A GRIP ON SPORTS • Can we agree on a few things after Sunday’s mediocre, at best, Seahawk performance? No one associated with the 30-23 Seattle win performed admirably. And that includes the football teams, the officials, the CBS broadcast crew and, probably, the guy charging $75 for a parking space 17 blocks from Lumen Field.
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• And yet, the outcome will mean just as much come January as any other of the 16 games on Seattle’s schedule.
In five short words, a win is a win.
Even when you want to upchuck on almost every play, something almost everyone on the Lumen Field turf did, figuratively, at one point or another.
The Seahawks? Sure, from the first offensive play to the last. The Chargers? Even more so, hence the seven-point loss in a season filled with nothing but them. The officials? The worst of the bunch, with 30 accepted penalties, many of them in the “what-the-bleep-was-that” variety. Heck, the CBS broadcast featured enough mistakes that the analyst calling the person sitting next to him by the wrong name seemed to fit right in.
You know that Web meme “hang it in the Louvre?” This game just deserved to be hung. With rope. And speaking of memes, it brought to mind one from antiquity. Let’s play “how bad was it?”
It was so bad … Justin Herbert opened the game throwing a pass to a wide-open Drake Thomas. Too bad he plays for the Seahawks. It wasn’t Herbert’s last interception (or lost fumble) either, though the fact he was sacked four times and hit another six – not including two plays that resulted in misbegotten flags – contributed to his issues. Then again, he was on point from the final possession of the third quarter on, a stretch that accounted for 142 of his 189 passing yards.
It was so bad … Sam Darnold’s first pass was also intercepted, meaning an NFL game started with back-to-back interceptions for the first time, well, ever. At least as far back as the league’s record-keeping goes. Darnold’s performance was so mediocre – 13-of-22 for 168 yards – Jaxon Smith-Njigba didn’t have 100 receiving yards. Though CBS did show him open, and ignored, for long gains more than once. The NFL’s best wideout finished with five catches for 76 yards.
It was so bad … Herbert was L.A.’s second-leading rusher, Emanuel Wilson led Seattle – averaging just 3.9 per carry – and Ernest Jones’ 20-yard interception return was longer than all but three Hawk offensive plays.
It was so bad … the Seahawks set a franchise record with 14 penalties. And yet were penalized two times fewer than L.A.
All of that and there is only one team lamenting the game today. That’s not the Hawks, who moved to 3-1, won their ninth consecutive game at Lumen Field and host the undefeated 49ers on Sunday afternoon. With the NFC West lead in the balance.
Wait, we made a mistake in the paragraph above. There is one more team lamenting yesterday’s contest. Those of us who gave up much of a perfectly fine Sunday afternoon to watch.
• Nothing, not even in the NFL’s rarefied space, happens in a vacuum. Ever.
The flurry of yellow that rained up the Lumen turf? Just part of an NFL trend.
According to statistics from @nflrefstats1 on X, cited in this Sports Illustrated story, through the first 14 games Sunday the league’s officials have thrown, on average, 17 flags per game for 130 penalty yards. That’s a record. On Sunday, before the late game, the totals were 238 accepted penalties for 1,830 yards. All of which makes the Hawk win an outlier to some degree.
In other ways too. No head coach was cited for dropping an F-bomb toward an official (as was the case with Mike Vrabel in New England’s win). And no official was caught on camera doing the same toward a player (as line judge Jeff Seeman was with Arizona tight end Trey McBride in the Cardinals’ loss). Then again, Jacksonville coach Liam Coen was shocked by the 24 penalties assessed in his team’s 22-17 win over the Bengals. He should have been in Seattle.
With the NFL looking into Seeman’s profanity and referee Adrian Hill yelling at a Vikings’ player, expect some sort of reaction in the upcoming week. That’s the way the league works.
The upshot? We are expecting a week with way-too-few flags. And a key game – in Seattle perhaps? – decided by an obvious penalty that is ignored.
