Week 6 recap: Broncos 17, Seahawks 14 in overtime
Seattle’s defense held Denver to 168 yards, 2.9 yards a play and 3 of 14 on third down, and lost anyway. The Broncos scored touchdowns on two long drives in the first half, then did almost nothing for the rest of the night, and Seattle came back from 14-3 to tie it with three seconds left in regulation. In overtime Sam Darnold threw his second interception of the night, to Ja’Quan McMillian at the Seattle 43, and Wil Lutz kicked a 53-yard field goal four plays later. Denver 17, Seattle 14. Seattle is 3-3 and has lost three of its last four, all by three points or fewer. Kansas City comes to Lumen Field on October 25.
How it happened
Seattle’s first drive got past midfield and ended with Darnold sacked on back-to-back plays, by McMillian and Quinn Robinson, and a punt. After a Denver three-and-out, Jason Myers made it 3-0 with a 55-yard field goal with 6:31 left in the first quarter.
Then Denver put together the kind of drive few teams have managed against Seattle this season: 16 plays, 74 yards and 8:39, ending in J.K. Dobbins’ 4-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter, 7-3. Seattle went three-and-out after Rashid Shaheed’s 39-yard kickoff return, on which he fumbled out of bounds and kept the ball, and Michael Dickson’s 24-yard punt gave Denver the ball at its 21. The Broncos went 79 yards in nine plays, helped by a face mask penalty on Byron Murphy II and a 20-yard pass interference penalty on Devon Witherspoon, and RJ Harvey took a direct snap 1 yard for a touchdown, 14-3, with 5:15 left in the half.
Seattle’s answer reached the Denver 30 before Shaheed fumbled on an end-around, forced by Nik Bonitto and recovered by Justin Strnad at the Denver 34. Tight end Elijah Arroyo was hurt on the play. The defense forced a three-and-out, but a 33-yard Shaheed catch on the next drive was overturned on review, and it was 14-3 at halftime.
Seattle’s first drive of the second half went 55 yards, including Shaheed’s 42-yard catch, and stalled when Darnold was sacked on third down at the Denver 29; Myers hit the right upright from 47. The next two Seattle drives also ended in third-down sacks, one of them for 14 yards. Denver, meanwhile, punted on every full possession of the second half.
Down 14-3 entering the fourth quarter, Seattle went 67 yards in 11 plays. A Darnold pass for Tory Horton was ruled an interception by Brandon Jones at the Denver 19 and overturned on review, and George Holani ran in from 1 yard with 5:41 left. Darnold hit Shaheed for the two-point conversion, 14-11. Ernest Jones IV and Nick Emmanwori sacked Bo Nix on the next series, and Seattle got the ball back at its 26 with 3:24 left. It reached the Denver 39, and with 1:31 left Darnold, backing away from pressure, threw for Horton; Kris Abrams-Draine intercepted at the 31.
The defense held again, Shaheed returned the punt 31 yards to the Seattle 46, and Darnold moved Seattle to the Denver 16 in eight plays. Myers kicked a 34-yard field goal with three seconds left, 14-14.
Seattle got the ball first in overtime. Shaheed muffed the kickoff and recovered it, a holding penalty pushed Seattle back to its 13, and on third-and-long from the 28 Darnold threw for Shaheed along the left sideline; McMillian intercepted at the 43 with 7:17 left. Denver ran four plays for 8 yards, and Lutz kicked the 53-yarder with 4:53 left. Because Seattle had already had its possession, the field goal ended it.
The numbers
| Seahawks | Broncos | |
|---|---|---|
| Total yards | 353 | 168 |
| First downs | 24 | 13 |
| Rushing | 26 for 113 | 28 for 74 |
| Passing | 27 of 51, 278 yards | 17 of 27, 107 yards |
| Turnovers | 3 | 0 |
| Points off turnovers | 0 | 3 |
| Sacks | 2 (13 yards) | 5 (38 yards) |
| Third down | 7 of 17 | 3 of 14 |
| Red zone | 1 of 2 | 2 of 2 |
| Penalties | 7 for 75 | 8 for 42 |
| Time of possession | 35:38 | 29:29 |
Darnold went 27 of 51 for 278 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, and was sacked five times; per the club, Denver hit him 17 times. Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught 12 of 16 targets for 134 yards, his fifth 100-yard game in six. Shaheed caught five passes for 66 yards, a season high, and per the club had 118 return yards. Cooper Kupp caught five for 50. Emanuel Wilson ran 14 times for 52 yards, Holani five times for 20 and the touchdown, and Velus Jones Jr. four times for 20. Myers made field goals from 55 and 34 yards and missed from 47.
