Sam Darnold admits the obvious about the Seattle Seahawks' offense

There is a bad trend continuing with the Seattle Seahawks (11-3). For the third week in a row, the Seahawks are starting games incredibly slow and with limited scoring. This time in Sunday's 18-16 home win over the Indianapolis Colts, the offense didn’t score a touchdown.

There are reasons why the offense almost failed the Seahawks in a game where they were heavily favored. The offensive line was horrible for most of the game; there was an evident lack of run game, and quarterback Sam Darnold couldn’t connect to his pass-catchers in the red zone.

All of these add up to the Seahawks only accumulating 314 total yards, including 50 from the running game. Seattle was also 2-of-13 on third down conversions, had some critical penalties that killed drives, and had several three-and-outs.

Darnold, after the game, addressed the obvious attribute circulating the Seahawks the last three weeks, and that is that the offense has to step up. This team needed to step up offensively after a slow start in the first half of Week 13’s 26-0 home win over the Minnesota Vikings.

Sam Darnold: “We’ve got to step it up a little bit on offense.” pic.twitter.com/w9ABvxdlre
December 15, 2025
The Seahawks followed that up with a sluggish start in the road game against the Falcons. Darnold was 5-of-11 for 37 yards and an interception in the first four drives while the offensive line struggled to pick up the blitz. They were able to calm down right before halftime with a 6-6 score before taking the 37-9 win.
Either the Seahawks didn’t prepare properly for the weather, or they were overconfident by not taking an injured Colts team without star defensive tackle DeForest Buckner and cornerback Sauce Gardner seriously. The Seahawks almost found themselves on the losing end of one of the greatest returns in NFL history with quarterback Philip Rivers, who came out of a five-year retirement.
The Seahawks have averaged 27.8 points per game in the last four games played, but Sunday’s game against the Colts was easily one of the worst offensive performances of the season. Seattle can’t fixate on its problems as it prepares for a critical Thursday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams.
The good news is that the Seahawks can review their bad offensive footage and try to elevate each unit as they prepare for the Rams. Darnold still had good moments against the Colts, but now he must avenge himself against Los Angeles after throwing four interceptions in the Seahawks’ 21-19 Week 11 road loss to their rivals.
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