Game recap

Seahawks @ Commanders

2026 Wk 3 · WAS 33, SEA 31

Both kickers hit from 57 in the same quarter, then a 50-yard pick-six with 4:09 left decided it.

FanIQ Research · September 28, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

Jason Myers and Drew Stevens each made a 57-yard field goal in the final minute of the first half. Only one other game since 1999 has had both teams connect from 57 or more in the same quarter.

Rare

Games since 1999 in which both teams made a field goal of 57 or more yards

Season	Game	First kick	Second kick
2011	CHI @ DEN	Gould (CHI) 57, Q4	Prater (DEN) 59, Q4
2017	CAR @ NO	Gano (CAR) 58, Q2	Lutz (NO) 57, Q3
2019	TB @ LA	Zuerlein (LA) 58, Q2	Gay (TB) 58, Q3
2025	PIT @ LAC	Boswell (PIT) 59, Q1	Dicker (LAC) 59, Q3
2025	NO @ TEN	Smyth (NO) 57, Q3	Slye (TEN) 58, Q4
2026	BAL @ IND	Loop (BAL) 57, Q2	Shrader (IND) 58, Q3
2026	SEA @ WAS	Myers (SEA) 57, Q2 0:57	Stevens (WAS) 57, Q2 0:03

Made field goals of 57 or more yards, league wide, by season

Season	Made 57+
2021	9
2022	20
2023	20
2024	31
2025	41
2026 (through this game)	14

Myers hit from 57 with 57 seconds left in the half to cut Washington's lead to 14-10. Fifty-four seconds later Stevens answered from the same distance to make it 17-10 at the break. Seven games since 1999 have had a 57-plus make from each side, and four of the seven have come since November 2025. The only other time both kicks landed in the same quarter was Chicago at Denver in Week 14 of 2011.

Why it matters. A 57-yard field goal was a one-or-two-a-season event league wide for most of the 2000s, and it is now a weekly one: 41 were made in 2025 against 9 in 2021. Two in 54 seconds from opposite sidelines is still an outlier even against that curve, and both kicks changed the shape of the game. Without them Washington leads 14-7 at halftime instead of 17-10, and the final two-point margin does not exist.

Seattle outgained Washington by 177 yards and lost. A winner has been outgained by that much in 115 of 6,995 regular-season games since 1999.

Anomaly

This game, both offenses (pass and run plays)

Team	Plays	Yards	First downs	EPA/play	Success%	Turnovers
SEA	64	437	25	-0.046	50.0%	3
WAS	63	260	15	-0.080	31.7%	0

Largest yardage deficit by a winning team, regular season since 1999

Season	Game	Winner	Winner yds	Loser yds	Deficit	Final
2000	NYJ @ BAL	BAL	144	524	380	BAL 34, NYJ 20
2002	HOU @ PIT	HOU	48	422	374	HOU 24, PIT 6
2020	LA @ MIA	MIA	147	471	324	MIA 28, LA 17
2006	PHI @ TB	TB	196	506	310	TB 23, PHI 21
2006	JAX @ TEN	TEN	99	397	298	TEN 24, JAX 17
2026	SEA @ WAS	WAS	260	437	177	WAS 33, SEA 31

How often the winner is outgained, regular season since 1999

Games	Winner outgained at all	By 100+	By 150+	By 177+
6,995	2,201 (31.5%)	531 (7.6%)	199 (2.8%)	115 (1.6%)

Seattle ran one more play than Washington and gained 177 more yards on them, with ten more first downs. Washington's offense finished at minus 0.080 EPA per play, worse than Seattle's minus 0.046, and still left with the win. Roughly one winner in 60 since 1999 has been outgained by 177 or more.

Why it matters. Yardage and first downs describe how the game was played between the 20s, and by those measures Seattle controlled it. What the box score misses is that three of Seattle's 64 plays ended in a turnover and all three became Washington touchdowns, one of them scored directly by the defense. A team can lose a game it outgains by 177 yards only when the field position it gives away is worth more than the yards it keeps, which is exactly what happened here.

Kain Medrano's 50-yard pick-six with 4:09 left is one of seven since 1999 scored by the winning team inside the final five minutes of a game decided by three points or fewer.

