The Seahawks head to Atlanta for the second straight season, looking for yet another road victory having won 12 of 14 road games under head Mike Macdonald over the past two seasons.

When the Seahawks went to Atlanta last October, they had lost three in a row and were looking to get back on track, and they did so with an emphatic 34-14 win. This year, the Seahawks are in a much different situation heading to Atlanta, sporting a 9-3 record that has them keeping company with the NFC's other top teams. The Falcons, meanwhile, are looking for a spark having lost six of their last seven, including four one-score losses in that stretch.

"They're going to say the same thing about our team; they saw us, and we've evolved, changed some things, tweaked some things, and different guys on the roster," Macdonald said when asked about similarities between last year's Falcons and this year's team. "They're playing a little bit differently on offense. When we played them last year, they were almost exclusively 11. Now they've played dang near their whole game in 13, they've played a lot of 12, so we've got to be ready for all those personnel groups, which is a little bit different. A little bit more under center since (Kirk Cousins) took over. They were pretty heavy pistol last year. So, some tweaks on how they're operating since he took over for (Michael) Penix."

Here are three things to watch when the Seahawks return to Mercedes-Benz Stadium this weekend:

1. How does the Seahawks offense handle a second straight blitz-happy defense?

A week ago, the Seahawks faced the most blitz-happy defense in the NFL, and while the Seahawks rolled to a 26-0 victory, the Vikings did give Seattle some trouble with its pass rush, particularly on third down. Quarterback Sam Darnold, who had been sacked a league-low 11 times heading into Week 13, was sacked a season-high four times in the first half alone, with one of those sacks resulting in a Darnold fumble that was Seattle's only turnover on offense.

The Seahawks cleaned up some of their protection issues in the second half, and will hope to build on that moving forward as they face another aggressive defense.

The Falcons, who rank third in the NFL in sacks with 41, blitz on 41.6 percent of drop backs, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, the second highest rate in the league behind Minnesota, and they rank seventh in pressure rate (37.9 percent).

"They are a really good blitzing team, just rush and coverage all working together," Darnold said of the Falcons pass rush. "But again, like Minnesota, and any team that pressures well and gets to the quarterback, they're really smart, they're tied together in the back end and with the pressures. Again, we've got to do a really good job during the week of preparing for everything and go from there.

"Overall communication is the biggest thing. Making sure we're all on the same page, especially in a loud environment being on the road, we've just got to continue to improve that and go on from there."

2. Can one of the league's best run defenses contain one of the league's best running backs?

Of the many ways the Seahawks have changed since last year's meeting between these two teams, one of the most significant has been the way they have improved defending the run. During a tough stretch that included five losses in six weeks, the Seahawks had a stretch in which they allowed 155 or more rushing yards to four straight opponents, including the Falcons.

This year, the Seahawks have had one of the stingiest run defenses in the league all season long, holding opponents to just 3.8 yards per carry, which ranks third in the league, and 88.8 rushing yards per game, which ranks second.

The Seahawks have also gone 21 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, the longest active streak in the league. Keeping that impressive streak going against Falcons running back Bijan Robinson will not be easy, however.

In last year's game, Robinson, one of the league's most elusive backs, had 103 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries, as well as three catches for 40 yards. Buffalo's James Cook had 111 yards and two touchdowns the next week, and the Seahawks have not allowed a 100-yard rusher since.

After a Pro-Bowl 2024 season in which he rushed for 1,456 yards, Robinson has been even better this year, rushing for 995 yards and five touchdowns through 12 games while adding 594 receiving yards and two scores, putting him on pace to eclipse 2,000 scrimmage yards.

"I think they've actually activated him more in the pass game than we saw last year, which is an added challenge," Macdonald said. "Sometimes it's designed for him, sometimes it's just in a checkdown game, screen game. He kind of comes alive in every aspect of the game, which is something we have to account for, but he's a really talented player. He's got great hands, he can track the ball, he's got great vision, he's got great acceleration, he leads the league in missed tackles, which probably paints a pretty good picture for you. He's a really, really good player."

3. Does the league's top receiver go back to putting up big numbers after a rare quiet game?

Jaxon Smith-Njigba came into last week's game having recorded at least 75 yards in every game, including eight 100-yard games. But with the Vikings putting a lot of effort and manpower into containing Smith-Njgiba, and with the pass rush causing Darnold to have to get rid of the ball quickly, the NFL's leading receiver was held to just 23 yards on two catches. It also didn't help that, playing with a lead and against an opponent that wasn't threatening to do much on offense to get back in the game, the Seahawks only threw 11 passes in the second half.

Smith-Njigba wasn't bothered by his quiet game even if it caused him to fall back from his record pace this season, because his team still rolled to a convincing victory.

"I'm definitely happy with our guys," Smith-Njigba said. "I'm proud of our guys, we went out there and won 26-0. We're entering championship football and at this time, it's about winning. I'm happy with the win. I know there's things to get better on, as I say every week. So, just attacking that and making sure we win that's like I said, all that matters."

But while Smith-Njigba isn't going to pout about a lack of production, there's no question that the Seahawks offense is better when the ball is finding him, especially on the downfield explosive plays that have been such a huge part of the Seahawks' offensive success this season.

Even without any big plays last week, Smith-Njigba leads the NFL in yards on down-field (10 or more air yards) receiving yards by a large margin, piling up 961 yards on such throws, 324 more than the next-closest player.

Getting back on track with the big plays won't be an easy task against a talented Falcons defense, particularly when Smith-Njigba is lined up across from Falcons cornerback A.J. Terrell, who is allowing a league-low 0.5 yards per coverage snap this season, per NFL Next Gen Stats.