The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20-3 on Sunday Night Football to hand the defending champions their first defeat of the season. The Seahawks’ defence shut down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ attack at Lumen Field in Seattle.
The win took Seattle to 4-3 for the season and ended a two-game losing streak. Kansas City fell to 5-1, losing for the first time after five straight wins to start the campaign.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught nine passes for 150 yards and a touchdown for the Seahawks. Sam Darnold threw for 257 yards and a score, and Emanuel Wilson ran for 100 yards and a touchdown.
The Chiefs managed only 213 yards of total offence, with just 50 yards on the ground. It was one of the quietest nights of Mahomes’ career, and the Seahawks’ defence set the tone from the start.
Seattle defence dominates
The first quarter ended scoreless, but Seattle took control in the second quarter with ten points. The Seahawks added a field goal in the third quarter and a late touchdown in the fourth to seal the win.
Smith-Njigba was the star of the night. His nine catches for 150 yards included a touchdown, and he kept moving the chains whenever Seattle needed a big play. Darnold trusted him in the key moments, and the connection worked all night.
Wilson also had a big game on the ground, with 24 carries for 100 yards. His 21-yard touchdown run with 3 minutes and 47 seconds left in the game made the score 20-3 and ended any hope of a Kansas City comeback.
The Seahawks were strong on third down too, converting 11 of 15 attempts. That kept their drives alive and kept Mahomes off the field for long stretches of the game.
Seattle’s defence, known as the Dark Side, leaned on its pass rush and tight coverage. The unit destroyed the natural rhythm of the Chiefs’ offence, and Kansas City never found a way to settle into the game.
Mahomes kept quiet
Mahomes struggled all night, throwing for 165 yards with an interception. He was sacked and hurried often, and the Seahawks’ secondary gave his receivers little room to work.
Kenneth Walker III, the former Seahawk who joined the Chiefs in the off-season, was held to 36 yards on 14 carries. Walker had come into the game averaging a league-leading 133 yards per game, but his old team shut him down.
Walker was the Super Bowl most valuable player for the Seahawks last season before signing with the Chiefs. His return to Seattle was one of the big stories of the night, but the home crowd had the last word.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid took responsibility for the defeat after the game. “Listen, all three phases we struggled, so we’ve got to do better, and that’s my responsibility,” Reid said. “So I take full responsibility for this. We’ve got to play better as a team.”
The loss will test the Chiefs’ response. They have been the team to beat in the league in recent years, and a defeat like this, in prime time, will raise questions about whether the offence needs a new spark.
Kelce reaches milestone
The one bright spot for Kansas City was a milestone for Travis Kelce. The tight end had four receptions in the game to reach 1,104 for his career.
That moved him past Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter into fifth place in NFL history for career receptions. It was a rare moment of cheer on a night when little else went right for the Chiefs.
Kelce has been one of the most reliable pass catchers in the league for more than a decade. The milestone underlines his place among the greats of the game, even in a game his team lost heavily.
For Seattle, the win gets the season back on track after two straight defeats. The Seahawks are now 4-3 and back in the race in the NFC West, with a defence that looks capable of troubling any team in the league.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, will look to bounce back next week. A single defeat does not change their season, but the manner of it, a 20-3 loss in which the offence never got going, will give Reid and his coaches plenty to work on.
