By the time Seahawks punter Michael Dickson had to do his primary job on Sunday—he had previously been on the field as the holder on extra points and field goals—it was already the fourth quarter and the Seahawks had pulled several offensive starters, including quarterback Sam Darnold.
The Seahawks scored on their first seven possessions, helping pave the way for a 44-13 win over New Orleans while also helping show just how far Seattle’s new-look offense has come since a Week 1 loss to the 49ers.
“We love Mike, but we want to limit his reps as much as we can,” receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said with a grin.
The Seahawks have won two straight games by double-digit margins for several reasons, including a suffocating defense that ranks second in the NFL in points allowed, as well as a special teams unit that has scored two touchdowns and set up multiple other scores with big plays in the last two weeks. But another big factor in Seattle’s recent success has been the growth shown by an offense that underwent a pretty significant overhaul this offseason.
With Klint Kubiak taking over as offensive coordinator, and with Darnold, receiver Cooper Kupp and several other newcomers taking over prominent roles, there was always going to be something of a learning curve as the season went along, but the rapid improvement from Week 1 to where the Seahawks are now, heading into a Week 4 game in Arizona, is one of the most encouraging early trends of the season for Seattle.
In their season-opening loss to the 49ers, the Seahawks had some bright spots on offense, but struggled to move the ball consistently, resulting in a 13-point output that saw the Seahawks gain 14 first downs and 230 total yards while averaging 4.6 yards per play. A week later, the Seahawks scored 31 points, albeit with a special teams score adding to that total, and had 21 first downs, 395 yards and a 6.2 yards-per-play average. Then last weekend, the Seahawks hung 44 points on the Saints, totaling 320 yards, 22 first downs and a 5.9 yards-per-play average, numbers that could have all been bigger had the Seahawks not been playing with a huge lead after racing to a 21-0 lead.
And of course, quarterback play is always a huge factor in an offense’s success, and Darnold has been very good early in his first season with the Seahawks, particularly in these past two wins. After a solid, if unspectacular opener, Darnold has completed 36 of 51 attempts in the past two games for 513 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. Last week, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Darnold threw downfield (10-plus air yards) on 44.4 percent of his pass attempts, completing 6 of 8 attempts for 146 yards and a touchdown, giving him a passer rating of 156.3 on those downfield throws, his best passer rating on such throws in his career. Next Gen Stats also had Darnold with a 77.8 percent drop-back success rate, the highest of his career,
“He’s being efficient, decisive, accurate, tough, extending plays when he needs to, being aggressive when he needs to, taking care of the ball when he needs to, so let’s keep it rolling,” Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.