The snarl and the swagger

I’m supposed to come to you this morning with a furrowed brow and a concerned tone.

The Seahawks were penalized 14 times Sunday while beating the Chargers in both a literal and figurative fashion.

It’s too many. I know that. The late hits and extra spice from Seattle’s defense left the door open for a fourth-quarter rally, and I’m glad that Seattle has a coach like Mike Macdonald, who made it clear that’s not the way he wants the Seahawks to play going forward.

But can I admit something? Can you promise to keep it between you, me, and the gremlins who monitor our email?

It was kind of awesome watching Seattle’s defense go full tilt.

I know that sounds kind of bloodthirsty. To be honest, it is kind of bloodthirsty, but did you see the play where Nick Emmanwori lined up in a sprinter’s stance? Both hands on the ground at the line of scrimmage! Charging off at the snap and hitting a spin move!

That dude is a safety. At least he was supposed to be.

Also, Derick Hall hit Justin Herbert so freaking hard. And yeah, it was correctly called a penalty because Hall made no effort to keep from landing directly on top of Herbert’s crumpled form, but in Hall’s defense, I don’t think he expected Herbert to fall down as fast as he did. He didn’t have time to keep from squishing the quarterback!

Being completely serious, it is much better to have a defense that needs to hear “Whoa!” than it is to have a unit that needs to hear “Giddyup!”

So yeah, the Seahawks will have to temper things a bit if only because the penalties — including the one on Hall — left the door cracked open for the Chargers.

But it’s also worth noting that it was Hall who sealed the game with a strip sack of Herbert by recovering the fumble forced by Uchenna Nwosu on the Chargers’ final possession.

Before we get to the Heat Index, I want to point out that while Seattle’s defensive RPMs may have gone into the red a few too many times on Sunday, the game was also officiated by Scott Novak and his crew of flag-happy prudes.

Officials assessed 30 penalties in Sunday’s game, the most of any NFL game this season. The previous high of 27 came in the Week 2 matchup between the Jets and Packers. Scott Novak and his crew of flag-happy prudes also officiated that game.

So far this season, about 15 penalties have been enforced per game. The four games called by Novak and his crew of flag-happy prudes have averaged 21.8 penalties per game.

How spicy is your opinion of the Seahawks’ game this week?

Washington lost the lead of Saturday’s game in USC when Demond Williams’ third-quarter fumble was returned for a touchdown.

That’s not why the Huskies lost, though.

Just like his first-half interception the week before wasn’t why they lost to Minnesota.

The reason the Huskies are 0-2 in the Big Ten is not because of the mistakes their quarterback has committed, but because of the big plays he hasn’t been able to make.

I know that sounds like I’m playing a tricky little word game, but there’s a deeper truth in this observation.

Just look at last year’s Seahawks. Sam Darnold committed 20 turnovers in 2025, most of any player in the regular season. But Seattle also had one of the league's most explosive passing offenses. This was enough to offset the turnovers. Usually. The Seahawks did go 14-3.

So I’m not trying to excuse Williams’ fumble against USC or argue that his interception deep in Washington territory didn’t hurt the Huskies against Minnesota. Those turnovers turned out to be absolute killers.

But the reason those turnovers were so pivotal is that Washington’s offense has spent so much of this season grinding its gears.

Some of that is because of the injuries at running back. Some of that is because the offensive line hasn’t been closer to a weakness than a strength.

But most of it is because Demond Williams isn’t running the offense efficiently. Certainly not the way you would expect of a junior in his third year playing for the coach who’s been unwavering in his insistence that this is the guy to lead the program.

Williams does not appear to be “seeing things well,” which is the phrase coaches use to describe a quarterback who can diagnose and react to what a defense is doing, finding the right option before the pressure closes in.

The Huskies’ final possession was a good example of this.

With :50 left, Washington had the ball 3rd-and-3 at the USC-12.

The Huskies were in an empty formation, meaning no backs. Tight end Baron Naone lined up on the right side of the line in a two-point stance.

In football terms, it’s a five-man protection, meaning only the linemen are assigned to block.

USC had six defenders at the line of scrimmage. The Trojans were showing blitz.

Now Washington has a few options:

That last option requires the quarterback to be responsible for one of the rushers. He must be prepared for that player to come unblocked, and if that player does in fact come unblocked, the quarterback is responsible for getting rid of the ball before the blitzer gets home.

Spoiler alert: The player did come unblocked, and Williams didn’t get rid of the ball (presumably to Rashid Williams, who was lined up in the slot outside of Naone and running a crossing route).

That’s on the quarterback. You can debate whether Jedd Fisch could have done more to help Williams either with the play call itself or by calling a timeout, but at some point, the quarterback has to read and react to what he’s seeing.

Williams did not do that. He was sacked for a 6-yard loss and then threw into double coverage on the fourth-down play.

To Williams’ credit, he is tough as hell, and he is fighting to the end. He converted two first downs earlier on that last drive, including an absolutely absurd throw downfield to Chris Lawson on 4th-and-2.

But there haven’t been nearly enough of those plays, which is why Washington was resorting to so many trick plays. The only way the Huskies got explosive pass plays for much of Saturday’s game was by confusing USC about who was going to throw the ball.