Seahawks-chargers, Words Of Prey: Nfl Completes Decades-long Transition To Flag Football

In the last 120 minutes of their young season, we’ve seen the worst the 2026 Seattle Seahawks have to offer. The three turnovers in Washington that sank an offensive renaissance. Then, early defensive domination was undone by untimely mistakes and lack of discipline back at home. Sloppiness in all three phases on critical downs gifted points to opponents in close games, repeatedly.

In their last 120 minutes, more things went wrong than a fan can count, even a Sea-soned Hawks fan, and still Seattle earned a split. Depending on your point of view, that’s either a reason to rejoice or to worry. Ah, who am I kidding — been doing a bit of both myself and I’ll guess you have too. It’s reassuring to be able to win even playing under your talent level. These aren’t the Dolphins or Cardinals, who have basically room for error if they want to post the W.

Speaking of inferior teams, whooping the winless Los Angeles Chargers 30-13 as the fourth quarter begins is usually the recipe for a final quarter of self-congratulations, toasts in the crowd, and everyone in Seahawks Nation looking ahead to a Week 5 clash with the 49ers. Instead, one near-meltdown later, on the heels of stubbing your toe the week prior, the whole enterprise suddenly feels shaky. Seattle converted exactly one third down on the ground, did not sustain drives after building a three-score lead, and did not defend well enough to slam the door well before the final minute, but at least they did that. Uchenna Nwosu provided the capper on a big revenge game (those are real):

LA was in position to win because of Justin Herbert’s excellent second half, implausible toughness, and a veritable plague of personal fouls — seven in total for Seattle. One early soft call on Brady Russell stomped on a drive before it had a chance to bloom. Connor O’Toole drew one for a borderline helmet-to-helmet when the punt returner unwisely declined to make a fair catch. Nick Emmanwori’s inexplicable headbutt with five seconds before half left stopped the clock and put the Chargers in comfortable field goal range. Devon Witherspoon tackled a dude four steps out of bounds, Emmanwori grabbed a facemask in the open field, DeMarcus Lawrence hit Herbert low and Derick Hall hit him late on the same drive. And that’s not counting the offsetting personal fouls somewhere in that first quarter, well before the game descended into a parody of itself.

The 150 yards in penalties were a new franchise record. (More than any Raiders game back in the AFC West days, even.)

Fortunately, the Chargers arrived with an entire case of beers, and at the contest’s most critical moments, they’d casually pull one out and ask the Seahawks to hold it. When Los Angeles was perfectly poised to conduct a proper game-winning drive with all three timeouts, Justin Eboigbe landed on Sam Darnold after his slide, freshening the downs for Seattle and forcing longtime Seahawks sufferer Jim Harbaugh to burn them after all.

There’s a sequence in the third quarter that captures the essence of this flagfest better than any. Do note the expressions on Jason Myers’ and Michael Dickson’s faces — “What are we even doing, guys.” You probably saw these at your watch party, in your row at the stadium, or on your own face at some point Sunday afternoon.

You can watch the video, but just in case you don’t: Greg Zabel isn’t on the field until the play clock hits 10, so he hurries to his assignment. The kick is snapped at zeroes, Myers pushes it right, giving LA excellent field position EXCEPT NO, there’s a late leverage call against the defense, first down Seattle instead. (The drive would end soon thereafter in three points, which seemed superfluous at the time but ended up pretty dang important.)

Anyway. It’s fun to complain about a win, sure beats the alternative. Thirty penalties and countless bullet wounds in everybody’s feet later, the Seahawks had emerged with their third victory of the year. Truly, ‘bout the only surprise is their victory formation went off without a flag. The recap will omit most of the fouls, if possible.

Before we get there! It would be criminal to not mention Emanuel Wilson’s big day. Not by choice entirely, Mike Macdonald and Brian Fleury traded their explosive but risky running attack for a more reliable, albeit boring dose of Wilson and George Holani. It frickin’ worked. (I will never stop quoting Pete Carroll no matter how many Super Bowls [four] Macdonald wins here.)