Rare

Pick-sixes by the winning team in the final five minutes of a game decided by 3 or fewer, regular season 1999-2026

Season	Game	Returned by	Clock	Score before	Final
1999	TEN @ NO	TEN	2:58	NO 13, TEN 17	TEN 24, NO 21
2003	CIN @ LV	LV	4:04	CIN 13, LV 13	LV 23, CIN 20
2005	DAL @ PHI	DAL	2:53	PHI 20, DAL 14	DAL 21, PHI 20
2012	LV @ ATL	ATL	2:55	LV 13, ATL 13	ATL 23, LV 20
2013	SEA @ HOU	SEA	2:51	HOU 20, SEA 13	SEA 23, HOU 20
2021	TEN @ IND	TEN	1:33	IND 24, TEN 24	TEN 34, IND 31
2026	SEA @ WAS	WAS	4:09	SEA 24, WAS 27	WAS 33, SEA 31

Washington points off Seattle turnovers

Qtr	Clock	Turnover	Ball at	Plays to score	Result	Points
1	11:06	Jadarian Price fumble, recovered by Tim Settle	SEA 21	4	Mariota 6-yd TD pass to Rachaad White	7
3	12:10	Darnold intercepted by Sonny Styles	SEA 43	3	Mariota 30-yd TD pass to Terry McLaurin	7
4	4:09	Darnold intercepted by Kain Medrano	Midfield	0	Medrano 50-yd return TD, extra point missed	6

Seattle had just gained 26 yards on a throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and sat at the Washington 49, down 27-24, when Darnold's second-and-15 pass to AJ Barner was picked off at midfield and returned 50 yards. The play cost Seattle 8.7 expected points and 28.8 points of win probability, the largest swing in the game by a wide margin. Twenty-eight winning teams since 1999 have scored a fourth-quarter pick-six in a game decided by three or fewer; only these seven came inside the final five minutes. Washington's three touchdowns off turnovers account for 20 of its 33 points.

Why it matters. A defensive touchdown with four minutes left in a three-point game is close to the most decisive single play a defense can produce, because it scores and takes a possession away at the same time. Seattle still answered with a touchdown drive and finished two points short, which means the missed extra point after the return did not matter but the return itself did. Every Washington touchdown in this game started with a Seattle giveaway, and the defense scored 6 of Washington's 16 second-half points itself.

Sam Darnold threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns, Marcus Mariota for 183 and three. The 196-yard gap belonged to the loser.

Comparison

Both starting quarterbacks, this game

Passer	Team	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT	Sacked
Sam Darnold	SEA	31	45	379	4	2	0
Marcus Mariota	WAS	19	31	183	3	0	2

Passers with 4+ TD passes and a pick-six in a regular-season loss, 2021-2026 (8 of 21 since 1999)

Season	Week	Passer	TD	INT	Pick-six	Final
2026	3	Sam Darnold	4	2	1	WAS 33, SEA 31
2025	18	Joe Burrow	4	1	1	CLE 20, CIN 18
2025	14	Joe Burrow	4	2	1	BUF 39, CIN 34
2024	13	Jameis Winston	4	3	2	DEN 41, CLE 32
2023	15	Easton Stick	4	1	1	LV 63, LAC 21
2022	7	Andy Dalton	4	3	2	ARI 42, NO 34
2022	4	Jared Goff	4	1	1	SEA 48, DET 45
2021	8	Tom Brady	4	2	1	NO 36, TB 27

Darnold's career games with 4 or more TD passes

Season	Week	Team	Opponent	Yards	TD	INT	Result
2019	11	NYJ	WAS	293	4	1	W 34-17
2024	3	MIN	HOU	181	4	0	W 34-7
2024	14	MIN	ATL	347	5	0	W 42-21
2025	5	SEA	TB	341	4	1	L 35-38
2025	9	SEA	WAS	330	4	1	W 38-14
2026	3	SEA	WAS	379	4	2	L 31-33

The 379 yards are a regular-season career high for Darnold, two more than his 377 against Green Bay in Week 17 of 2024. He has now thrown four or more touchdown passes in six regular-season games, and his team has lost two of them, both by three points or fewer. Twenty-one passers since 1999 have thrown four touchdowns and a pick-six in a regular-season loss; Darnold is the first since Joe Burrow did it twice in the final month of 2025. Mariota needed 14 fewer attempts and produced 196 fewer yards, and the difference was that none of his throws went the other way.

