Brady HendersonOct 16, 2026, 02:39 AM ET
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- Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation and covers the Seattle Seahawks for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2017 after covering the team for Seattle Sports 710-AM.
DENVER -- Sam Darnold was in position to pull off a comeback win Thursday night, having rallied the Seattle Seahawks from a 14-3 deficit in the fourth quarter after 45 minutes of offensive ineptitude.
Then he threw an interception.
And another one.
Darnold's picks late in regulation and in overtime doomed the Seahawks in a 17-14 loss to the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. It spoiled a brilliant performance from Seattle's defense and dropped the reigning Super Bowl champions to 3-3, putting them 2.5 games behind the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West standings.
"No way to sugarcoat it," Darnold said. "That one sucked. Can't turn the ball over. That's obviously at the forefront of my mind, but there's just a lot that we can do better."
While Darnold was hardly the only one responsible for one of Seattle's more agonizing offensive performances in recent memory, he has thrown seven interceptions in four games since returning from a glute injury in Week 3. He has just as many touchdown passes in that span, and he entered Week 6 ranked 29th in Total QBR (34.4).
"I just think it's B.S for me to keep turning the ball over," he told reporters. "It's not fair to our defense, it's not fair to out special teams group, not fair really to the entire team. So I've got to be better that way."
Darnold made that point to the team in the locker room.
"We have to take care of the ball," coach Mike Macdonald said. "Sam knows that. He told the team that. We've got to take care of the ball."
It's the biggest of several issues that plagued Seattle's offense again Thursday night. The Seahawks managed just 91 yards at halftime with one turnover coming on a fumble by wide receiver Rashid Shaheed.
Darnold was sacked five times for the second game in a row, and he took 17 official QB hits. Some of the pressure was the result of breakdowns in pass protection, including free rushers on back-to-back sacks that ended a promising opening drive, while others were a function of Darnold holding onto the ball.
"Our quarterback got hit too much today," Macdonald said. "We've got to do a better job protecting him and we've got to be more decisive with the football. We don't want to take those hits, but they rushed and covered well."
Darnold told offensive coordinator Brian Fleury after Seattle's loss to the 49ers on Sunday that he needed to play more decisively. He felt he did that in the first half against Denver (4-2).
"Dropping back and taking what they give me, I felt like I did a pretty good job of that in the first half," he said. "And then late in the second half, those two plays, just can't have it."
After orchestrating an 11-play, 67-yard drive that resulted in a 1-yard rushing touchdown by George Holani, Darnold hit Shaheed for a 2-point conversion that cut Denver's lead to 14-11 with under six minutes left in regulation.
On the ensuing drive, he was intercepted while trying to hit Tory Horton on third-and-1.
"The first one, I feel like I had [Cooper Kupp] in the flat, thought his man might have been driving it," Darnold said. "Just wanted to progress and felt like I had some good options, especially in their man coverage on that play specifically, and just got a little bit of pressure and it forced me to make an errant throw, and the guy made a good play as well."
After Jason Myers' 34-yard field goal sent the game to overtime, Darnold was intercepted on a third-and-7 throw to Shaheed. He said he got "greedy" again bypassing an open Kupp.
"I feel like that play specifically I should have just gotten it down to Coop," he said. "Cooper ran a really good route right under the sticks and I feel like he would have caught it and got the first down. Just got to continue to go through my progressions and trust it."
After allowing touchdown drives of 74 and 79 yards in the second quarter, Macdonald's defense forced punts on the Broncos' remaining seven possessions of regulation, not counting one at the end of each half that were one play apiece. Five of those drives were three-and-outs.
"Really proud of our guys, really just the resolve," Macdonald said. "I think they executed at a really high level for what we were asking them to do today against a really good offense. ... They did a great job. They played together and our coaches did a great job of finding some solutions there after those two drives. It was a great second half by those guys."
Darnold made the Pro Bowl in 2025 despite leading all players with 20 turnovers during the regular season. That was before he played turnover-free in the playoffs while dealing with a painful oblique injury.
As a team, Seattle has turned the ball over 12 times in six games. That includes 10 turnovers in their three losses, which came by a combined eight points. Their opponents turned those 10 takeaways into 44 points, including the winning field goal Thursday night after Darnold's second interception.
Defensive tackle Leonard Williams said Darnold "took ownership on everything today" while breaking down the huddle in the locker room postgame.
"I feel like we all trust him and he trusts himself," Williams said, "and I feel like he'll get out of it."
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