Their quarterback leads NFL with 20 turnovers in 16 games. Yet they are 13-3, the third 13-win season in Seattle’s 50 years of pro football.
Sam Darnold pumped his fist.
A.J. Barner emphatically spiked the ball in the end zone, then waved to the crowd and TV audience. His teammates jumped around.
After this game the walls of the locker room shook yet again. More blaring, bass-heavy music. Yet another Seattle win, 27-10 over the NFC South-leading Carolina Panthers.
That’s 10 victories in 11 games. That’s one win — or a combination of the 49ers and Rams losing the next two nights — from Seattle’s first NFC West title since 2020. The Seahawks are on track for the conference’s top playoff seed.
Yet the question leaving North Carolina Sunday night remains for the Seahawks, now 13-3, a win away from the shortest path with home field throughout the NFC playoffs entering a likely division-title game next weekend at archrival San Francisco.
Can they keep winning through the playoffs this way?
Can they get to the Super Bowl with their quarterback turning the ball over more than anybody else in the NFL?
With the way their defense plays in the clutch, they could.
“Let’s let it be for everything,” Seahawks middle linebacker Ernest Jones said in the visitors’ locker room at Bank of America Stadium Sunday, of Seahawks at Niners next weekend in Santa Clara. “Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs.”
Ernest Jones on #Seahawks’ thinking leaving leaving Carolina at 13-3, with it possible next weekend at San Francisco will be for the NFC West title, and the 1 seed: Bring it on.
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) December 29, 2025
“Let’s let it be for everything.
“Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs.”@thenewstribunepic.twitter.com/J8hbQrUp8f
With two more giveaways Sunday, and two more plays that easily could have been interceptions the Panthers dropped, Darnold has 20 turnovers in 16 games. That’s the most in the league.
The News Tribune asked coach Mike Macdonald minutes after Seattle’s defense sparked the second-half runaway from Carolina Sunday: What’s the level of concern within the team about Darnold’s turnovers heading into the playoffs?
“Yeah,” Macdonald said, “it’s really just the ball being in jeopardy.”
Sam Darnold’s latest turnovers
A game earlier Darnold had two turnovers against the Rams, before the Seahawks defense shut down Los Angeles on three straight three-and-out drives. That allowed Darnold and the offense the chance to come back from down 16 points with 10 minutes left to win 38-37 in overtime.
Sunday in Carolina, Darnold put the ball in jeopardy at least five times Sunday.
Darnold lost a fumble in the second quarter when Panthers defender Nic Scourton hit his arm as the QB was about to throw.
“I dropped the ball,” Darnold said. “I felt like I was still in the pocket, so it felt like I had a good base and I was in the right spot to be able to make that throw. The defense just made a good play.
“Got their hand on my forearm or elbow. And, yeah, kind of is what it is.”
It was Darnold’s sixth lost fumble this season. But at least he got the tackle and forced a fumble on his fumble, though the Panthers recovered it.
“Yeah, I can’t remember the last time I did that. It was fun, but obviously it’s not what we want to be doing,” Darnold said. “As a quarterback, I don’t want to be making tackles out there.”
The 28-year-old QB said he felt like he was back as a freshman and sophomore at San Clemente High School in southern California.
“Yeah, it was kind of a throwback to high school when I was playing linebacker,” Darnold said.
But as has been Seattle’s story most of this season, the defense rose up after Darnold’s turnover. Defensive tackle Byron Murphy made a huge play to keep Carolina from converting that turnover into a lead. Days after getting snubbed from a Pro Bowl selection, Murphy destroyed the interior of the Panthers’ line on a third and short. That resulted in teammates Leonard Williams and Boye Mafe stopping Hubbard’s inside run for no gain. Carolina settled for a field goal and a 3-3 tie.
Darnold should have had an interception on Seattle’s first possession of the game. He declined to throw a check-down pass to running back Zach Charbonnet early in the play. Darnold instead rolled out left. His pass went off the helmet of a Panthers defensive lineman, at least the third time this season that’s happened. It deflected right to Carolina’s Jaycee Horn. Fortunately for Darnold and Seattle, Horn allowed the ball to go through both his hands and arms off his stomach to the ground incomplete, deep in Seahawks territory.
Darnold nearly had a third turnover of the half with 1:14 left in it. Cooper Kupp got hit as Darnold’s short pass arrived, by linebacker Claudin Cherelus. The ball caromed to a Panthers defender, for what officials initially ruled an interception. But a replay review showed the defender dropped it, for an incomplete pass.
Seattle ended up giving the ball away on downs to end that 2-minute drill late in the half. The Panthers stopped Darnold on a sneak on 4th and 1.
So the half ended in a slog, with the game still tied at 3
In the third quarter Darnold hrew an interception when his deep pass into the back of the end zone errantly sailed far beyond Jaxon Smith-Njigba, easily into the arms of Panthers cornerback Mike Jackson.
“I just got to move on in my progression,” Darnold said. “Or at least make an us-or-nobody throw where ‘Jax’ can go up and get it or it’s incomplete.”
Yet on the next play, Seattle Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence — playing like the best player on the team lately — forced a fumble. Lawrence recovered it at the Carolina 21.
The Seahawks converted that into the lead, 10-3, with Charbonnet’s 2-yard touchdown run.
On the Panthers’ first third down following the TD, Seattle safety Julian Love fooled quarterback Bryce Young into thinking rookie receiver Tet McMillan was open on an out-and-up wheel route down the right sideline. Love peeled back and intercepted the pass.
Darnold converted that into his touchdown pass of 17 yards to tight end A.J. Barner. Suddenly, thanks to Lawrence’s and Love’s takeaways on defense, the Seahawks led 17-3.
And the Seahawks are 13-3.
“It’s unbelievable. Our defense has been doing that all year,” Darnold said. “They’ve been stepping up in such a huge way, especially for me.
“Our defense has had our back all year and vice versa. When we feel like we need a spark, our offense stepped up in big ways, as well. It’s just complementary football all season long.
“And this one, especially.”
Mike Macdonald on the turnovers
Macdonald sees a root cause to Darnold’s turnovers: Breakdowns at the start of the plays that cause the giveaways. Pass-protection breakdowns. Receivers not meshing on routes. Maybe just a play call in which the defense beats the offense in scheme.
“So deflections, things like that, I mean, those things happen,” Macdonald said. “But I think if we take care of the front end of the plays better, it won’t be as big of an issue.
“So we call it ‘E.A.T.’ (effort, angles and tackling on defense, finishing plays on offense). It’s how you finish plays. We got to double down on that.
“It’s critical this part of the year.”
Category: General Sports
