For most of Sunday's 26-0 win over the Minnesota Vikings, the Seahawks were putting points on the board but struggled to find the endzone on offense. After an interception by Ernest Jones IV, his second of the day, set the Seahawks up at the Minnesota 32, Seattle found themselves well within scoring range. On this drive, Seattle, up 19-0 in the fourth quarter, opted to run the ball. The Seahawks ran the ball on the first three plays of the drive; all carries by Zach Charbonnet. He rushed for eight yards on the first carry, one yard on the following play and no gain on the third play. This left the Seahawks in a fourth-and-one situation, and they were all but ready to kick a field goal for three, sending out their field goal unit. This decision was met with booing from the crowd inside Lumen Field. Head coach Mike Macdonald subsequently called a timeout and after the timeout, Seattle sent its offense back on the field, which converted on fourth down with a two-yard pass to AJ Barner. The Seahawks ran the ball two more times, one of them being a 17-yard touchdown run by Charbonnet.
On the decision to put the offense back on the field, Macdonald said, "I was being too much of a nerd by just saying, make it a three-touchdown game rather than a three-score game. To Klint's credit, he was confident in what we were going to be in, so we decided to call timeout and go for it."
He added, "I did hear the fans, yeah. Turns out they were right."
Charbonnet had 14 carries for 52 yards, which was 18 more rushing yards than expected for the back. He also ran better on the outside, with 32 of his yards, including the touchdown run coming from runs outside the tackles, according to Next Gen Stats.
