The Seattle Seahawks had their 12-game win streak snapped yesterday, falling 33-31 to the Washington Commanders in Landover, Maryland. The loss stings on its own, but a stat from Sumer Sports makes it sting even more.

The Seattle Seahawks had an 86th percentile offensive success rate and an 89th percentile defensive success rate in their Week 3 loss. This marked the only game a team has lost when clearing the 85th percentile success rate on both sides of the ball since 2022.

A game the Seahawks gave away

Look, at the end of the day, you don’t need advanced metrics to tell you that the Seahawks should have won that game. They played well enough on both sides of the ball to beat the Commanders, and they gave it away. That’s what makes this so frustrating. This is a defending champion team. Seattle should know how to close out games like this by now.

Sam Darnold came back, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had another big day as he’s been having all season long, and it wasn’t enough. The Seahawks had every ingredient they needed to move to 3-0, and they let it slip.

Against an 0-2 Washington Commanders team who had to rely on their backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, I might add. 

The Darnold turnover problem rears its head

The easiest way to explain how Seattle lost a game it dominated is one play: Sam Darnold’s fourth-quarter pick-six thrown to Commanders linebacker Kain Medrano. That interception handed Washington seven points and put the Seahawks in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

It was an unfortunate play, but it wasn’t exactly a shocking one. Darnold struggled with turnovers during the Seahawks’ Super Bowl campaign a year ago. He finished third in the NFL with 14 interceptions in 2025, trailing only Geno Smith and Tua Tagovailoa. That is not a good mark for a quarterback on a championship-caliber roster. Darnold has been a good quarterback for Seattle, but he has been turnover-prone with this team since Day 1.

I think you have to give him the benefit of the doubt here. This was Darnold’s first real game of 2026. He only played one drive in the season opener against the New England Patriots before yesterday’s full workload against Washington. Rust is a fair explanation. But fair or not, the result is the same.

What’s ahead for Seattle

Instead of sitting at 3-0, the Seahawks fall to 2-1 and currently sit second in the NFC West behind the San Francisco 49ers. Seattle and San Francisco play each other in a couple of weeks, and that game just got a lot more significant.

The Seahawks are going to be just fine, despite losing to the Commanders. They have the talent, they have the coaching, and they proved against Washington that they can dominate a game on both sides of the ball. But historically dominant performances don’t matter if you hand your opponent free points in the fourth quarter.

If Darnold can clean up the turnovers as he settles back in, Seattle is still one of the most dangerous teams in the NFC. If he can’t, games like yesterday’s loss to the Commanders are going to keep happening.