Week 6 of the NFL schedule got underway Thursday night with an interconference contest between a pair of teams that used to be AFC West rivals in the Mile High City. If you were looking for a high-octane offensive contest like we had in week 2, when Buffalo outgunned Detroit, the Cleveland/Pittsburgh battle in week 4 and even Atlanta’s blowout over Green Bay in week 3, you were in the wrong place. This contest between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos was a good old fashioned rock fight, where offense was an afterthought.
Denver struggled to maintain a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and found themselves pushed to overtime. In the extra session, the defense rose to the occasion and made the critical play, setting the Broncos up. They managed to move just far enough for Wil Lutz to kick a game-winning 53-yard field goal. As a result, the Broncos earned a 17-14 overtime win. With the victory, the Broncos improved to 4-2 on the season while Seattle fell to 3-3 with their second straight defeat. Let’s take a look at what went down in this one.
QUARTERBACKS
Sam Darnold led the Seahawks to the Super Bowl last season but what we saw here was nothing like that guy. This version of Darnold was more along the lines of the seeing ghosts version of Darnold when he was with the Jets. He was under duress constantly in the game. Darnold was 27 of 51 passing for 278 yards in the game. The problem was, he didn’t throw a touchdown while he was picked off on two of the Seahawks’ final three possessions, including in overtime. He was sacked five times and suffered 17 quarterback hits in the game. It was clear he was rattled late in the game.
When it comes to good quarterback play, I don’t know if what we saw from Bo Nix counts. Sure, his team got the win, but it was more in spite of him than because of anything he did. In the postgame, Ryan Fitzpatrick was talking about how he wasn’t playing competitively right now. Tony Gonzalez suggested he might need a benching to wake up. In the game, he was a pedestrian 17 of 27 for 107 yards with no touchdowns or picks. He ran for just two yards on four carries in the game while taking a pair of sacks. The best thing you can say for Nix is that he didn’t turn the ball over. While that was critical in the game, Sean Payton taking over the playcalling has yet to pay dividends.
RUNNING BACKS
Seattle continues to be without Jadarian Price, who is on injured reserve with a chest injury, and Zach Charbonnet, who could return next week potentially after being out since the playoffs last year. Should Charbonnet return, it will be interesting to see how much work he gets out of the chute. It was an interesting mix for the Seahawks as Emanuel Wilson (14 carries, 52 yards) led the team in rushing over George Holani (five carries, 20 yards, TD) and Velus Jones Jr. (four carries, 20 yards) in the contest. However, a closer look showed that Holani dominated the snaps at the position, as he was on the field for 49 snaps to Wilson’s 27 and Jones Jr.’s nine. He also dominated the routes run by the backs, running 29 routes while Wilson had nine and Jones Jr. five. It was Jones Jr. catching the lone pass and recording the lone target for the group.
Denver was again uninspiring with the ground game. It was roughly a 60/40 split in snaps between J.K. Dobbins (17 carries, 41 yards, TD, three catches, five yards, 31 snaps) and RJ Harvey (six carries, 25 yards, TD, three catches, 31 yards, 24 snaps) in the game. Harvey actually outscored Dobbins 14.6-13.6 on the strength of being able to do some damage in the passing game. Tyler Badie (one carry, six yards, four snaps) and Adam Prentice (no carries, five snaps) were limited in their work. Harvey led the backs with 13 routes run while Dobbins had nine, Prentice two and Badie one. Badie left in the first half with a thumb injury and didn’t return.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Jaxon Smith Njigba was a major factor for the Seahawks in this one, which makes sense, given the fact that Pat Surtain II was missing and Riley Moss was questionable Thursday night. He played 78 snaps, ran 54 routes and was targeted 16 times in the game. Smith-Njigba reeled in 12 of those targets for 134 yards. Cooper Kupp (72 snaps, 53 routes run, eight targets, five catches, 50 yards) and Rashid Shaheed (39 snaps, 31 routes run, eight targets, five catches, 66 yards) were next in line. Shaheed made a bobbling catch of a two-point conversion in the back of the end zone to make it 14-11. Tory Horton (39 snaps, 25 routes run, five targets, one catch, 13 yards) saw his share of work as well. He was targeted on Darnold’s final pass, which was intercepted in overtime.
The Broncos didn’t do much through the air as Harvey led the team with his 31 receiving yards. Courtland Sutton led the receivers group in snaps (46) and routes run (27) in the game. However, he finished tied for fourth in targets with three in the game. Of those, he caught two for a total of 19 yards. Jaylen Waddle was second in snaps (39) and routes run (24) while recording team highs in targets (seven) and receptions (four) for 24 yards in the game. Troy Franklin Jr. (31 snaps, 16 routes, one target, one catch, two yards), saw more work as the third receiver than Lil’Jordan Humphrey (17 snaps, five routes, no targets) and Marvin Mims Jr. (16 snaps, nine routes, four targets, two catches, 13 yards) in the contest. Franklin Jr. seems to be the #3 receiver with Pat Bryant out.
TIGHT ENDS
AJ Barner continues to dominate the TE1 position for the Seahawks on the depth chart. He was on the field for 79 snaps and ran 53 routes in the game. Barner was targeted four times in the game, reeling in three for 16 yards. Eric Saubert (16 snaps, nine routes, no targets), Nick Kallerup (10 snaps, one route, no targets) and Elijah Arroyo (five snaps, two routes, no targets) were afterthoughts and weren’t even considered in the passing attack. Arroyo left late in the first half with a shoulder injury and did not return to the contest.
Denver had a trio of tight ends that all saw their fair share of action in the contest. While Adam Trautman led the group in snaps (33), he ran just six routes and was not targeted in the game. Meanwhile, Evan Engram (31 snaps, 16 routes, two targets, two catches, 13 yards) and Nate Adkins (22 snaps, five routes, no targets) were also on the field at least one-third of the time for the Broncos’ offense. None of them are overly worth considering from a fantasy perspective, especially when Nix barely cracked 100 passing yards in the contest.
MISCELLANEOUS
As is all too common in the NFL, turnovers are the pivotal thing that can swing a close game and that was what we saw here. Seattle turned the ball over three times in the game and didn’t force a takeaway. Shaheed fumbled at the Denver 30 late in the first half. Darnold threw picks on two of the last three drives, one at the Broncos’ 31, the other at his own 43 in overtime. Seattle owned a 353-168 advantage in total offense, rolled up a 24-13 edge in first downs and dominated time of possession by a 35:38 to 29:29 margin in the contest yet lost.
Jason Myers did not attempt an extra point in the contest. He was two of three on field goal attempts, connecting from 55 in the first quarter and 34 in the dying seconds of the fourth to send the game to overtime. However, he did clang one off the right upright from 47 yards with 8:34 to go in the third quarter. Those three points loomed large in the end. The Seahawks dropped to 0-5 under Mike McDonald in games they trailed by double digits at the half. Wil Lutz connected on both his extra point attempts and his lone field goal, which came from 53 yards, to win it for the Broncos.
Week 7 gets underway next Thursday night in the Windy City with an interconference tilt. Drake Maye and the New England Patriots travel to take on D’Andre Swift and the Chicago Bears in a rematch of Super Bowl XX. Maybe the football gods will have more charitable feelings for Iron Mike Ditka than they did last week.
