GLENDALE, Ariz.
The next most unlikely hero of this increasingly unlikely Seahawks season?
Zach Charbonnet, come on down!
Kenneth Walker was out. The Seahawks hadn’t run the ball consistently since what felt like when Marshawn Lynch used to play for them.
Without their lead back or an offensive line that had been pushing anyone back lately — remember five plays from the 1 and no score against the Jets last week? — this seemed prime time for a Geno Smith aerial show against the NFL’s 18th-ranked pass defense in Arizona.
Then Charbonnet happened. Like he never had before for Seattle.
The second-string, second-year running back was second to no one Sunday in the desert. Charbonnet galloped, shifted and plowed for a career-high and Seahawks season-high 134 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns. That and game-turning interceptions in the first half by Ernest Jones IV and Coby Bryant that Seattle converted into touchdowns sent the suddenly soaring, first-place Seahawks to their fourth consecutive victory, 30-18 over the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
The Seahawks rushed for a season-best 176 yards, without their lead back. Charbonnet had the biggest rushing day for Seattle runner since 2022, when Walker romped for 167 in a win at the Los Angeles Chargers.
Everyone was blocking for Charbonnet. On his 20-yard catch and run on a screen pass in the first half, wide receiver DK Metcalf flattened Arizona safety Budda Baker to clear Charbonnet’s path into the red zone.
Smith used more check-down passes than he’d done in a game all season in completing 24 of 30 passes for 233 yards with a touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, off Jones’ interception of Kyler Murray in the first half.
That was plenty for the Seahawks (8-5) to win their fourth consecutive game to stay atop the NFC West. They put Arizona three games behind Seattle in the division with four games left in the season.
Down 27-18, the Cardinals drove inside the Seahawks 30-yard line midway through the fourth quarter. Then kicker Chad Ryland pulled his 40-yard field-goal try wide left. Seahawks defenders jumped up and down on the field to celebrate turning away Arizona without points, and many in the home crowd packed up and left.
On an ensuring third and 2, Smith threw to Metcalf on a quick out route. Metcalf made a defender miss after the catch for an 11-yard gain, and the Seahawks were at midfield.
Smith to Smith-Njigba (five receptions, 82 yards) for a 12-yard completion moved Seattle into scoring territory, and forced the last of Arizona’s time outs spent on defense with 5 1/2 minutes left. Jason Myers kicked a 35-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining for the Seahawks’ final points.
How they ran
The Seahawks used gap-blocking schemes, with left tackle Charles Cross and others pulling across formations and creating wide running lanes inside to plow for 121 yards rushing. In the first half.
Charbonnet had 87 yards rushing in the half, plus another 42 receiving — 20 of them on a screen pass.
That first-half total was Seattle’s third-highest total on the ground for an entire game this season. The offense had 146 yards rushing week one against Denver and 133 in week three at Detroit.
Rookie right guard Sataoa Laumea continued his strong NFL debut. The sixth-round draft choice from Utah made his second consecutive and second career start with Anthony Bradford on injured reserve.
Laumea may remain at right guard. For a while.
He had the key block that sprung Charbonnet on the running back’s 51-yard dash through the middle of Arizona’s defense for a touchdown late in the second quarter. That bolt of a run put the Seahawks up 24-10.
The effective running meant even 45-yard Seahawks drives took up 5 1/2 minutes. That’s what happened in the third quarter, and it resulted in Seattle not only expiring the middle portion of the third quarter but also getting a 36-yard field goal from Myers. That gave the Seahawks a three-score lead, 27-10.
It was almost 31-10. Smith’s pass on third down into the end zone went off Tyler Lockett’s hands while Arizona’s Max Melton closely covered the veteran wide receiver.
Lockett did not have a catch in the game, the first time that’s happened since 2019.
Coby Bryant’s surge
Coby Bryant had no apparent place on the Seahawks’ defense in training camp. He kept impressing coach Mike Macdonald and the new staff with his perfection in practices. He began getting time as a sixth, dime defensive back early in the season. When Rayshawn Jenkins got hurt in October, Bryant became the starting safety.
At that time he had zero interceptions his first two NFL seasons. He now has three in his seven games he’s been a starter.
Sunday, he was all over a deep route outside by Arizona’s Zay Jones. Murray threw it that way anyway, while under pressure from Seahawks outside linebacker Derick Hall. Bryant intercepted the ball, easily.
That drive starting at the Arizona 46 resulted in the first of Charbonnet’s two rushing touchdowns in the first half, of 1 yard. It put the Seahawks up 17-7 late in the first quarter.
Two weeks earlier, Bryant’s interception and return for a touchdown sealed Seattle’s 16-6 win over the Cardinals at Lumen Field.
So, yes, Bryant is going to remain the starting safety over Jenkins, now healthy again, for a while.
Ernest Jones’ bid for a new deal
It may behoove Seahawks general manager John Schneider to hammer out a new contract for Ernest Jones IV on the team’s flight home.
The new middle linebacker Schneider traded with Tennessee for in late October has been revolutionary for Seattle’s defense. He’s been strong and sure-tackling against the run. In the first quarter against the Cardinals Sunday, he dropped deep into zone coverage and intercepted Murray’s pass over the middle. Jones’ 12-yard return of his fourth interception of his four-year career gave the Seahawks possession at the Arizona 19-yard line.
On the next play, Smith threw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba perfectly over his and a defender’s shoulder on an outside flag route to the back corner of the end zone. Smith-Njigba celebrated his fifth touchdown of the season and fourth in five games by high-fiving a fan wearing a DK Metcalf throwback Seahawks jersey in the first row behind the end zone.
Seattle had its first lead, 10-7.
Those two interceptions were two of the worst passes directly to defenders Murray has thrown in his 10 career games against the Seahawks.
Those touchdowns off the interceptions were the first two this season on drives that began in an opponent’s territory. Seattle had not scored a TD in its first such plus-territory drives this season.
Michael Dickson returns
Michael Dickson punted 52 yards on his first time on the field, 6 minutes into the second quarter. He walked along the sideline with no limp after his punt. He missed the last 1 1/2 quarters of Seattle’s win at the New York Jets and parts of practices this past week because of back spasms.
Dickson had a punt of 61 yards into the end zone in the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, he boomed one 58 yards. That and Dareke Young’s fine open-field tackle on the return forced Arizona into a drive start at its own 15.
Uchenna Nwosu’s back
Uchenna Nwosu played for the first time since Oct. 6 against the New York Giants, the game he tore his quadriceps after just 20 plays. Those were the $54 million outside linebacker’s only plays of the season until he entered for the fourth defensive play Sunday.
Nwosu alternated some with Hall, far from a full workload as the Seahawks work him back from the injury and long absence.
New returner’s debut
Jaelon Darden was the punt returner and primary punt returner in his first Seahawks game three days after they claimed him off waivers from Cleveland.
Darden’s first return for Seattle was on the kickoff after Arizona scored a touchdown on its initial possession. Darden stumbled over his feet and fell near the 20-yard line. Fortunately for Seattle, a Cardinal touched his leg as he was down, because then the ball then came out. On his first punt return, midway through the second quarter, Darden took a 62-yard punt and made the first Cardinal miss on a 15-yard return.
That #Seahawks touchdown and lead brought to you by...LB Ernest Jones.He continues to be nothing short of revolutionary for Seattle’s defense and team in the month-plus he’s been here.
