SEATTLE
Patrick Mahomes is in his ninth season as Kansas City’s starter, and in all that time — regular season and playoffs — his offense reached the red zone in every single start. That streak ended Sunday night at Lumen Field. The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20–3, handed the AFC’s last unbeaten team its first loss of the season, and never once let Kansas City snap the ball inside the 20. The Chiefs’ deepest drive of the night died at the Seattle 27. Three points — tied for the fewest a Mahomes team has ever scored.
Nothing there
Kansas City’s night, drive by drive, was a tour of the wrong side of the field: punt, punt, interception, punt, a missed field goal, one 13-play march that produced Harrison Butker’s 50-yard field goal, another missed field goal, and a turnover on downs. Mahomes finished 19 of 33 for 165 yards, no touchdowns and an interception — Ty Okada picked him in the second quarter — with a 58.3 rating. He was sacked only once, but Seattle’s coverage took away everything downfield: the Chiefs managed 213 total yards, 50 of them rushing, went 3 for 11 on third down and held the ball for barely 24 minutes. Even the one drive that reached field-goal range wobbled — Mahomes fumbled on third down in the third quarter, and Kansas City settled for the 50-yarder that stood as its only points. Butker’s 58-yard try at the halftime gun fell short, and his 45-yarder in the fourth quarter sailed wide right.
Darnold dealt, Smith-Njigba feasted
Seattle’s offense did the opposite of all that. Sam Darnold went 20 of 28 for 257 yards and a touchdown, was never sacked, and spent the night finding Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who caught 9 passes for 150 yards — 129 of them before halftime. A 33-yard Darnold-to-Smith-Njigba strike set up Jason Myers’ 25-yard field goal for a 3–0 lead in the second quarter; on the next series after Okada’s interception, Darnold hit Smith-Njigba for a 28-yard touchdown and 10–0. Seattle nearly had more before the half — Darnold drove to the Kansas City 1 in the closing seconds — but Nohl Williams intercepted him in the back of the end zone and returned it 64 yards, the one real blemish on Darnold’s line. Myers added a 35-yarder in the third, and Emanuel Wilson closed it with a 21-yard touchdown run with 3:47 left, the payoff on a 24-carry, 100-yard night. The Seahawks rolled up 410 yards, converted 11 of 16 third downs and held the ball for nearly 36 minutes.
The homecoming that wasn’t
This game was built around Kenneth Walker III’s return to Seattle — the reigning Super Bowl MVP, who won the award in this building with the Seahawks last season before signing with Kansas City, and who entered the night averaging a league-leading 133 rushing yards per game. Seattle held him to 36 yards on 14 carries, his longest run seven yards, the worst night of his season. It fit the pattern: the Seahawks have now gone 36 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, the longest current streak in the league — and on this night they extended it against the back who used to be theirs.
Kelce’s milestone in the wreckage
The one Kansas City line that will outlive this game belongs to Travis Kelce. His four catches for 44 yards lifted him to 1,104 receptions for his career — past Marvin Harrison (1,102) and Cris Carter (1,101), into fifth place on the NFL’s all-time list. It came on a night when almost nothing else worked: Kansas City played without Rashee Rice (hamstring) and Tyquan Thornton (ankle), and Kelce’s 44 yards tied Noah Gray for the team high.
Seattle is 4–3, its two-game skid snapped, and the defending champions just authored the most complete defensive performance of the season. Kansas City falls to 5–1 and heads to Denver next Sunday with the AFC West lead on the line. And because the Chiefs finally lost, the league’s last unbeaten team is the one that won earlier in the day in Minneapolis: the 6–0 Minnesota Vikings now stand alone.
By the Numbers
- 0 — red-zone trips for Kansas City, the first time in a Mahomes start, including the postseason (deepest drive: the Seattle 27)
- 3 — Chiefs points, tied for the fewest of the Mahomes era
- 213 vs 410 — total yards, Kansas City vs Seattle; third downs: Chiefs 3 of 11, Seahawks 11 of 16
- 150 — receiving yards for Jaxon Smith-Njigba on 9 catches, with the game’s first touchdown
- 1,104 — career receptions for Travis Kelce, fifth all-time, past Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter
- 36 — Kenneth Walker III’s rushing yards in his Seattle return, after entering the night averaging a league-leading 133 per game; Seattle’s streak of games without allowing a 100-yard rusher also stands at 36
- 68,740 — attendance at Lumen Field
Full box score, linescore and play-by-play: Seahawks 20, Chiefs 3 — Game Center. More: NFL · Stats Hub
Sources · 3 sources
- ESPN (ESPN summary API) — game summary for event 401873022: box score, play-by-play, drive chart and team stats, final double-read verified, including the Associated Press game recap carried in the summary (Smith-Njigba’s 150 yards, Wilson’s 100-yard night, Walker’s 36, Kelce’s 1,104 and fifth place, Seattle’s 36-game streak without allowing a 100-yard rusher)
- NBC Sports (nbcsports.com) — the Sunday Night Football wrap: as noted by the NBC broadcast, the first Mahomes start — including the postseason — in which Kansas City did not reach the red zone; Kelce into fifth place all-time in receptions
- USA Today (usatoday.com) — game takeaways confirming the 20–3 final, the defending champions handing 5–0 Kansas City its first loss, and Minnesota left as the NFL’s last unbeaten team
