Trying to make sense of why this Seahawks season feels different

The Seatte Seahawks currently sit at 9-3 and have the second-highest odds to win Super Bowl LX, despite an otherwise anticlimatic and dramaless season.

When the 2025 season began, few included the Seahawks in a list of Super Bowl contenders. Coming off a season in which they missed the playoffs, Seattle made a flurry of roster changes, including signing Sam Darnold to a budget-friendly quarterback contract, drafting third round project Jalen Milroe, and moving off of veteran wide receivers DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.

Despite their swift and unexpected rise to the top of the NFL, the Seahawks have not felt like a traditional cinderella story. They haven't won a close game in the fourth quarter or pulled off a stunning comeback when all hope seemed lost. In fact, they've hardly played meaningful football in the second half of games.

Game	Seahawks win probability at halftime
Week 1 vs 49ers	51%
Week 2 at Steelers	19%
Week 3 vs Saints	99%
Week 4 at Cardinals	89%
Week 5 vs Buccaneers	37%
Week 6 at Jaguars	80%
Week 7 vs Texans	81%
Week 9 at Commanders	99%
Week 10 vs Cardinals	99%
Week 11 at Rams	31%
Week 12 at Titans	98%
Week 13 vs Vikings	98%

In only four of their thirteen games this season have the Seahawks come out of halftime with a win probability less than 80%. That's far from something to complain about, but it doesn't exactly have folks on the edges of their seats, either.

Achieving a halftime win probability of 98% or greater on five separate occasions, Seattle has essentially won 42% of their games this year in the first two quarters. That's more halftime wins than all of 2019 to 2024 combined.

Nov 9, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) greets Arizona Cardinals quarterback Jacoby Brissett (7) on the field after their 44-22 blowout win at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

In 2005, the year of Seattle's first Super Bowl appearance, the Seahawks had three of these halftime wins. They also had three such wins in 2015, a year in which they ranked #1 in DVOA, coming off two consecutive Super Bowl appearances from 2013 and 2014. They've never blown out teams at halftime more than three times in a single season until this year, where they've done it five times already, with five games still left to play.

Put simply, the 2025 Seahawks are playing more garbage time football than ever before. It's a good problem to have, but it doesn't exactly generate weekly must-see-TV during what should feel like a magical Super Bowl run, given how they got here.

Just as in 2013, when Seattle won their first and only Super Bowl, the Seahawks once again have an elite defense. However, it's this calm, cool, take-care-of-business-and-get-out attitude about them that makes this iteration of the team so unique. They're an underdog proving the doubters wrong, without a single chip on their shoulder. Just listen to Mike Macdonald's reaction to their fight for the division in the final weeks of the regular season:

Mike Macdonald, when prompted:

"Five weeks left, three teams in this division have 9 wins already, and it's a fight to the finish going down the stretch" pic.twitter.com/IQ9fPihI2F
— Seahawk Nerd (@SeahawkNerd) December 5, 2025

This Seahawks team may not be generating exhilirating photo finishes, but they are highly focused and efficient at what they do well: taking care of business against inferior teams. What remains to be seen is whether that identity carries over to winning games in high-leverage moments against the cream of the crop in the playoffs.

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