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Rapid Reactions: Seahawks Fall Short In Shootout With Buccaneers

The Seahawks Had A Big Day On Offense With Sam Darnold Leading The Way, But Couldn’t Slow The Buccaneers Offense In A 38-35 Loss

Oct 05, 2025 at 04:18 PM

John Boyle

Seahawks.com Senior Reporter

After a slow start, the Seahawks offense caught fire late in the first half, with Sam Darnold leading five straight touchdown drives. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, Tampa Bay's offense was equally hot, and after a late Seahawks turnover, the Bucs were able to escape with a 38-35 win on a walk-off field goal.

Here are six rapid reactions to Sunday's loss:

A short-handed Seahawks defense was unable to stop Baker Mayfield and company.

While the Seahawks and Buccaneers came into the game with two of the league's top defenses, both teams were short-handed, with the Seahawks missing two of their top defensive backs, Julian Love and Devon Witherspoon, as well as outside linebacker DeMarcus Lawrence. Things got worse for the Seahawks when outside linebacker Derick Hall exited early in the game with an oblique injury, followed by cornerback Riq Woolen suffering a concussion.

Facing one of the league's top quarterbacks while so short-handed, the Seahawks gave up a season-high 38 points and 426 yards. The Buccaneers were particularly dangerous on third down, covering 7 of 11 attempts, including a 20-yard touchdown on third-and-15, and 57-yard completion on third-and-13 that set up another touchdown.

Sam Darnold was outstanding, but a bad-luck interception proved to be the difference maker.

In a showdown between a pair of 2018 first-round picks and one-time Panthers teammates, both Sam Darnold and Mayfield were outstanding leading their respective offenses.

After Seattle's offense struggled to get out of its own way early, seeing its first three drives end either due to penalties, or in one case, a fumble, Darnold led a touchdown drive to end the first half, and he and the offense were nearly unstoppable from that point on.

Needing every point possible with the Bucs matching Seattle score for score, Darnold led the Seahawks offense on five consecutive touchdown drives, beginning with that drive at the end of the first half, including an eight-play, 99-yard drive in the fourth quarter to give the Seahawks a 35-28 lead. Of Darnold's many great plays in the game one of his best was the capper to that drive, with the Seahawks going for it on fourth-and-2. Under pressure, Darnold had to scramble to his left, and after buying time, he found a wide-open Tory Horton for a 21-yard touchdown, Darnold's fourth of the game.

Unfortunately for Darnold and the Seahawks, their final drive ended on a bad-luck interception when, with the game tied 35-35, a pass attempt hit off a Buccaneers lineman's helmet, allowing Lavonte David to make the interception that set up the winning field goal.

Despite that interception, Darnold still posted a 135.4 passer rating while completing 28 of 34 attempts for 341 yards and four touchdowns.

Mayfield, meanwhile, was 29 for 33 for 379 yards and two scores.

Seattle's offense got in its own way early on.

As mentioned above, the Seahawks scored touchdowns on five straight possessions beginning with their last drive of the first half, but they could have been in better position before that had they been able to stay out of their own way. Seattle's first three drives all saw the offense move the ball well, but penalties, as well as a missed field goal, caused them to come up empty on three of them, and a fumble, with Jalen Milroe in at QB trying to pitch the ball to Kenneth Walker III, ended another.

Both Ohio State receivers were outstanding.

Both teams came into the game with young receivers from Ohio State leading their teams in receiving, and both Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Emeka Egbuka lived up to their first-round billing in a big way.

Smith-Njgiba, who now has over 100 yards in three of five games, caught eight passes for 132 yards and a touchdown, while the rookie Egbuka, who is from Steilacoom, Washington, had seven catches for 163 yards and a score.

AJ Barner, touchdown machine.

AJ Barner wasn't a particularly prolific pass catcher during his college career at Michigan, and while he didn't light up the stat sheet as a rookie, one thing that did jump out was his four touchdowns on 30 total receptions.

And in his second season, Barner is proving to be an even more dangerous player in the red zone. In what was a big second half for Sam Darnold and Seattle's offense, Barner had a pair of touchdown receptions, giving him four in five games.

Barner is now up to eight career touchdowns on only 44 receptions.

Dareke Young had one of the best games of his career.

Throughout training camp, receiver Dareke Young showed big-play ability as a pass-catcher, but his NFL career for the most part has been built as a special teams standout. And he was good in that area once again, making one crunching tackle on kick coverage while also having 43 and 50 yards to give the offense short field it turned into touchdowns.

But in addition to those big moments on special teams, Young also got to show off his pass catching ability, going over a defensive back to haul in a 36-yard sideline grab, helping set up another touchdown.