Falcons Have One Clear Path to Beating the Seahawks

FLOWERY BRANCH – The Atlanta Falcons are back within the confines of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Week 14, but they will have a difficult task on their hands. The Seattle Seahawks are sitting at 9-3 and atop the NFC with one of the league’s most prolific offenses.

“Offensively, these guys are an absolute problem right now,” defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said on Wednesday. “They're number one in a lot of statistical categories. They're explosive. They can beat you in every way.”

Led by the league’s front-runner for the Offensive Player of the Year, the Seahawks have lit up scoreboards in 2025. They are scoring 29.2 points per game and punishing teams with a great balance between the run and pass game.

Two new faces have joined up in Seattle to lead this offense: offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and quarterback Sam Darnold, who Ulbrich called ‘hard to recognize.’

“He is really finding himself. He has unbelievable confidence. He's got mobility. He's got accuracy. He's become a very good decision maker,” Ulbirch said about Darnold. “He's the perfect guy to run this offense. He really reminds me of the Kubiaks of old, the Shanahans of old, where you had these guys that were elite problem solvers and processors. But at the same time, very good athletes too.”

In the system that Kubiak runs, Darnold’s ability to command the offense becomes a very valuable weapon for the Seahawks. They have been able to mix-and-match personnel groupings and attack defenses in several different ways.

This has allowed Jaxon Smith-Njigba to flourish, while also feeding the other weapons that this offense features.

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“Smith Njigba is really flourishing in it,” Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said. “I see 'Coop' [Cooper Kupp] doing a lot of the same things that we did with the Rams that we do here with Drake [London]. You get a chance to see a lot of similar things, and it's pretty cool to watch those guys and how they've really been able to really make plays and do a really good job.”

The Falcons’ strong secondary will be tested in this game, but the run defense will have a rather large challenge of its own on Sunday. Seattle features a pair of dangerous running backs in Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet.

“[Walker] has power, he has vision, he has speed,” Ulbrich said. “He can grind out the dirty yards when you don't block it for much and make positive yardage. But he can also finish it with the explosives because he's got the top-end speed.”

The defensive coordinator compared the one-two punch of Walker and Charbonnet to what the Falcons have in Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier. Both backs will get touches in this game and offer challenges from a physicality standpoint.

“[Seattle] just has so many weapons there,” Ulbrich finished. “When you got that unique pairing of really elite scheme and talent, you see special things occur, and you're starting to see it there.”

Slowing that unit down will prove to be a challenge for the Falcons, but one key factor may work in their favor on Sunday – the Seahawks have a propensity for giveaways.

Through 12 games, they have 11 interceptions and 11 lost fumbles. The Seahawks have seven games in which they have turned the ball over two or more times – they are 4-3 in those games compared to 5-0 in their other games.

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Against a top-flight team in the NFL this season, turnovers are the great equalizer. The Falcons have been effective in this category, with their +4 margin and 15 takeaways. With a burgeoning pass rush, they could flip this game in their favor by forcing some mistakes from Seattle.

The Seahawks do not allow a lot of pressure, and their 15 sacks allowed are the second-fewest in the NFL. The Falcons, who have generated 21 sacks in their last five games, will hope to change that.

Fully stopping this unit will prove to be nearly impossible, but a few opportunistic plays could flip the game in their favor.