Sam Darnold's Mistakes Sink Seahawks in Overtime Loss to Broncos

Sam Darnold's late-game turnovers proved costly for the Seattle Seahawks as they fell to the Denver Broncos 17-14 in overtime on Thursday Night Football. Darnold threw two interceptions, the second of which directly set up the Broncos' game-winning field goal.

The Seahawks, the reigning Super Bowl champions, now sit at 1-3 since Darnold returned from a Week 1 glute injury. This loss drops Seattle to 3-3 on the season.

"I think it's BS for me to keep turning the ball over," Darnold stated after the game. "It's not fair to our defense, not fair to our special teams group, not fair really to our entire team. I got to be better that way."

Darnold's performance marked a significant regression from his previous season, where he led Seattle to a Super Bowl title. This year, he has accumulated seven interceptions against seven passing touchdowns. All of his interceptions have occurred in the last four games, since he missed one contest due to an injury sustained in the season opener.

Thursday night's game was Darnold's third multi-interception performance this season and prevented the Seahawks from securing a victory despite their defense limiting the Broncos to 168 total yards. In the fourth quarter, with the Seahawks trailing 14-11, Darnold threw his first interception. However, the defense forced a three-and-out, giving Seattle another possession. He then led the team to a game-tying field goal.

The decisive turnover came in overtime. Darnold described his second interception as "greedy." The Broncos took possession at the Seahawks' 43-yard line and advanced the ball eight yards before kicking a 53-yard field goal to win the game. Darnold completed 27 of 51 passes for 278 yards.

"No way to sugarcoat it. That one sucked," Darnold said. "Can't turn the ball over, that's obviously at the forefront of my mind, but there's just a lot that we can do better. We just got to be better all around and it starts with me. We just gotta look at who we are as an offense and look at kind of things we do well, things we don't do well and go from there."

Head coach Mike Macdonald confirmed that Darnold addressed his team after the game, taking responsibility for his ball security issues. Darnold's turnover rate has been a stark contrast to his performance in the 2024 and 2025 seasons combined, where he threw 60 touchdowns to 25 interceptions. He has turned the ball over at least once in each of his four starts this season that were not cut short by injury.

"When you have a defense and special teams group playing the way that they are for us, for me, I just gotta protect the football," Darnold said. "Dropping back and taking what they give me, I feel I did a pretty good job of that in the first half and then late in the second half, those two plays, just can't have it."

The Seahawks now trail the undefeated San Francisco 49ers by 2 1/2 games in the division, with the 49ers holding the tiebreaker after their Week 5 victory over Seattle. Coach Macdonald acknowledged that protecting the ball is his primary concern, stating, "We have to take care of the ball. Sam knows that. He told the team that."