After back-to-back losses to the 49ers and the Broncos this month, I was just about ready to put a fork in this team. Then Sunday night happened. On October 25, 2026, the Seattle Seahawks beat the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, 20-3, at Lumen Field. Did you read that correctly? Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs scored THREE points. Read more to find out how Seattle did it, why KC fell apart, and what this game means for the rest of our season.
THE BACKSTORY
I’m not a flash-in-the-pan Seahawks fan. I’ve followed this team since their NFL debut in 1976, through the highs of the Largent and Krieg days, the lows of the mid 90’s, and the Super Bowl runs since then. So believe me when I say I’ve seen enough Seahawks seasons fall apart to know when one is wobbling.
For those that haven’t followed the Seahawks this year, here’s a quick recap. Seattle went 14-3 last season and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LX. Woohoo! But the offseason wasn’t kind to us. Kenneth Walker signed a 3-year, $45 million deal with, of all teams, the Kansas City Chiefs. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak left to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Riq Woolen, Boye Mafe, and Coby Bryant all left in free agency too. On the plus side, Seattle signed WR Rashid Shaheed and drafted RB Jadarian Price in the 1st round.
The season started okay. Seattle beat the Patriots 13-10 in a Super Bowl rematch, then blew out the Cardinals in Arizona, 31-7. Then the close losses started piling up:
- Week 3: Commanders 33, Seahawks 31. A shootout in Washington that we just couldn’t close out.
- Week 5: 49ers 32, Seahawks 29. At home, against our biggest rival. Ugh.
- Week 6: Broncos 17, Seahawks 14. A Thursday night game in Denver where the offense never got going.
Three losses by a total of 8 points. At 3-3, the “Super Bowl hangover” talk was getting louder. And here comes Kansas City, 5-0, with Walker coming back to Seattle in a red jersey, on Sunday Night Football, where it seems like Mahomes always pulls a rabbit out of his hat. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much.
WHAT HAPPENED
For most of the 1st quarter, this game was a punting contest. Both teams punted on each of their first three drives, and both defenses looked like they had been studying film all week. Seattle finally got on the board in the 2nd quarter with a 25-yard Jason Myers field goal at the 8:24 mark.
A few minutes later, the game turned. Ty Okada picked off Mahomes – the first turnover of the night – and Sam Darnold made KC pay. With 1:49 left in the half, Darnold threw deep down the left side to Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The refs first ruled JSN down at the 1-yard line, but the replay official took a look and the call was overturned. Touchdown! 28 yards. 10-0 Seahawks.
Seattle got the ball back before halftime and got a little greedy. Nohl Williams intercepted Darnold in the end zone and returned it 65 yards, his first career interception. Luckily, there was almost no time left, and Harrison Butker’s 58-yard try to end the half came up short. Bummer for KC.
In the 3rd quarter, Seattle kept grinding. Myers hit a 35-yarder at the 8:12 mark to make it 13-0. Derick Hall stripped Mahomes, but the Chiefs were lucky to fall on the ball. Kansas City’s only points of the night came on a 50-yard Butker field goal with 1:47 left in the quarter. 13-3.
Then came the moment that decided the game. With 8:33 left in the 4th quarter, Butker lined up for a 45-yard field goal that would have made it 13-6 – a one-score game, with Mahomes getting the ball back. Wide right. Seattle took over and marched right back down the field. With 3:52 left, Emanuel Wilson took a handoff, ran through a huge hole on the left side, and went 21 yards for the touchdown. 20-3. Game over.
WHY SEATTLE WON
Here’s the tale of the tape, category by category.
QUARTERBACK
Darnold was 20 of 28 for 257 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. More importantly, the Chiefs didn’t sack him once. The end zone pick was his only mistake of the night, and it didn’t cost us a point. Mahomes, on the other hand, threw for only 165 yards, with no touchdowns and one interception. Edge – Seattle
RECEIVERS
JSN was unreal again – 9 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year has now topped 100 yards in six of seven games this season and leads the NFL in receiving yards. He’s on pace to break Calvin Johnson’s single-season record of 1,964 yards, and he’s the first player in the Super Bowl era with at least 850 receiving yards and 8 touchdown catches through seven games. Wow. Kansas City’s leading receiver was tight end Noah Gray, with 3 catches for 44 yards. Edge – Seattle
RUNNING GAME
With Zach Charbonnet and rookie Jadarian Price both out, I figured our running game would be in trouble. Nope. Emanuel Wilson carried the ball 24 times for 100 yards and the clinching touchdown. Emanuel who? Exactly. Next man up. As a team, Seattle ran for 153 yards. KC ran for 50. Edge – Seattle
DEFENSE
This is where the game was won. KC never got inside our 20-yard line. Not once. That has never happened before in a game Mahomes started, regular season or playoffs. The defense held Kenneth Walker (yes, OUR Kenneth Walker) to 36 yards on 14 carries, and his longest run was 7 yards. That makes 36 straight games that the Seahawks haven’t allowed a 100-yard rusher. Add in Okada’s interception, Hall’s forced fumble, 7 QB hits, and holding KC to 3 of 11 on 3rd down, and Mahomes never got comfortable. To be fair, KC’s George Karlaftis had a strong game, with five pressures on Darnold. But that was about it. Edge – Seattle
KICKING
Myers was 2 for 2. Butker was 1 for 3. Enough said. Edge – Seattle
COACHING
Seattle held the ball for 35:51 to KC’s 24:09, ran 69 plays to KC’s 50, converted 11 of 16 on 3rd down, went 1 for 1 on 4th down, and was flagged only 4 times for 20 yards. That’s clean, smart football, and that’s on Mike Macdonald and his staff. Edge – Seattle
SUMMARY
That’s 6-0 in the tale of the tape. This wasn’t a fluke or a lucky bounce. Seattle was simply the better team on Sunday night.
