Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald offered the best summary of Seattle’s offense after its 17-14 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos on Thursday night. The Seattle Seahawks have a problem up front. It showed up again against Denver, and it is starting to look like a trend.

Quarterback Sam Darnold did not have a good game. Nobody is arguing that. But when Macdonald was asked about the offense, he went straight to the root of the issue.

“The quarterback’s getting hit way too much,” Macdonald said.

He’s exactly right.

Sam Darnold’s turnovers only tell part of the story

Darnold threw two rough interceptions. The one in overtime, a deep shot intended for WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, sealed the deal. Denver got the football back, kicked the field goal, and won the game.

Darnold’s turnovers have been a problem, and he has to play better. Make no mistake about that. He’s thrown seven interceptions while only playing in essentially four games. Still, every offense goes as its offensive line goes, and the Seahawks’ line is not doing nearly a good enough job. Pass protection is where it has been at its worst.

The run game is part of the equation too. Without Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price, Seattle’s ground attack is not as much of a threat. It hasn’t put up the kind of numbers it would with those two on the field, and defenses know it.

Regardless, the pass protection has to hold up. Against the Broncos, it didn’t come close.

The numbers on Seattle’s offensive line are ugly

Darnold got sacked five times against Denver. The Broncos also piled up 17 quarterback hits on the Seahawks. Yes, Darnold got hit that many times in just one football game.

It’s completely unreasonable for anyone can expect Seattle to have a great outing offensively when its quarterback is getting hit that much. Macdonald said it himself, and the tape backs him up.

From left to right, Charles Cross, Grey Zabel, Jalen Sundell, Christian Haynes, and Abraham Lucas all came up short for Seattle up front. Darnold was running for his life for most of the night. And it’s not like they got a great push in the run game as well. Seattle’s backfield was having to fight for most of their yards. 

Coming into the game, the Seahawks had given up 11 sacks through their first five outings. That honestly isn’t a horrible number on its own. Now they sit at 16 sacks allowed. Once Sunday’s games are played, those totals will even out across the league and Seattle’s number won’t look quite as bad.

Look, we know the sack total doesn’t capture the whole picture. Darnold has been under pressure far more often than that number suggests. The pass protection has been worse than the stat sheet shows.

10 sacks in 5 days is a trend, not a fluke

What makes this worse is the timing. The Thursday night loss came right after Seattle’s game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Darnold was sacked five times in that one as well and took nine total hits.

That’s 10 sacks allowed by the Seahawks’ offensive line in about five days of football, the Broncos being the latest to capitalize. One rough game can be written off. Two in a row starts to look like who this group is. That group has to play better. Macdonald knows it. The linemen know it. Darnold knows it, and yes, he has to clean up his own mistakes too.

Seattle can’t just sit around and wait for Charbonnet and Price to return before this offense gets into form. The offensive line has to get going before those two are back on the field.