Seahawks Hand Chiefs First Loss as Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba Wins Third Down

The Seahawks beat the unbeaten Chiefs with a possession plan built around two people. One was Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the receiver Seattle handed the downs that decide whether a drive lives. The other was Kenneth Walker III, the running back Seattle knew better than anyone, and the man Mike Macdonald’s defense was set up to swarm.

The coverage has settled on two parallel facts: a suffocating defense smothered Patrick Mahomes, and Smith-Njigba erupted. Both are true, and they are the same story. Seattle kept the ball by winning third down through its best receiver, and it took away the run game Kansas City needed to keep drives alive. The final score also hides the one part of the design that still breaks down.

Smith-Njigba was Seattle’s third-down answer

For a long stretch, the game was locked. DAZN called Smith-Njigba the one Seattle player able to prise it open, and the way Seattle used him explains why. On the first scoring drive, a 15-play march of 86 yards, FOX 13 Seattle counts two third-down conversions to him, including a 33-yard catch-and-run on third-and-7.

The touchdown followed the same logic. On third-and-9, Sam Darnold went one-on-one to him for 28 yards, by DAZN’s account. FOX 13 names the defender as rookie cornerback Mansoor Delane, and Smith-Njigba beat him again for another 28 yards in the last half-minute of the half. That is the pattern: the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, matched against a rookie, at the moments when one completion was worth a whole possession.

The numbers carry that shape. Of his 150 yards, 129 came before halftime. Seattle converted 11 of 16 third downs, outgained Kansas City 410 to 213 and, according to IBTimes, held the ball for 35 minutes and 51 seconds.

A run defense built for one former teammate

Kansas City’s plan was readable early. Walker was Super Bowl MVP for Seattle last season, signed with the Chiefs in the offseason and arrived averaging a league-leading 133 rushing yards per game, according to the Associated Press. FOX 13 described the attempt to lean on him against his former team as obvious, and unsuccessful.

Macdonald’s answer was numbers at the ball. “We have to play in waves,” he said. “He’s still going to break tackles. I’m sure he broke a host of tackles. That’s what he does. So we had to get people to the football. That gave us the best chance.”

Walker finished with 36 yards on 14 carries, and the Chiefs ran for 50 as a team. Seattle has now gone 36 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, the league’s longest current streak. “We know what kind of running back was coming in here, but we don’t allow people to run through our defense,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV told the AP.

Take away the run and the rest follows. Kansas City converted 3 of 11 third downs. Nick Emmanwori stayed with Xavier Worthy on a deep ball and on a crosser for two incompletions, and broke up a third-down throw to Walker. His pressure also forced the wild throw that Ty Okada intercepted, and Seattle scored its touchdown on the very next drive. Mahomes finished 19 of 33 for 165 yards with no touchdown. FOX 13 notes that three points ties the fewest a Chiefs team has scored with him at quarterback. “A lot of dudes were upset that we didn’t give them zero,” Emmanwori said. “Like, that was our goal.”

The two yards the score hides

A 20-3 result reads as total control. Inside the opponent’s 10, Seattle had very little. Smith-Njigba’s second 28-yarder put Seattle at the 2 with 30 seconds left in the half. Darnold then forced a throw into the end zone, and Nohl Williams intercepted it and ran it back past midfield, a swing FOX 13 put at somewhere between three and ten points. The first drive of the second half reached inside the Kansas City 10 and stalled on a blown-up run and a delay-of-game penalty, and Seattle settled for a field goal.

Macdonald named it himself. Among the things the team has been working on, he listed procedural issues, red-zone play and negative plays, the AP reported. Kansas City left points behind too: Harrison Butker came up short from 58 and missed from 45 wide right. “Listen, all three phases we struggled, so we’ve got to do better, and that’s my responsibility,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.

Smith-Njigba tried to take the interception on himself. “Really just trying to do too much. I’ll take that one personally,” he said. Darnold refused the offer. “No, it was definitely my fault. We practice that situation all the time. It was just a bad decision.”

Where it leaves both teams

The win ends a two-game skid and lifts the defending champions to 4-3; Kansas City falls to 5-1 with its first loss. Smith-Njigba finished with nine catches for 150 yards and his eighth receiving touchdown of the season, which leads the league, according to FOX 13. Emanuel Wilson ran 24 times for 100 yards and sealed it with a 21-yard touchdown with 3:47 left. Travis Kelce caught four passes to reach 1,104 for his career, passing Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter for fifth in NFL history. Seattle hosts the Chicago Bears on Monday, Nov. 2; the Chiefs visit the Denver Broncos.

“We saw it as a playoff game,” Smith-Njigba said. Between the 20s, Seattle played like one, with a receiver who wins the money downs and a defense that deletes the opponent’s first option. In January, a drive that dies at the 2 is the kind that sends a team home.

Tags: NFL, Seattle Seahawks, Mike Macdonald, Kansas City Chiefs, Kenneth Walker III, Jaxon Smith-Njigba