Wilson rewarded his coaches, teammates and himself with a tough, tough 21-81-1 line and that first-quarter touchdown reception that sent the Chargers chasing the hosts for the rest of the afternoon. Factor in 51 more yards from Rashid Shaheed and Holani and you have the makings of a respectable running game. Which you’ll need.

Q1: Seahawks 7, Chargers 3

Predator: The officiating crew

Prey: Anyone watching

How: We didn’t know it yet, but maybe we should’ve. Like when the officials found offsetting personal fouls that instant replay couldn’t locate. That should’ve alerted viewers. Then, Russell was dinged 15 for this “offense”:

Later, O’Toole’s personal came for leading with the helmet but you can see him pull up. Maybe it’s a flag but that exact hit is performed on every drive and Derius Davis never put his hand up.

I don’t know what a crew can do when a team like the Seahawks repeatedly toes the line with over-aggressiveness some might call dirty. But it was hard to watch the parade of yellow.

Action: In the most mulligan-y of starts conceivable, Herbert and Darnold traded interceptions on successive plays. What to say about that, except you’d like to win the turnover battle from there on out, and the Seahawks did. The Chargers offense settled in first though, with two rapid-fire first downs, one semi-explosive pass play and one questionable offsides against Nwosu to creep into field goal range. An eight-play, 30-yard drive off the pick resulted in three points.

And when Seattle’s real opening possession ended in an awkward intentional grounding, the hangover from that Commander got real rear view mirror-like: objects are closer than they appear.

No matter, O’Toole reached into his special toolebox and pulled out a timely fumble recovery.

The game was barely five minutes old, and each possession was a whiplash. Add Weeks 3 and 4 together and a fan could be forgiven for believing they were watching the 2010s Chaoshawks again. (Recite the Kevin Clark tweet from memory, if you know what I mean.) Yet the pattern of this particular meeting had already manifested: the Chargers were happy to beat themselves, the Seahawks happy to oblige.

Off the giveaway, it took exactly one play for Wilson to tilt the field. Little screen to the right, and with ball in hand he turned and went north-south with more determination than a Blackpoll warbler (safe to Google it, go ahead). Seattle ended up six points richer.

The next seven possessions ended in punts. Emmanwori and Lawrence helped kill drives with tackles for loss, and as the second quarter took off, so did the Seahawks pass rush.

Q2: Seahawks 20, Chargers 6

Predator: Byron Murphy

Prey: Interior linemen, assuming they existed at all

How: Living in the backfield. In the first clip, the literal first snap of the quarter, Murphy lines up three tech but sideswipes the left guard at his opposite shoulder, switching to the A gap. The lineman is helpless and Murph gets home with acceleration. Much like we used to see that one Los Angeles Ram do — you know, the guy who played, then didn’t play, then decided to come back and play, except half the time he still doesn’t.

Next drive, same penetration, more friends join Murphy, it’s a whole party back there.

If you watch to the end you’ll see Murphy turned around between the lineman and Herbert. Basically blocking. So considerate of him.

Action: That Murphy sack forced a punt, which would’ve given Seattle great field position if they hadn’t been flagged for hands to the face. No matter, there were still two punts to get through, and the Seahawks did not waste every opportunity, because they’re a great team even when they’re cosplaying as a mediocre one.

So, six minutes into the second period, an inauspicious Darnold sack and Holani dumpoff seemingly presaged more Michael Dickson. Not so fast. Chat, is it good when even the announcers know your best play? Who cares? I will not matter if that best play is “Jaxon Smith-Njigba reception.”

Three more rushes moved the sticks again, which means play action’s surely next, no that’s a pitch to Shaheed, who follows his blocks, weaves a couple weaves, now the DBs are eating dust, and that quickly Seattle flings six more on the scoreboard. It would remain six only, because Jason Myers’ nice streak of 69 straight made extra points ended. Still, the Seahawks had made it a three-score game in almost no time, a trademark of their Super Bowl-winning ways, and would surely coast to victory. Spoiler: they could’ve coasted a lot more efficiently.

Matching punts took us inside four minutes and to the usual WHEEMAMA, or Weekly HE’s Ernest Moment of Appreciation, Man Alive.