Why it matters. Passing yards are the stat that usually tracks the winner, and here they tracked the loser by nearly 200. The mechanism is the two interceptions: one gave Washington a 43-yard field for a touchdown and the other was a touchdown by itself, so Darnold's day carried 13 points for the other team against 28 for his own. Mariota's line looks modest until you notice it contains zero giveaways in a game where the opponent's three giveaways were worth 20 points.

Take away three plays and Seattle's offense averaged plus 0.26 EPA per snap. Those three plays cost 18.8 expected points.

Split

Seattle offense, this game, turnover plays versus everything else (pass and run plays)

Group	Plays	Yards	EPA total	EPA/play
Turnover plays	3	1	-18.76	-6.255
All other plays	61	436	+15.79	+0.259
All plays	64	437	-2.97	-0.046

Offense by half, both teams (pass and run plays)

Team	Half	Plays	Yards	EPA/play	Success%
SEA	1st	35	204	-0.173	37.1%
SEA	2nd	29	233	+0.106	65.5%
WAS	1st	32	134	+0.001	37.5%
WAS	2nd	31	126	-0.163	25.8%

Seattle's 61 non-turnover snaps produced 436 yards at plus 0.259 EPA per play, a number that wins most games comfortably. The fumble on the first snap of Seattle's second possession, the third-quarter interception and the pick-six together were worth minus 18.76, enough to drag the whole afternoon to minus 0.046. The half split shows the same offense getting better as the game went on: 65.5 percent of Seattle's second-half plays were successful against 25.8 percent for Washington, and Seattle outgained Washington 233 to 126 after the break and outscored it 21 to 16, yet the 17-10 halftime hole and the pick-six left it two points short.

Why it matters. EPA per play is additive, so three plays can erase 61 good ones if they are bad enough, and a pick-six returned 50 yards is about as bad as a single snap gets. This split separates how Seattle's offense functioned from how the game was decided: the function was strong, the decision came from ball security. Washington's offense was worse in both halves than Seattle's second half, and 6 of its 16 second-half points came from the defense rather than the offense, which is what a game won on turnovers looks like in the play data.

Washington is 9-4 against Seattle in the regular season. Seattle is 3-0 against Washington in the playoffs.

Milestone

Every Seahawks versus Commanders meeting in the database, 1999-2026

Season	Round	Score	Winner	Margin
2001	Wk 8	WAS 27, SEA 14	WAS	13
2002	Wk 9	WAS 14, SEA 3	WAS	11
2003	Wk 10	WAS 27, SEA 20	WAS	7
2005	Wk 4	WAS 20, SEA 17	WAS	3
2005	Divisional	SEA 20, WAS 10	SEA	10
2007	Wild Card	SEA 35, WAS 14	SEA	21
2008	Wk 12	WAS 20, SEA 17	WAS	3
2011	Wk 12	WAS 23, SEA 17	WAS	6
2012	Wild Card	SEA 24, WAS 14	SEA	10
2014	Wk 5	SEA 27, WAS 17	SEA	10
2017	Wk 9	WAS 17, SEA 14	WAS	3
2020	Wk 15	SEA 20, WAS 15	SEA	5
2021	Wk 12	WAS 17, SEA 15	WAS	2
2023	Wk 10	SEA 29, WAS 26	SEA	3
2025	Wk 9	SEA 38, WAS 14	SEA	24
2026	Wk 3	WAS 33, SEA 31	WAS	2

Series record by game type

Game type	WAS wins	SEA wins
Regular season	9	4
Playoffs	0	3
All meetings	9	7

Sixteen meetings since 1999, nine of them decided by seven points or fewer and six by three or fewer. Washington's last two wins in the series, in 2021 and now 2026, were both by two points. The 2025 meeting was the most lopsided of the sixteen at 24 points; ten months later the same two teams played the closest one. This is also Washington's first home win over Seattle since that 2021 game.

Why it matters. The split between regular season and playoffs is the unusual part: Washington has won nine of thirteen regular-season meetings, yet every time the two have met with a season on the line, Seattle has advanced. That pattern says more about which franchise was the better team in January of those years than about matchups, but it makes Washington's regular-season edge look larger than the rivalry has felt. Two-point wins in 2021 and 2026 fit a series where nine of the sixteen meetings were decided by seven or fewer.

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