Seahawks’ Darnold calmly directs winning drive vs. Cardinals

GLENDALE, Ariz. — After their vaunted defense allowed the Arizona Cardinals to score 17 straight points, tying the score late in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks managed to pull out a 23-20 win Thursday night at State Farm Stadium in large part due to the poise their new quarterback showed.

Facing a second-and-10 from their own 40 with 23 seconds left, Sam Darnold hit receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba down the left sideline for a 22-yard gain, setting up Jason Myers’ game-winning field goal from 52 yards out as time expired two plays later.

“Sam made a perfect throw, honestly,” Smith-Njigba said. “Back shoulder throw. The corner was on top of me, so he just placed it perfectly, and it was an easy grab.”

Darnold and Smith-Njigba positioned the Seahawks to put the game away on their previous drive, connecting for a 36-yard gain down the right sideline on another perfectly placed throw. But Myers missed wide right on a 53-yard field goal try that would have put Seattle up 23-13, and Arizona then drove for the tying touchdown.

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The Seahawks started the ensuing drive at their own 40-yard line after Arizona’s kickoff failed to reach the landing zone, and Darnold made them pay.

Like all Seahawks contracts, the three-year, $100.5 million deal they gave Darnold in March after trading Geno Smith gives the team a potential out after one season, putting pressure on their new quarterback to deliver immediate results in 2025.

And he is.

After completing 18 of 26 attempts for 242 yards and a touchdown Thursday night, Darnold now has five TDs to two interceptions while leading Seattle to a 3-1 start.

“Sam’s playing out of his mind right now,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “You see him, he’s just such a cool customer. But he’s a guy on a mission. He’s so determined for us to be a great team and a great offense, and he’s doing a great job leading us.”

One of the most impressive aspects of Darnold’s debut season in Seattle has been his ability to escape pressure and create big plays while on the run, which he showed again against Arizona.

Late in the second quarter, he found rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo for a 32-yard gain while scrambling to his right. On the next play, he saw an open swath of turf on a bootleg and ran for 24 yards.

Those two plays positioned the Seahawks for a Zach Charbonnet touchdown run that put them up 14-3 at halftime.

“I’m really happy he came down with that one because I think I had 20 yards in front of me of green grass,” Darnold said of his throw to Arroyo. “So I’m really happy he made that play.”

The Seahawks’ halftime lead would have been larger than 11 points if not for three miscues. Coby Bryant fumbled away an interception back to Arizona, fellow safety Julian Love dropped an easy pick and running back Kenneth Walker III took Seattle out of field goal range with a taunting penalty.

The Seahawks were nonetheless in complete control until Arizona stormed back, driving for touchdowns on consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter and necessitating the late-game heroics.

The Seahawks had a chance for a similar finish in their season opener, when Darnold’s 40-yard completion to Smith-Njigba got them in the red zone against the San Francisco 49ers. But the game ended when Nick Bosa strip-sacked Darnold and recovered the fumble.

“He’s just comfortable in those moments,” Darnold said of Smith-Njigba, his No. 1 receiver. “He showed that even in the San Francisco game. Obviously we didn’t get the job done when we played them the first game, but he showed his big-play ability not only in two-minute but throughout the game. We have that rapport to where we can trust each other with different routes and feeling leverage and all those things.”

Smith-Njigba was second in the NFL with 323 receiving yards over the first three games, the best start to a season in club history. He didn’t have a catch Thursday night until late in the third quarter before coming alive in the fourth. He finished with 79 yards on four catches.

“Jax, man, one of the best receivers in the league,” Love said. “People need to put some respect on his name. He’s the real deal.”

Macdonald said Seattle’s sideline had little doubt that Myers would make the game-winner despite his miss on the previous drive.

“I golfed with him this offseason, and that’s his mentality in golf, too,” Darnold said of Myers, a single-digit handicap. “He’ll hit a bad shot and he’ll come back and stripe it on the next one. He’s got that mentality. He gets pretty frustrated when he doesn’t make them, but then he comes back and it’s almost automatic when you know he’s going to come in and knock the next one down.”

Darnold’s Pro Bowl season with the Minnesota Vikings ended at State Farm Stadium, which hosted their wild-card game against the Los Angeles Rams due to the wildfires in Southern California. He was sacked nine times in the loss, then hit free agency after Minnesota decided to not keep him via the franchise tag.

“It was just another game,” Darnold said. “Obviously it’s in the same stadium, but it’s Week 4 and we did a good job today, but there’s a lot of stuff that we can clean up. But I’m going to enjoy this three-day break or whatever we’ve got and watch some Ryder Cup, so I’m excited for that. But it’s going to be a good time to be able to just put my feet up, relax a little bit and get ready to roll for next week.”