I swear they’re drinking Invisibility Juice at the V-Mac. Or maybe new owner Vinod Khosla has put some proprietary wearable tech on the uniforms that makes them stealthier. Sounds crazy, but never say never.

Wilson punched it in two plays later, making it 14 Seattle points off turnovers, 14 more than the Chargers would earn. Weird how that specific kind of scoring keeps matter week after week, season after season, generation after generation.

So the Chargers, with all of three points and 92 total yards to their name, embarked on a quest to cut the lead before half, and the quest should’ve been quixotic except the Seahawks cleared all the windmills for them. First, Herbert scrambled for 26 yards up the middle on third down and into Seahawks territory. Then, with the clock running under ten seconds, Emmanwori chose that moment to head-butt an opponent, setting up the 39-yarder that closed the gap.

The Seahawks made plenty of stupid mistakes and went into intermission having been flagged nine times. They were fortunate to be out-stupided by a team even more unserious. That’s not likely to happen again and also explains these post-game expressions, which you might again recognize from personal experience. Don’t worry coach, we all watched the same game. We know.

Q3: Seahawks 30, Chargers 13

Predator: Emanuel Wilson

Prey: Bud Dupree

How: Oh, you thought he just scored touchdowns? Then how do you explain this?

Action: The eight-play, 68-yard touchdown drive that the Seahawks assembled out of halftime felt like, in real time, the turning point of this season. You’d scraped by in Week 1 seriously undermanned, rolled to victory in Week 2, received a wake-up call in Week 3, and now you were right again. Everything you wanted to see, made itself visible, in a pleasing chronological order:

• 31 yard return from Shaheed
• Immediate strike to JSN for 20
• First-down run plus defensive holding and you’re at the Chargers 39 almost right away
• Wilson again powering forward to earn three yards instead of none
• Darnold reminding everyone how underrated his mobility is with an eight-yard dash to the sideline
• Cooper Kupp’s first catch to move the sticks again
• Shaheed gaining five on the play above
• Wilson setting up third and short with four more;
• All culminating in confirmation that Tory Horton exists and deserves targets with an easy slant when everyone was expecting run. 27-6.

The drive was exquisite, and good thing, because Seattle would run 16 more offensive plays for a grand total of 37 yards thereafter.

Just as everything looked in order, that’s when things got weird. Last year, as the Dark Side and M.O.B. Ties defense chokeholded opponents to the final whistle, there would seemingly always be that one inexplicable drive where the opposing offense got every break they could collect, all in a row. The kind of that a Madden player might describe as computer f-ckery, where the machine decides it’s gonna score or stop you no matter what. You want to rage-quit, I’ve been there; bit harder to turn the console off in real life though.

The Chargers’ first TD was that drive. A three-yard loss became a first down via penalty on Witherspoon. Emmanwori’s third down stop became another first because of the facemask. Tre Harris got loose for 26 yards, the game’s longest play to that point. The LA offense went backwards again, and surely they wouldn’t escape 3rd and 13, but they did get nine on a nifty swing pass to Oronde Gadsden.

Harbaugh decides the FG does him no good, and there’s only four yards to go besides. Spoon breaks up the pass intended for Gadsden over the middle, the ball bounces straight up instead of the down or to the side, directly into the juggling hands of the young tight end, who falls on his back at the marker. First and goal, takes them two plays to punch it in.

It was a touchdown straight out of the Improbability Drive but it also isn’t rocket science: give teams additional chances on additional drives and they will score extra points. Those are NFL players on the other sideline too. Give them twelve bites at the apple at your own risk.

The Chargers ran a total of 28 offensive plays on their first nine drives combined, then 35 on their next three. Make all the jokes you want about Mike McDaniel’s capris, but he’s getting paid to run an offense and he can do it.

Seattle’s answer looked to be feeble when Myers missed from 53 yards, only to have that infamous leverage penalty give the hosts a second chance. After a whole afternoon of the Chargers’ best play being “run around and wait for the Seahawks to give you 15 yards whether you deserve it or not,” turnabout felt like fair play. The drive soon stalled when Darnold threw into double coverage on third down and JSN couldn’t quite reel it in. All said and done, Myers knocked one through for three redemption points that make it a three possession game again.

