The Seahawks are back on the road this weekend for a Week 12 matchup against the Tennessee Titans. For the Seahawks (7-3), this is an opportunity to bounce back from a tough loss, while the Titans (1-9) are looking to stop a five-game losing streak in what has been a challenging season.

Struggling opponent or not, the Seahawks know that in this league, they need to be on top of their preparation to get the result they want on Sunday.

"Our process is going to stay the same," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "One of the things we learned last week is every game is the same. It's all 11 on 11, and it's about how well we play our style of ball. We have to focus right now on getting as good as we can every day and keep getting better. Then when we play games on Sunday, we can go play the best football that we can play. Defensively, it does throw a little bit of a wrench in the works on who's the play caller and all that kind of stuff, you've got to watch all the plays, how you attribute things to certain things. Anytime there's a change at play caller it does throw a little bit of a wrinkle in there."

Here are five things to watch when the Seahawks face the Titans at Nissan Stadium this weekend:

1. Can Seattle's offense fix its turnover problem?

The Seahawks turned the ball over eight times in their first six games, not an ideal number, but not an overly alarming one either. They even played turnover-free football in a win at Jacksonville, which at the time led the NFL in takeaways. Since that Week 6 victory over the Jaguars, however, the Seahawks have committed 12 turnovers in their past four games, including four in last week's loss to the Rams, bringing their season total up to a league-high 20.

The Seahawks, who rank third in scoring offense and sixth in total offense, have been good enough to overcome those turnovers in a lot of games, but turnovers have also proven costly in all three losses, something the Seahawks know needs to change.

"It's unacceptable," quarterback Sam Darnold said. "We understand as an offense, we have to be better. I have to be better at protecting the football and we're doing everything that we can in practice for when the game comes to try to take care of the football a little bit better."

Seattle's turnovers have come in different ways in different games, so there isn't one single fix that needs to happen, but that trend needs to change, nonetheless, because as Kubiak put it, those turnovers are "things you can't do and win. Our defense has been playing great, and a game like the last one, where you have four turnovers, normally not that close, but our guys did a great job of fighting back all the way to the end and gave us a chance to win. I also think when the bad stuff happens things can go one of two ways, and I thought our guys really responded well, so I was very pleased with that."

And on a related note…

2. How does Sam Darnold bounce back from a tough outing?

Despite last week's rough, four-interception outing, Darnold has been outstanding for the Seahawks this season, and is a big reason why the Seahawks are 7-3. Even after a subpar outing, Darnold leads the NFL in yards per attempt (9.3) and per completion (13.3) and his 105.0 passer rating ranks seventh in the league, and would be the best of his career if maintains or exceeds that number for the season.

Teammates and coaches have praised Darnold's consistency and levelheadedness throughout his first season with the Seahawks, and Sunday's game will give him a great chance to show that one bad outing isn't going to linger beyond what took place at SoFi Stadium last weekend. And based off what Darnold has demonstrated in practice throughout the week, coaches and teammates have no doubt that he's ready to put that loss behind him and get back to being one of the league's most efficient and explosive quarterbacks.

"I think that's why he's had such a really good season, because he's the same guy every day," Kubiak said. "Whether it's having success or it's not going as good, he's always the same. He's really impressive on the sideline and ready to move on. That's why he is who he is, and that's how most great quarterbacks are, they just stay the same."

3. Do Kenneth Walker III and the running game build off recent success?

It's been an interesting season for the Seahawks when it comes to the running game. From the start of offseason workouts in spring, coaches and players made no secret of the fact that they want to run the ball, and they've been true to their word, leading the NFL in rushing attempts per game (30.7). But while the attempts are there—and playing with big leads in several games has certainly inflated that number—the consistency has not been, as is evident in their 3.8 yards per-carry-average, which ranks 29th in the league.

The last couple of games, however, have brought progress for Seattle's run game, with the Seahawks rushing for a season-high 198 yards against Arizona and another 135 yards last week. Leading the way has been Kenneth Walker III, who has rushed for 134 yards and a touchdown on 30 carries in those two games, while adding another 47 receiving yards on four catches, a level of play that led Macdonald to say this week that Walker, who has split playing time and carries pretty evenly this season with Zach Charbonnet, is earning more opportunities.

"I feel we're improving," offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak said of the run game. "I've seen massive improvements. I've seen detail improve. We're never going to be where we want to be, but I do think that it's becoming a part of our offense that continues to get better."

4. Can the Seahawks' interior line keep Titans standout D-lineman Jeffery Simmons from being a game-wrecker?

Not a lot has gone well for the Titans this season, but one exception has been the play of defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, a three-time Pro-Bowler who presents big challenges for opposing offenses.

Simmons, a Pro-Bowl selection in three of the past four seasons, is off to a great start midway through the 2025 season with 5.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss and 12 quarterback hits in eight games, putting him on for the best numbers of his seven-year career.

The Seahawks will be without at least one starter on their interior line, with center Jalen Sundell on injured reserve. Additionally, rookie guard Grey Zabel's status unclear because of a knee injury that knocked him out of last week's game. The Seahawks have a lot of confidence in Olu Oluwatimi, who took over for Sundell at center, and in Christian Hayes, who finished the game at left guard in place of Zabel last week, but they also know it'll be a tough test for those two, and anyone else up front, when Simmons lines up across from them.

"Jeffery's a great player," Macdonald said. "You don't see a lot of A-gap players that can play inside and out. Shoot he can rush outside too and play all three downs. We have some guys that are like that too—Murph (Byron Murphy II), Leo (Leonard Williams), J. Reed (Jarran Reed)—but he's one of the best. He plays hard, plays physical, and they do a good job of moving him around and matching him up. So he's a guy that we're going to have to account for."

5. Does the cornerback rotation continue moving forward?

For the most part, NFL teams like the idea of continuity at cornerback, with the same two players staying on the field throughout games, while a third or fourth cornerback might see significant time in nickel and dime packages.

With the Seahawks getting healthier in the secondary, however, the Seahawks found themselves facing an enviable predicament: they feel like they have three starting cornerbacks for two spots in Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen and Josh Jobe. Before this year, that trio would all see the field a lot in nickel packages, but with standout rookie safety Nick Emanwori thriving in the nickel spot, that means less time for a cornerback when the Seahawks are in nickel, which has become their primary defensive alignment. The solution last week was to mix and match throughout the game with Jobe and Woolen both playing a lot. Jobe got the start, but Woolen ended up playing slightly more snaps, 35 to Jobe's 31. In the end, all three of those cornerbacks, as well as safeties Coby Bryant, Ty Okada and Emmanwori all played more than 60 percent of the defensive snaps, so there are ways to keep a lot of players involved. The question now is whether or not the Seahawks will continue that rotation moving forward, or if Jobe or Woolen will earn an every-down job.

"I think the challenge is honesty," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said of their cornerback rotation. "You have people, and I've said it a couple of weeks to you guys, but I don't see it any different than the guys that play on the front. It's competition, and I thought Riq has put games together; he deserves to be on the field. You have to fight. When players are pushing you to put them on the field, it puts Mike (Macdonald), the coaches and I in a great spot to say, 'OK, how do they get on the field?' And we find ways."