By the time Seahawks punter Michael Dickson had to do his primary job on Sunday—he had previously been on the field as the holder on extra points and field goals—it was already the fourth quarter and the Seahawks had pulled several offensive starters, including quarterback Sam Darnold.

The Seahawks scored on their first seven possessions, helping pave the way for a 44-13 win over New Orleans while also helping show just how far Seattle's new-look offense has come since a Week 1 loss to the 49ers.

"We love Mike, but we want to limit his reps as much as we can," receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said with a grin.

The Seahawks have won two straight games by double-digit margins for several reasons, including a suffocating defense that ranks second in the NFL in points allowed, as well as a special teams unit that has scored two touchdowns and set up multiple other scores with big plays in the last two weeks. But another big factor in Seattle's recent success has been the growth shown by an offense that underwent a pretty significant overhaul this offseason.

With Klint Kubiak taking over as offensive coordinator, and with Darnold, receiver Cooper Kupp and several other newcomers taking over prominent roles, there was always going to be something of a learning curve as the season went along, but the rapid improvement from Week 1 to where the Seahawks are now, heading into a Week 4 game in Arizona, is one of the most encouraging early trends of the season for Seattle.

In their season-opening loss to the 49ers, the Seahawks had some bright spots on offense, but struggled to move the ball consistently, resulting in a 13-point output that saw the Seahawks gain 14 first downs and 230 total yards while averaging 4.6 yards per play. A week later, the Seahawks scored 31 points, albeit with a special teams score adding to that total, and had 21 first downs, 395 yards and a 6.2 yards-per-play average. Then last weekend, the Seahawks hung 44 points on the Saints, totaling 320 yards, 22 first downs and a 5.9 yards-per-play average, numbers that could have all been bigger had the Seahawks not been playing with a huge lead after racing to a 21-0 lead.

And of course, quarterback play is always a huge factor in an offense's success, and Darnold has been very good early in his first season with the Seahawks, particularly in these past two wins. After a solid, if unspectacular opener, Darnold has completed 36 of 51 attempts in the past two games for 513 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. Last week, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, Darnold threw downfield (10-plus air yards) on 44.4 percent of his pass attempts, completing 6 of 8 attempts for 146 yards and a touchdown, giving him a passer rating of 156.3 on those downfield throws, his best passer rating on such throws in his career. Next Gen Stats also had Darnold with a 77.8 percent drop-back success rate, the highest of his career,

"He's being efficient, decisive, accurate, tough, extending plays when he needs to, being aggressive when he needs to, taking care of the ball when he needs to, so let's keep it rolling," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.

For Darnold, one of the big factors in the offense's growth has just been the reps that he and his teammates are getting together as they learn each other and the nuances of Kubiak's offense.

"It's just continuing to know each other, to learn each other in the system, watch the tape, and be able to learn from Sunday," Darnold said. "What do we do on Monday to get better from it and continue that process with each other. I think that's the biggest thing and communicating. The more that we communicate with each other, the more that we talk to the coaches about what we're seeing on the field, and how we can just clean things up as a group. It's only going to continue to help us in the future and we're going to continue to do that."

Kupp offered similar insights, noting the difference more reps are making for an offense that was starting from scratch when players arrived in spring.

"I think a big part of it is just execution," Kupp said. "As players, being able to grasp the concepts, and get more and more reps at it against different looks. Being able to have answers, to adapt and move, to understand things aren't the picture that we thought we were going to get, to have an answer for it as players and to make it come alive. There's still so much that we can do better. Even this last game, whatever the scoreboard says, and whatever it does. Play by play, there's a lot to improve on, that we can do better, and that's left on the table. We've taken that approach, and we should continue to get better as we go through the year. Stack these reps against different looks and it should just be something that we just continue to get better and better."

If there is an area of concern as the offense has put up big numbers in the past two weeks, it would be a run game that, while productive at times, has not been able to produce as consistently as the team would like. The Seahawks rushed for 117 yards and averaged 4.0 yards per carry against Pittsburgh, with Kenneth Walker III putting up big second-half numbers but against the Saints the Seahawks managed just 87 yards on 33 carries, a 2.6 yards-per-carry average, though again, playing from ahead and resting starters late contributed to that.

"There's room for improvement just like many facets of our offense," Kubiak said. "We can coach better there, we can play better there and it's something that our guys are putting a big emphasis on.

"We've just got to be more detailed, and it starts with me."

But even if the overall production hasn't been where the Seahawks would like it to, they have used the run game to set up successful play-action passes, and have been able to get the tough, physical yards in short yardage situations and the red zone, including two Walker touchdowns on Sunday, the type of plays that help set the tone for the offense. Another such tone-setting play came on a short pass last week, with tight end Eric Saubert catching a short pass and, with the help of nearly the entire team, pushing forward for 12 yards to the 1-yard line to set up a Walker touchdown. It was a play that drew praise from Macdonald, and one that got the entire team fired up because of the effort it showed from everyone on the field.

"That was awesome," Kupp said. "We've talked about that, about wanting to be even better at that and more of those plays where we're around the ball. We're 11 guys, get to the ball, be on the screen. That's fun too. It just shows guys playing for each other. At the end of the day, what are you doing when you don't have the ball? Are you showing a willingness to be able to go and block and keep guys off the ball carrier? We all love seeing that."

Said Saubert, "Obviously, that was an awesome play in the game. That's a gritty play, and that's what we're striving to be—a gritty team that plays for each other. That kind of play encompasses that."

And for all the offense has been able to accomplish the past two weeks, players and coaches know it's far from being a finished product.

"We're striving for consistency and execution," Smith-Njigba said "We want to score every single drive. It's football, it might not happen like that, but just taking that next step towards becoming a great offense and proving that every week. The next thing I want to see is just us having an even better game this upcoming Thursday night."