LANDOVER, Md.—After Sunday night's win, rookies Nick Emmanwori and Tory Horton jogged off the field at Northwest Stadium saying, "rookie takeover." Seattle's rookies did indeed have themselves a game, with Horton recording four receptions for 48 yards and two touchdowns and his fellow pass catcher, Elijah Arroyo hauling in two passes for 29 yards and his first-career touchdown.

"Us coming in as rookies, that's just something that we always talked about is making an impact," Horton said following the game.

Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had another career day finishing the night with eight receptions for 129 yards, said, "We preach next man up, you know, step up. Make a play when your number is called, and Tory did that, and that's what we expect from him. You know, he's a big-time player, and he's going to make the most of his opportunity, so that's great to see him take another step forward this season. We're going to need him, you know, we're going to need him throughout the whole season, so I'm excited. He had a great game today."

Seattle was without veteran receiver Cooper Kupp on Sunday as he did not play because of a hamstring injury.

"Coop is (Cooper Kupp) down for the day, Tory steps up," head coach Mike Macdonald said. "Cody White stepping up, first touchdown. Elijah (Arroyo) stepping up in that situation. Just awesome with the guys. That's why we train the way we do. It's why we practice. It's why we take all those reps, so those young guys can develop and grow."

Horton said the rookies have talked about making plays and being able to contribute to the team in a meaningful way. "It didn't have to be a huge impact," he said. "But just making some kind of impact. I feel like that's something that we kind of harped on a lot as rookies, make sure we don't let those vets down, that's the last thing we want to do. Seeing Elijah get that touchdown… we have a whole bunch of rookies, Ricky (White III) getting called up and being ready to play, it means a lot to us rookies. Make sure we don't disappoint our vets because we know how much they put into this game and we want to make sure we play our role and play our part and contribute to the team. We say it's the rookie's game; that's just us talking making sure we contribute to the team."

Arroyo also made an impact on Sunday, scoring his first NFL touchdown,

"It was awesome," tight end AJ Barner said. "He's been working super hard. Super talented kid and many more to come for E-dog. (Elijah Arroyo)."

Quarterback Sam Darnold said the contributions of Horton, Arroyo and even rookie Ricky White III who was called up from the practice squad made a difference.

"It's huge. It's huge for our team. We say it all the time, but to actually see it happen, Coach Mike says it all the time, it takes all 70 every single week. It takes all 70 to go out here and execute on Sundays. You saw it come to life. Cody White, Ricky White, all these guys on the practice squad have been putting on really good tape out there. It's not by mistake. They're going up against a great defense every single week and they proved, especially Cody, Tory."

Darnold added, "All those guys, they proved why they're here in the NFL."