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WSU: Speaking of officiating, let’s check in with the local Pac-12 school. Just kidding. No one has ever had a problem with the conference’s officiating, right? Anyhow, there are bigger problems in Pullman. Especially with the offense. Greg Woods addresses the issues once more in his day-after look at Saturday’s loss. Though Greg does point out some things the Cougs (1-4, 0-1) did well. … Up next for Washington State? A Friday night game in Logan, Utah (6, The CW). Against quite possibly the league’s worst team, Utah State (1-4, 0-1). We should find out if that’s true this week. … Jon Wilner thinks the Aggies belong in the bottom spot of the conference’s rankings, which are on the Mercury News site today. … The Cougars fell in The Athletic’s ranking of all 138 FBS schools. … John Canzano has a lot of thoughts about Wazzu in his Sunday column. … Here are the rest of the Pac-12 games Saturday, listed chronologically:
– Oregon State (3-2, 1-0) at San Diego State (2-3, 1-0), (3 p.m., USA Network): The Beavers and their potent offense are a two-touchdown favorite over the host Aztecs. … San Diego State had to rally to win against Texas State. But there were reasons. … There were also a bunch of reasons why OSU defeated Colorado State by 30 points.
– No. 23 Boise State (4-1, 1-0) at Fresno State (4-1, 1-0), (7:30, The CW): The Broncos won by 19 points Saturday. That wasn’t enough to keep them from dropping a spot in the A.P. poll.
– Texas State (2-3, 0-1) and Colorado State (2-3, 0-1) have byes.
• Elsewhere in the West and the nation, the new polls are out. … Is it too early to speculate who may be in the CFP? If you have the Mountain West leaders as your Group of Six participant, maybe. … Mike Vorel’s column about Washington’s performance Saturday night against USC is on the S-R’s website this morning. … Christian Caple has his next-day thoughts on the loss as well. … Oregon didn’t play. That is often a good thing with the polls. The Ducks will host UCLA as a big favorite. … The USC defense hit a bit harder Saturday. … Colorado seems to do something odd each week. … Arizona State did and was blown out by Baylor. The Sun Devils are struggling more than anytime in Kenny Dillingham’s short tenure. … A 34-7 win, which is what Arizona posted over Cincinnati over the weekend, can be classified as big, right? … In basketball news, recruiting never stops. Not for the Oregon women. … UCLA will be without a key player for the season.
EWU: We watched a lot of RedZone yesterday – thanks for the help Kent – which allowed us to witness Efton Chism III’s spectacular touchdown catch in nearly real-time. Not only was the one-handed grab impressive, it also was key in New England’s road win at Buffalo. And leads off Colton Clark’s weekly look at local NFL players’ performances. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, thanks to the Montana State loss at previously winless Idaho on Friday night, the FCS polls featured a new team at the top. And a huge drop for the defending champion Bobcats. … Weber State has a penchant for playing close games, including over the weekend against Cal Poly. … Northern Arizona played three consecutive road games. Won the final one.
Chiefs: Three road games in three days? No problem for the 2026 edition of the Spokane Chiefs. They traveled up I-5 from Portland to Everett after their Saturday win and defeated the Silvertips 3-1 on Sunday.
Seahawks: What do we have to pass along? Well, Bob Condotta’s game story for one, though we linked it above too. … There are three takeaways. And grades. And a Jacob Thorpe column on how the Hawks will have to play better next week to earn a fourth win. … That seems to be a theme among stories about the game from outside the area. Though the ones from Los Angeles are about the Chargers and their woes. … Joe Mixon seems to want to get back to running the football in the NFL. Could the Hawks be a fit?
Mariners: The Brewers walked off the Padres and need just one more win to move on. … The other home team Sunday? The Dodgers couldn’t solve the puzzle of the Braves’ bullpen game and fell 3-1…. Enjoy the postseason. It may be the last baseball to watch for a while.
Kraken: Seattle, with Berkly Catton scoring a goal, rolled over the Flames in their home opener. … All-time NHL leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin will play this season in Washington. But then he will retire.
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• How many of us turn on an NFL game to watch the third team on the field throw flag after flag? Really, Paul? Ya, that’s tracks. The rest of us would rather not, right? Until later …
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• Photos: The Spokesman-Review, Getty Images, Tribune News Service