Seattle Seahawks bounce back, trailing 17-14 against the Minnesota Vikings

After a defensive stop, Smith responded with a perfect 5-on-5 for 71 yards and a long scoring drive for Seattle, which put an exclamation mark on the possession by throwing a dime to DK Metcalf for which cornerback Stephon Gilmore covered him tight a 25-yard touchdown.

After trading punts, Darnold pulled off another long touchdown drive, this time aided by a critical penalty on cornerback Tre Brown. The Seahawks appeared to make a third down stop deep in their own territory, but the defender was arrested for lining up in the neutral zone to block a sack by Derick Hall.

On the next snap, with a do-over on third down, Darnold made a perfect throw to Justin Jefferson while Brown was covering him, hitting the fourth-year corner for a 14-yard touchdown to put Minnesota back in the lead.

To quickly tie the score, Smith rolled out to his right on a play-action pass and inexplicably threw an ugly pick to a falling Dallas Turner, giving the rookie his first career interception. Luckily for the Seahawks, the defense managed to limit the Vikings to just one field goal off turnovers and keep the game within 10 points.

To end the half, Smith demonstrated his short-term memory by forgetting his earlier interception and leading Seattle 88 yards in just five plays, including 20-plus yard passes to DK Metcalf and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. After a defensive holding penalty put them in the red zone with 24 seconds to play, the quarterback in front of Smith-Njigba delivered a perfect pass on a slot-wheel route and scored an 18-yard touchdown to bring the deficit to three reduce half.

Smith finished the half 13 of 17 for 169 yards and two touchdowns, while Darnold had a strong first half, completing 14 of 21 passes for 128 yards and two touchdowns. Jefferson and Metcalf both surpassed 50 yards rushing to pace their respective teams, while Jarran Reed and Boye Mafe produced the only sacks of the half, while the Seahawks managed to get to Darnold a couple of times.

Building momentum with Smith’s second touchdown just before halftime, Seattle will get the opening kickoff in the second half to take the lead and keep pace with the Los Angeles Rams, who beat the New York Jets earlier in the day to improve to 9 have -6.

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