Kansas City arrived in Seattle as the NFL’s last word in perfection, five games played and five won. They left with a 20-3 defeat, a single field goal to show for sixty minutes of football and plenty of questions about how one defense managed to make Patrick Mahomes look so ordinary.
The numbers were stark. The Chiefs gained 213 yards, picked up 11 first downs and converted three of eleven third downs. Not once did they get inside Seattle’s 20-yard line, something that had never happened before with Mahomes as the starter. The quarterback finished 19 of 33 for 165 yards and threw an interception after safety Nick Emmanwori hit him as he released the ball, with Ty Okada making the catch.
Much of the build-up had centred on Kenneth Walker III. The running back was Super Bowl MVP for Seattle last season, joined Kansas City in the summer and came into the night leading the league in rushing. Against his former teammates he managed just 36 yards from 14 attempts, ending a streak of eleven straight games above 50. Walker skipped the handshakes afterwards and admitted he was simply frustrated to lose.
At the other end, Jaxon Smith-Njigba kept rewriting his own season. He finished with 150 receiving yards from nine catches, among them a 28-yard touchdown from Sam Darnold when Seattle faced a long third down, and now has six 100-yard games in seven outings and a league-high eight touchdown catches. Darnold, criticised after recent turnovers, threw for 257 yards on 20 completions from 28 attempts, and Emanuel Wilson ground out 100 rushing yards before a 21-yard scoring dash late on put the result beyond doubt.
Seattle will still rue the red zone, where three visits produced only six points. But the reigning champions, now 4-3, ended a two-game slide in style, and Kansas City drop to 5-1.
