Seahawks Defense Sets Tone Early In Week 9 Win At Washington

The Seahawks defense put together another strong performance to help the Seahawks to a road win over the commanders.

Nov 03, 2025 at 01:10 AM

John Boyle

Seahawks.com Senior Reporter

LANDOVER, Md.—Before Sam Darnold and the Seahawks offense could go about carving up the Commanders defense on Sunday, Seattle's defense had to take care of business to start the game, putting the ball in Darnold's hand.

And the defense was definitely ready to do its part, especially when the Commanders won the opening toss and decided to take the ball rather than the more common choice of deferring to the second half.

In other words, the Commanders wanted the Seahawks defense on the field to start the game, and the Seahawks defense took that personally.

"I take that personal every time," said defensive end Leonard Williams. "In general, our defense wants to take the field first, just to set the tone. We respect our offense, obviously we think they're amazing, but at the same time, we want to be the ones on the field, we want to be the closer, we want to be the ones that set the tone. So we want to take the field first every time. So when an offense chooses to take the ball, we're like, 'All right, let's give it to them.'"

The Commanders managed one first down on their opening drive, but the Seahawks put quarterback Jayden Daniels under pressure early, setting the tone early before forcing a punt.

After the offense drove 90 yards for a touchdown, The next Commanders' ensuing possession ended on a Ty Okada interception, a spectacular leaping grab at the sideline that was made possible by a Devon Witherspoon blitz that forced a bad throw. Another touchdown followed that turnover, then the Seahawks got a takeaway on special teams, and the offense took advantage again. A three-and-out followed for Washington, and the Seahawks found the end zone for a fourth time to make it 28-0 while Washington had just three first downs through two-plus quarters.

The early stops and subsequent touchdowns, with a big special teams play mixed in, made this game, and the first half in particular, feel like the best overall performance the Seahawks have had in a while.

"This is something we've been talking about; we feel like we haven't played a complete game yet," Williams said. "There's been times when the offense is flashing, there's been times when defense and special teams are flashing. This is one of those of games where we truly played complementary football. We made plays on all three levels, offense was doing their thing, defense was getting stops when we needed to, and then we got big plays on special teams. We showed ourselves we can do it, and we've got to keep doing that."

The Commanders did find the end zone twice, but not until the Seahawks had built a 28-0 lead, and they became the sixth Seahawks opponent out of eight this season to be held to fewer than 300 yard and 20 or fewer points. The Seahawks also had four sacks and seven quarterback hits in what was yet another standout performance for the defensive front. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Seahawks pressured Daniels on 17 of 34 dropbacks, the highest rate of his career. Under pressure, Daniels finished 4-for-8 for 59 yards and an interception, taking four sacks. He was forced to scramble on 38.2 percent of his dropbacks, another career high

"I think we're playing great," Williams said when asked to assess the defense's play. "And it's complementary football. When the offense is able to take almost the whole first quarter to go down there and score, we have a fresh defense to go back out there. If we're able to keep playing complementary football, all sides can eat."