives them a shot in every game, which makes it dangerous

Sep 10, 2026 at 1:31 pm ET • 4 min read

Five plays into the first game of the season, it looked like Seattle's hopes of repeating were over before they could really get a chance to begin. QB Sam Darnold was sacked and limped off the field and into the injury tent, missing the rest of the game. With Drew Lock in against the defending AFC champions, the odds looked grim. I'm pretty sure I saw people asking what Russell Wilson was up to during the game.

Yet, the Seahawks emerged from the game 1-0, coming back to win 13-10 using the same defense that won them the Super Bowl. I talk about margins for error a lot, and how great teams give themselves a wide margin for error. The Seahawks' defense gives them one of the widest margins of error in the sport, and can help them survive life without Darnold.

I think the most fascinating part of this win is how different this game felt from the Super Bowl, yet also eerily similar for the Patriots' offense. We all remember how often Maye ended up on his back in the Super Bowl, to the tune of 23 pressures and 6 sacks, finishing with a blistering 43.4% pressure rate despite not blitzing much (per TruMedia). On Wednesday, the Seahawks had only 6 pressures and 3 sacks, finishing with a paltry 14.3% pressure rate. A large part of that was Maye beating the blitz with his arm and finding scrambling lanes, something that he wasn't able to do in the Super Bowl. Yet, through the first three and a half quarters of the season opener, Maye was starting to find answers. Some of the blitzes that worked turned into plays like this, finding WR AJ Brown to move the chains.

But as the game got tighter, so did Seattle's defense. The run defense was already phenomenal, but across the entire game, Seattle completely owned the line of scrimmage. On all running back runs on Wednesday (so it excludes Drake Maye scrambles), the Patriots had a 33.3% Success Rate, -0.14 Yards Before Contact and only 2.0 Yards After Contact against the Seahawks defense, all of which would've been dead last in 2025. It's part of what makes the Seahawks' defense so special: they force you to play at their pace, and no lead is safe because they can decide when an offense just stops moving the ball.

Even without second-year S Nick Emmanwori, the Seahawks' run defense was stellar. They mixed up the personnel (much more Tyrice Knight as the 3rd linebacker when the Patriots would put Reggie Gilliam on the field) and leaned into run blitzes and movement up front to get free runs at the Patriots' backfield. Being able to use S Julian Love on plays such as this one. Once the ball is snapped, from the end zone angle, you can see how the levers get pulled in the run game. The defensive tackles slant away from the flow of the lead zone run, and Love blitzes and meets FB Reggie Gilliam. Of course, he slams him, but LB Drake Thomas is left unblocked and makes the play for a one-yard gain. That's a win for the defense, and turned a favorable run look into a minimal gain.

Even when things go wrong for their defense, they have players who can tilt the scales back in their favor. Early in the first half, the Patriots have a 2nd-and-3, and LB Tyrice Knight gets caught up inside on this run play, leaving a gap where the run is going, which should result in a first down. However, DT Leonard Williams completely wrecks this play, creating displacement and tackling Stevenson short of the first down. The next play after this? A TFL on 3rd and 1, and the Patriots punted. It's little moments like that where the Seahawks' defense creates its own luck, widening its margin for error and giving the offense more chances with the ball.

What I was most worried about in Seattle in this game was their secondary. Starting guys like Rodney Thomas IV and Nehemiah Pritchett, there was a chance this game ended poorly for them. However, the Seahawks' communication really stood out. They force you to be absolutely perfect to beat them downfield. If not, they capitalize on every mistake. A perfect example of that is the first of Maye's three interceptions from last night. On the first one, the Patriots are trying to draw up a designed downfield shot play, but because there's nobody on the opposite side of the field to cover, the secondary can cheat over and flood the concept with defenders. This makes Thomas IV's job easier, allowing him to make a play on a bad ball by Maye.

The timetable for Sam Darnold's return isn't definite yet, but I wouldn't be too worried about Seattle. With a defense like theirs, they can survive anything and give their offense a chance to come along slowly.