Tight end AJ Barner said during halftime, the team was able to get, “Their mind right. We made a few adjustments. I think, traveling, being on the West Coast time, once you get further into the game, you maybe you feel a little more awake.”
Along with the adjustments, a Rashid Shaheed 100-yard kick return boosted Seattle’s energy on the sideline and kick started the eventual 37-9 win.
“Sheed (Rashid Shaheed) returned the first play for a touchdown,” Kupp said. “Defense gave us a bunch of short fields and we just stopped making the little mistakes. We were able to finish in the red zone and it’s all small things, just small things. And then obviously being put in some really good positions there as well.”
In the first half, Seattle had five offensive drives and was able to score on just two of them, with Jason Myers’ field goals.
“I thought today was a total team effort. Obviously, in the first half didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to offensively. I think we did most of everything that we wanted to, we just didn’t finish in the red zone. For us, that’s kind of been a thing. We’ve just got to continue to finish in the red zone and harp on that throughout the week. But we did a great job in the second half of coming back and finishing the game strong. I feel like our defense and obviously our special teams, the way that they started the second half is unbelievable.”
Kupp said the issues the offense was having in the first half were all “small.”
“I mean all the things. it is just small things, small little mistakes. Little things here or there that are just killing us and things that put Sam in tough positions as well where he’s having to try to make things right for us, and in the second half we just found a little bit of a rhythm there and Sam got things going and made some big time throws and was able to convert and obviously converting the red zone is a big deal.”
Part of what helped Seattle out in the second half was Darnold showing off his ability to move a bit to keep drives alive.
“He’s so good at extending plays,” Macdonald said. “Just go be a playmaker, man. Go do the things that you do. Get excited about it. Just kind of build him up on that front. You can’t make too big of these things. Just encourage him to go do what he does and make it happen.”
After the first half, receivers Smith-Njigba and Shaheed had 30 and 28 yards, respectively and after the offense found its rhythm, the two pass catchers found themselves making plays. Smith-Njigba finished the day with seven catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns, and Shaheed finished with four receptions for 67 yards. Barner, Kupp, Zach Charbonnet and Cody White collectively added another 91 yards on eight catches.