For only the eighth time in franchise history – and first since 2020 – the Seattle Seahawks have started the season 3-0 by defeating the Miami Dolphins 24-3 at Lumen Field. It was a rather sloppy, penalty-filled affair from both teams, but in the end the Seahawks took care of business against a team missing their top two quarterbacks.
Seattle erupted to 17 points in the first quarter, scoring on three of their first four possessions. But after that, the gunpowder for fireworks clearly ran out. Their next six possessions went as follows:
- Missed field goal
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Interception
The Seahawks did manage to finally break through and ice the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Seattle, backed up at their own two-yard line (more on how they got there, shortly), engineered a 98-yard drive on 11 plays which was capped off by a 10-yard scamper from running back Zach Charbonnet. It was not a sharp performance from the Seahawks, but their offense did more than enough to take advantage of the steller day from the defense.
Why were the Seahawks in need of having to go 98 yards? Because the defense had stopped Miami on 4th down at the two-yard line. In fact, it was the second time Seattle prevented the Dolphins from doing anything in the red zone. Macdonald’s defense suffocated the life from a severely depleted Miami team. Backup Skylar Thompson was knocked out of the game, forcing emergency third stringer Tim Boyle to step into action. Predictably, he did not make much of an impact.
The Dolphins had 12 possessions. Of those 12, six ended in punts, three were turnover on downs, a missed field goal, a made field goal thanks to an interception setting them up in the Seahawks red zone, and a sack to end the first half. Miami was 1-for-12 on third down, and had a whopping 205 total yards on 56 plays.
Seattle maintains their perch atop the NFC West with their 3-0 record, but will face their biggest test of the season in Week 4. The Seahawks will head back to Detroit for the third-consecutive season to play the Lions, who will await them on Monday Night Football.
