Tag Archives: Julian Love

#SEAvsWASH

Just one of those years: Darnold returns amid ongoing rash of QB injuries

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The Seahawks are getting their quarterback back just as the Washington Commanders have lost theirs.

That is the story heading into the Week 3 meeting between the teams Sunday in Landover, Md. It’s part of a bigger overall storyline for the NFL season that has seen five teams suffer quarterback injuries over the first two weeks. Beyond creating understandable angst for fans of those quarterbacks and their teams, it has brought out the usual complaints about the “injury epidemic” in the NFL.

One popular podcaster’s tweet was picked up everywhere this week:

News flash for Middlekauff and anyone else who thinks this is a new development: Injuries have been part of football since the founding of the sport. It’s just a dangerous game, and quarterbacks are not immune.

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#SEAvsARI

Hawks have picked up where they left off in Super Bowl

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For those wondering, yes, the Seahawks already are better than they were in 2025. That was the expectation – and that is how it is working out.

As Mike Macdonald said after his team dominated Arizona 31-7, “There’s an excitement and urgency for us to take it to the next level in all three phases.”

With a 2-0 start, the Seahawks have extended their winning streak across seasons to a franchise-record 12 games (counting postseason).

The defense is locked in as the league’s top unit again, led by Julian Love, Leonard Williams and Devon Witherspoon. They are stuffing the run like no one else, and Love has been an interception machine over the first two weeks.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba has burst out of the gates in historic fashion — a bona fide superstar who can dominate no matter who is throwing the ball, even with fewer targets than other WR1s around the NFL. Drew Lock has thrown it well in place of injured Sam Darnold, stacking up as one of the best passers in the league across two weeks. Brian Fleury has made some savvy adjustments to the offense in his first two games as the new play caller. The offensive line got a game ball after the 31-7 win over Arizona despite rotating two players at right guard.

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#NEvsSEA, Injury report

Hawks should be OK until Darnold returns

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When Sam Darnold was lost after one series vs. the Patriots in the NFL opener Thursday night, it was definitely a big bummer. But Drew Lock came in and played about like we expected: a couple of sparks and no big mistakes. With the No. 1 defense in the NFL backing him, that was enough to pull off a 13-10 win in a sloppy game by both teams.

With the news that Darnold might miss fewer than four games with his hip injury, the Seahawks look well prepared to weather the storm.

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Super Bowl LX, The roster

Back-to-back? Defense that dominated Pats will return in 2026

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In his first team meeting in 2024, Mike Macdonald predicted the Seahawks would be in the NFC Championship Game.

“It’s inevitable,” he told his first group of Seahawks, which included many of the guys who beat the Rams in the NFC title game a couple weeks ago.

Macdonald did not predict a Super Bowl win, but he and his team delivered that Sunday, beating the Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. Afterward, he said he had “100% confidence” that his team would win. That’s certainly how it felt to us (we had predicted a 31-13 win).

Macdonald brought a vision to Seattle, and – along with some great help from John Schneider — he has made it come to life by creating the best defense in the NFL. It is a unit that is poised to dominate in 2026 — and probably beyond.

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Super Bowl LX

Hawks 29, Patriots 13: Super Bowl LX highlights

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The Seahawks dominated the Patriots 29-13 in Super LX. Here are all the highlights:

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#SEAvsJAX, Injury report

Hawks still at 80%, but Macdonald should have winning plan vs. Jags

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One of these days, the Seahawks might field a full team – and we’ll see just how powerful they really are. For now, like so many teams around the league, they have to be content playing with about 80% of their top players – their battered secondary and pass rush still not full strength.

That was not quite enough against Tampa Bay last Sunday, but trust Mike Macdonald to have learned from that defensive meltdown (370 passing yards, 38 points allowed). Even if the Hawks are again without Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love, Macdonald likely will put his defense in position against Trevor Lawrence and the Jags in Jacksonville.

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Preseason

‘Our style of football’: Can Kubiak’s offense hit the ground running?

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“It was our style of football” – Sam Darnold after a 268-yard rushing game in a 33-16 win over Kansas City

When Klint Kubiak arrived in New Orleans last year, he created a surprising early-season juggernaut that probably would have continued in similar style if the Saints’ top offensive players had not started dropping like flies.

That surely is one of the things that drew Mike Macdonald to Kubiak, who is from one of the NFL’s legacy coaching trees.

The Saints scored 91 points and ran for 370 yards in the first two games of 2024. He now has brought his versatile scheme and run-first philosophy to Macdonald’s Seahawks – and the preseason returns forecast a similar explosion for Seattle out of the gate in three weeks.

Seattle’s 33-16 win over Kansas City on Friday showed the very best of Kubiak’s offense. The Hawks followed up a 170-yard rushing performance against Las Vegas with 268 yards vs. the Chiefs.

As Sam Darnold said after his Seahawks debut, “It was our style of football.”

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Week 7: At Atlanta

Have Hawks learned enough about selves to start a new streak?

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Mike Macdonald’s Seahawks finally got themselves a quality win – and they needed it big time.

With a surprising 34-14 blowout of a red-hot Falcons team that had won three straight, the Hawks avoided the dreaded four-game losing skid that might have been the death knell for any playoff hopes (just one team out of 15 in Seattle history had overcome a streak of four or more losses to make the playoffs).

And now the question is whether they can sustain it.

“It was inevitable that (adversity) would happen, so you want to see a rebound,” Julian Love said. “We’re still learning how to win as a team. … We’re still building; we’re still learning who we are as a team.”

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State of the team, X's & O's

Predictable problems and historic lack of takeaways are hobbling Hawks

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Before the season, we projected the Seahawks would win nine games. It was fewer than many optimistic fans were picking, but we saw a tough schedule and had big questions about the offensive line and run defense.

After a soft 3-0 start, the Hawks have come back to Earth against better teams and sit at 3-3 largely because their offensive line and run defense have failed them.  

They gave away the game against the Giants with mistakes in every phase, and then they followed that up by making a bunch more mistakes against the 49ers in a game they could have won if they had played it more cleanly.

“Right now, we’re just coming up short,” Mike Macdonald said. “We’re just not doing the things that good football teams do to win football games.”

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Coaches, State of the team

Players: Macdonald and ‘right coaches’ bring ‘urgency’

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Amid the hullabaloo by some overly nostalgic fans about Mike Macdonald’s rearranging of the VMAC, his players seem to get it. They know Pete Carroll’s missing hoop and the temporarily blank walls are a metaphor for a clean slate, a new beginning.

They also know the expectations are much higher now and being delivered in a more defined, exacting way than Carroll and his staff were doing over the last few years.

It’s all as it should be, and the smart ones – players and fans – understand that. The players who don’t won’t be around very long. And that’s as it should be, too.

The core leaders of this defense – Leonard Williams, Uchenna Nwosu and Julian Love – sound bought in.

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