WHY KANSAS CITY LOST
Where do I begin? Mahomes was 19 of 33 for 165 yards with an interception, good for a 58.3 passer rating. That was his lowest passing total of the season, and one of the worst games of his career. He missed Travis Kelce badly on the opening drive, and things never got much better.
Kelce didn’t help him much either. He dropped two passes, and an illegal shift penalty on him wiped out a 3rd down conversion. Ouch! For what it’s worth, Kelce did move into 5th place all-time in career receptions on Sunday, with 1,103. Congrats, but I’m sure he’d rather have the win.
The bigger problem was the running game. Walker ran for 665 yards in his first five games with the Chiefs, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. Against his old team, he averaged 2.6. Without a running game, KC’s play-action passing never got going, and Mahomes was stuck throwing short passes that went nowhere. The Chiefs’ 34 total air yards tells you everything. Basically, Seattle dared Mahomes to beat them deep, and he couldn’t.
On defense, the Chiefs’ pass rush did very little outside of Karlaftis. Chris Jones had zero pressures on 24 pass rushes. Their secondary had a rough night too. Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed gave up five catches for 83 yards on just 14 snaps before getting benched in the 2nd half. And letting Seattle convert 11 of 16 on 3rd down? That’s how you end up on the field for 36 minutes.
Then there’s Butker. He’s now at 69% on field goals this season and 1 for 5 from 50+ yards. Since 2023, he’s made about 82% of his kicks, down from about 89% before that. There’s already talk that the Chiefs need to look at a change. To be fair, even if both of his misses had gone in, KC still loses this game. You can’t win when you never get into the red zone.
The Chiefs are now 5-1 and head to Denver (5-2) this Sunday. Something tells me Andy Reid will have plenty to say in film study this week.
THE KENNETH WALKER STORYLINE
I have to say a few words about Walker. When he signed with Kansas City in March, it stung. He was a fan favorite in Seattle, and losing him to the Chiefs, of all teams, felt like the kind of move that comes back to bite you. Before Sunday, it was looking that way. He came into the game with 665 rushing yards in five games and was on his way to a career year.
So this game had all the makings of a revenge story. Former Seahawk comes back to Lumen Field, on national TV, and runs all over his old team. Except it didn’t happen. 14 carries, 36 yards, and a long of 7. Our defense knew exactly what was coming, and they shut it down. No hard feelings, Kenneth. I still wish you the best… every other week of the season. 😉
MY TAKE
In my opinion, this is the win that turns the season around. A defending champion should be winning those close games against Washington, San Francisco, and Denver, not losing them. Beating the AFC’s last unbeaten team, on national TV, with this kind of defense, tells me the champs are still in there somewhere.
Coach Macdonald said it best after the game: “There’s a sense of urgency now to take another step as a football team.” I agree 100%. At 4-3, Seattle is still two games behind the 49ers (6-1) in the NFC West and sits 8th in the NFC, just outside the playoff picture. There is no time to celebrate.
The NFC is crowded this year. The Vikings are 6-0, the 49ers are 6-1, the Bears are 5-2, the Packers are 5-3, and the Giants and Lions are both 4-2. Seattle can’t afford many more of those close losses if we want to get back to the playoffs and defend the title.
Here’s what’s coming up next:
- Nov. 2: Bears (5-2), Monday Night Football, at home. This will tell us if Sunday night was a turning point or a one-night wonder.
- Nov. 8: Cardinals, at home. We already beat them 31-7 in Arizona. Should be a win.
- Nov. 15: at Raiders. A Klint Kubiak reunion in Las Vegas. Maybe I’ll make the drive. 😉
- Nov. 29: at 49ers. Circle this one. If we want to win the division, it starts here.
After that, it’s the Cowboys on Monday night, the Giants, a trip to Philadelphia, the Rams at home on Christmas night, and then Carolina and the Rams again on the road to finish the season.
On a brighter note, keep an eye on JSN’s chase for the record books. If he keeps up this pace, he’ll finish with somewhere around 2,000 receiving yards and pass Calvin Johnson’s record of 1,964 from 2012. If he wins Offensive Player of the Year again, he’d be the first back-to-back winner since Marshall Faulk. Double wow.
Seattle has had a few players over the years who were supposed to be the savior. Kevin Durant was one, and we all know how that ended. Russell Wilson was another, and he delivered a Super Bowl. Is JSN the next savior in Seattle? I think he’s already earned it.
The pessimist in me still has a few worries. Our running back depth is thin with Charbonnet and Price out. Rashid Shaheed’s knee is a question mark, since he was questionable to return on Sunday. And Darnold can’t be throwing picks in the end zone against better teams. But with JSN chasing history and this defense playing like it’s the Legion of Boom days, I like our chances. My take on the Bears game is that with some of the Seattle defensive stars with a Questionable designation, it will be close. But since it is at home, they will be able to pull it out, 23-20.
Hopefully, I can put that fork away for good. Go Hawks!