On defense, Jones had nine tackles and a sack, his third straight game with one, and Tyrice Knight, in for the injured Drake Thomas, had eight tackles. Emmanwori had seven tackles and a sack, and Witherspoon broke up two passes. Nix went 17 of 27 for 107 yards. Dobbins ran 17 times for 41 yards and a touchdown, and Harvey had the other touchdown and three catches for 31 yards. Abrams-Draine and McMillian had the interceptions, and Alex Singleton had 13 tackles. The attendance was 76,973.
The passing yards in the table are the quarterbacks’ totals; ESPN’s team passing figures, net of sacks, are 240 for Seattle and 94 for Denver. Points off turnovers are counted from the play-by-play: Shaheed’s fumble and Darnold’s fourth-quarter interception both led to Denver punts, and the overtime interception led to the winning field goal.
What decided it
Turnovers again, and this time with the offense unable to make up for them. Darnold: “I just think it’s B.S. for me to keep turning the ball over. It’s not fair to our defense, it’s not fair to our special teams group, it’s not fair really to the entire team, so I’ve got to be better that way.” On the overtime throw: “I just got greedy… That play specifically, I should have just gotten it down to Coop.”
Mike Macdonald: “We have to take care of the ball. Sam knows that, he told the team that.” But he and the players spread it wider. Macdonald: “The quarterback is getting hit way too much, everybody sees that.” Kupp: “We are not doing a good enough job offensively to allow him to play in rhythm, we’re not doing a good enough job allowing him to get into a flow, turning small plays into big plays.” Darnold has been sacked ten times in two games.
The defense was the reason it went to overtime. After the second touchdown, per the club, Denver had two first downs the rest of regulation. Witherspoon on the halftime adjustment: “We told each other, ‘We got to stop the run, early-down run game.’” Leonard Williams: “We did great on first and second down, putting them in third and longs, and then we were able to affect the quarterback.”
Macdonald on where it leaves a 3-3 team: “There’s no moral victories in the league. It’s a bottom-line business, production business. But I am proud of our effort.” Williams: “Three losses is definitely not going to take us out of taking a run at a championship, but it’s definitely time to really hone in and focus on what’s stopping us from winning these games.”
Our preview said Seattle 20, Denver 17, and leaned under 40.5. The winner was wrong and the under was right: 31 points, with overtime. The preview’s test was whether Darnold got through the first quarter without a giveaway. He did, and the turnovers came later: Shaheed’s fumble in the second quarter, then interceptions with 1:31 left in regulation and in overtime. It also said Denver lives on takeaways, and the Broncos won the turnover battle 3-0. Seattle lost as a 3-point favorite in DraftKings’ final number in ESPN’s game data, so it is now 1-3-2 against the spread; the full record is on our odds page.
Injuries, and what comes next
Arroyo hurt his shoulder on Shaheed’s fumble in the second quarter and was ruled doubtful to return, per the club; there was no further update by Friday morning. Thomas (ankle) and Chazz Surratt (calf) were inactive. Linebacker Jimmy Ciarlo and receiver Irv Charles, elevated from the practice squad, made their Seahawks debuts. Zach Charbonnet is still on the physically unable to perform list, and Jadarian Price is on injured reserve. The first practice report for the Chiefs game is Wednesday, October 21, on the injury report.
Around the division, San Francisco is 5-0, the Rams are 2-3 and Arizona is 1-4. Seattle has ten days before Kansas City, 4-0, visits Lumen Field for Sunday Night Football on October 25 at 5:20 p.m. Pacific on NBC. There was no line for that game in ESPN’s game data as of Friday morning. Macdonald on the extra days: “Oh, they’re incredibly valuable. Incredibly valuable. So the responsibility, or onus, is on us to go make it come to life.”