The quarter ended with Los Angeles on the move again.

Q4: Seahawks 30, Chargers 20

Predator: Justin Herbert

Prey: Humans not built out of titanium

How: The thing about prey is in the wild, you gotta kill it or it’s not even prey at all, right? Who’s the predator, if the prey survives every attack? Here are two plays Herbert uncorked after being pummeled by Lawrence low and Hall roughing him. On the same drive, even.

Statistically, you’d say the Chargers quarterback figured out how to prey on the Seahawks defense. After all,

Herbert, before half: 5-14-36-0-2.

Herbert, after half: 14-18-153-1-0.

For one possession, Herbert was the apex predator. Clever, evasive, versatile, bigger and tougher. Plus, unkillable. He got hit four times on the touchdown drive that spanned quarters. Trey Lance put on the armband but never got a chance to come in. He survived two roughing calls, a legit sack, a collision with Drake Thomas, and put his head down for three yards inside the five on a designed QB run.

Of course, Nwosu’s last-minute clincher and Hall’s timely surehandedness rendered Herbert’s heroics moot in terms of result. They still happened.

Action: LA did paydirt for the second time in as many drives, the lead did shrink to ten, but the 8:31 they expended probably suited Macdonald just fine. All Seattle needed was to burn a little clock of their own (check, 3:47 before punting), not give up a touchdown (check, it was a field goal after a defensive breakdown I’ll mention later), possess the ball past the two minute warning (check, with help), and bring the house until time expired. Check on that too.

It wasn’t a very satisfying way to get back in the win column. Does that matter? Not in the standings. Through four games, you’d like to have seen more than mere glimpses of the disciplined special teams, controlled violence on defense, and explosive offense on both ground and air that got the Hawks all the way last season. All we’ve had are glimpses and it’ll take more than that to approach last year’s success. Which was a Super Bowl title. The Seahawks are defending champs. Of the NFL. Right now, even. And 3-1. Without having played their best ball, even. Just, could we have a bit more, please?

Morning Preyers

Let’s not overdo this.

Nick Emmawori’s sack that set the Chargers back 15 yards in the fourth quarter was a thing of beauty. His tackle where he caught a half-second too much facemask was too. He’s healthy and one of the few guys in the league who deserves to be called a force multiplier.

Seattle’s pass rush is so good even without E-Man. But he’s almost impossible to contain because he’ll play positionaless football. How can you know where he’ll line up next? Mike Macdonald, man.

Loved to see (late in the fourth) Drake Thomas blow up a screen in the backfield, an effort that could’ve been pivotal had the Chargers not converted fourth and seven to midfield on the very next snap. I give Thomas 0.9 KJ’s on the play for his trouble.

Speaking of that, it’s still mystifying to me that Quentin Johnston didn’t have two men draped all over him downfield, and that Rodney Thomas arrived late. Johnston was fair game to bump around, Herbert was way out of the pocket. Too many things in this victory smelled like the good old bad old Seahawks, who took years off everyone’s lives while seemingly enjoying it.

This game was partially won by the defense with their relentless harassment of Herbert, but it would’ve been way smoother with some relenting on that harassment when he was in the pocket. Lawrence was stumbling toward Herbert but he still went low. Hall didn’t need to try and knock Herbert out of the game for good with a pretty late hit. Those are plays other fans will describe as dirty, and I won’t argue.

Safe to say that one doesn’t go in the rewatch vault.

The Commanders and Chargers are 1-7 combined. The lone win came against Seattle. It was good to prevail against the Cardinals and Patriots, but they aren’t anything special. It only gets tougher from here, and the Seahawks didn’t look like a team ready to beat another complete team. Which they haven’t. The first contender to grace their schedule does so in Week 5.

Seattle reaped the reward for fielding a reliable but boring rushing attack over its explosive but risky sibling; will it be enough against the 49ers, who lead the division and the NFL in DVOA? (Because heaven forbid that the Rams’ slow start should make the NFC West any more manageable.)