Seahawks Special Teams Provided, 'Huge Switch Up' In Second Half Of Sunday's Win

Seattle’s special teams unit came up with an important turnover in the second half of Sunday’s 31-27 win.

Jan 25, 2026 at 10:56 PM

Ari Horton

Seahawks.com Writer

"He's going to drop another and be ready for it."

That's what punter Michael Dickson told Dareke Young after Los Angeles Rams returner Xavier Smith muffed a punt in the second quarter of Sunday's win. On that play, the Rams returner dropped the ball as Young was running past him and had Young stayed in front of the returner, he may have had a chance to recover the ball.

"These are the type of games that every play matters and who knows what could have happened if I recovered the first one," Young said after the game.

He added, "I was supposed to be in front of him. I was just running down there too fast, he was coming towards me, so I had pealed out to the side, and I told myself that I needed to be patient up the rest of the game because he kind of felt uncomfortable back there catching the ball. So I knew if he did it again, I was gonna get it."

And Smith did in fact muff a second punt during the game that Young recovered.

"That was a huge momentum swing," Rashid Shaheed said. "For us to recover the ball in that moment of the game was a huge switch up that we needed and Dareke, he works super hard so I'm proud of him and all the work he's put in."

Both Young and Dickson said they knew they had a good chance to recover a muffed punt because of how Smith was fielding the punts.

"He wasn't catching it as clean as he did in the past," Young said. "Mike Dickson he was doing a good job and giving him punts that were hard to read, and he kept peeking to see where the gunner is, where we were running down. And so whenever he would peek at us, he would lose the ball while it was in the air. So it was perfect."

Dickson said, "The first one that he muffed, he was kind of shimmying around under the ball as it came down and the next one he fair caught it pretty early and then the one after that that's when he muffed it and Dareke scooped it."

Having the opportunity to even recover muffed punts is a credit to Dickson who was named a Pro Bowler this year after averaging 49 yards per punt with 20 punts downed inside the 20.

"Whenever he's punting the ball, he always gives us an opportunity to run down there and make a play," Young said. "Whether it's forcing the fair catch, or, you know, giving us time to get down there, so if he do catch the ball and try to return it, we're down there to make a play."

That play came at an especially important time as Seattle came out of the half with possession of the ball and after a failed third down conversion, was forced to punt.

Head coach Mike Macdonald said, "I mean we needed to flip field position and put the guy on his heels and force him to make a great catch and unfortunately for him, he dropped it."

After Young's muff recovery, the Seahawks were able to score a touchdown on the very first play of their drive on a 17-yard Jake Bobo reception.

"I think pride is the ultimate thing when you look at special teams," linebacker Patrick O'Connell said. "You're going one man for another, and it's winning your one-on-one battles, taking pride in everything that you're doing. It's so special to be a part of a group like that."