Seahawks improve to 3-0 after penalty-filled win against Dolphins
SEATTLE – For a few minutes Sunday, the Seahawks could finally take a breath.
After two games that went down to the wire, the final five minutes of Sunday’s 24-3 win over Miami proved a celebration on a glorious fall day at Lumen Field.
“We’ve been having close-score games the past couple weeks and it’s good to have a game where we have some space,” said linebacker Dre’Mont Jones, part of a dominating defense that had six sacks, twice held the Dolphins out of the end zone after they got to the 6-yard line or closer, and gave up just 205 yards.
The win made the Seahawks 3-0 for just the eighth time in team history and first since 2020, and moved them two games ahead of the rest of the NFC West as the Rams roared back to beat the 49ers while Arizona lost to Detroit, leaving all three at 1-2.
“It’s a great start,’’ quarterback Geno Smith said.
If they could breathe easily Sunday, the Seahawks know the time for breathers is at its end. They finished the day as just one of two undefeated teams in the NFC along with Minnesota.
But they know many around the league will question just how good they really are given the quarterbacks they’ve beaten are a rookie making his first start (Denver’s Bo Nix), career backup Jacoby Brissett and a rebuilding Patriots team, and backups Skylar Thompson and Tim Boyle on Sunday playing in place of injured Miami starter Tua Tagovailoa.
Next Monday, they’ll get their first real QB test at Detroit against Jared Goff and a Lions team thinking Super Bowl or bust.
After a game at home against the Giants follows five games against the 49ers and Brock Purdy (twice), Buffalo and Josh Allen, Atlanta and Kirk Cousins and the Rams and Matthew Stafford.
The Seahawks know they’ll have to play better against those teams than they did Sunday, when they committed 11 penalties and endured a five-drive series that ended in four punts and an interception.
“I think that was the only thing that stopped us today was the stupid penalties that we had,’’ receiver DK Metcalf said. “False starts, holdings. Good thing we won so we clean it up on Monday, Tuesday, and move on to the Lions.”
And as Smith said, even if the route to get there wasn’t always perfect, the Seahawks ended Sunday right where they want to be.
“Any time you can win the games that you play, that’s what you play for,’’ he said. “That’s all that matters, is that we win. However we get it done, I’m not really particular about that.’’
For a while Sunday, it looked like it might be a daylong party.
The Seahawks drove for a field goal the first time they had the ball and stopped Miami on a third-and-1 and compelled the Dolphins to try a 57-yard field goal that missed.
The Seahawks drove 53 yards for a TD in five plays, the prettiest coming when Smith evaded pressure and threw to the sidelines where 6-foot-4 Metcalf posted up 5-11 Miami cornerback Kendall Fuller to reach over his head to make the catch.
“Any time you got a DB with his back turned to any of our targets, but especially a guy as tall as DK, you want to give him a shot there,’’ Smith said of a play that gained 22 yards and moved the Seahawks to the Miami 4, where Zach Charbonnet ran it in on the next snap to make it 10-0.
“Geno did a good job extending the play and throwing the ball to where only I could get it,’’ Metcalf said.
It got a little hairy on the next series when an offensive pass interference on Metcalf moved the Seahawks back to their own 5, where on third-and-15 Smith was pressured on a dropback into the end zone and threw a pass that Charbonnet tipped into the hands of Miami’s Kader Kohou at the 6.
An illegal motion penalty by Miami helped the Seahawks force a field goal and keep the lead at 10-3.
On their next offensive snap from the 29, Smith dropped back, and getting maybe the best protection he had all day, watched as Metcalf used a double move at about midfield to break past Miami safety Jevon Holland and catch a perfectly-placed pass for a 71-yard TD to make it 17-3 as the first quarter ended.
Miami was in a zone defense and star cornerback Jalen Ramsey had responsibility for the quarter of the field toward the sidelines and let Metcalf go, leaving him for the safeties.
“That was a play that we had been repping all offseason, give DK the option to read that right there,’’ Smith said. “If we get the coverage we like, he’s going to take the top off it. So they were playing low quarters on that side; they play up half to the other side; we got the safety in the position we want him, and he really bit down on the dig route and DK was able to get behind him.’’
In essence, that ended the game with the Seahawks’ defense having a chokehold on Miami’s Tagovailoa-less offense.
Three quarters remained regardless, and the teams at times seemed to play as if they realized the outcome had been decided – each team had 11 accepted penalties and four others were offsetting or declined.
Mostly because of the penalties, the Seahawks faced a third-and-16, third-and-22, third-and-25 and third-and-22 in the second and third quarters, predictably not picking up any of them.
“Felt like we came out great, and then for some reason we couldn’t just get over that hump,’’ Smith said. “… Whatever it takes for us to get better and to push ourselves and reach that next level, that next step we’re talking about, that’s something that I lay right at my own feet. I take it real personal.’’
A second Smith interception on a tipped pass late in the third quarter – after Boyle had replaced Thompson – momentarily made things tense, especially when the Dolphins quickly drove to the 3. But two running plays gained only 1 yard and two passes fell incomplete and the Seahawks took over at their own 2 with 10:22 left. That allowed the offense to finish with a good feeling, moving 98 yards in 11 plays against a demoralized Miami defense, with Charbonnet rushing for 42 yards on six carries, the final 10 coming on a touchdown run.
“Played really great red zone defense, and the offense getting in that backed up situation was redeeming to say the least,’’ Macdonald said. “Then going down with a 98-yard touchdown drive pretty much sealing it was pretty awesome.’’
So is the view from the top of the NFC West, even if they know tougher tests await?
“Yeah, we got a long way to go,’’ Macdonald said. “This is a long season. We got a big game coming up. Our first goal is to win each game and the next goal is to get in the dance and then the next goal is win the division. We’re a long way from there. We can help our chances again next week if we go to Detroit and get a win.’’