Seahawks vs. Chiefs Week 7: Jaxon Smith-Njigba and a Brick-Wall Defense Hand KC Its First Loss

Kenneth Walker III was Seattle's Super Bowl MVP last season. On Sunday night he returned to Lumen Field in Kansas City red as the NFL's leading rusher, and his old defense treated him like a bouncer treats a guy who used to work the door: a nod for old times' sake, then no entry. Fourteen carries. Thirty-six yards. A long of seven.

The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20-3 in Week 7, snapping a two-game losing streak and handing the previously unbeaten Chiefs their first loss of the season. Jaxon Smith-Njigba went for nine catches, 150 yards and a touchdown, Emanuel Wilson ground out exactly 100 rushing yards, and the defending champs held an offense that had been piling up a league-best 414.0 yards per game to 213. Seattle climbs to 4-3. Kansas City falls to 5-1 with a kicking problem it can no longer call a small sample size.

Death by a Thousand Third Downs

Nobody scored in the first quarter, but Seattle's second possession lasted 15 plays and 8:26, survived two third-and-9s and a third-and-7, and reached the red zone on Sam Darnold's 33-yard strike to Smith-Njigba. Then it stalled, as Seattle's red-zone trips would all night, and Jason Myers kicked a 25-yard field goal.

The defense took it from there. Nick Emmanwori ran down a scrambling Patrick Mahomes and hit him as he threw, and Ty Okada gathered in the wounded duck. Seattle cashed it in: Darnold kept the drive alive with a 7-yard scramble on third-and-6, then saw Smith-Njigba isolated against rookie corner Mansoor Delane on third-and-9 and dropped a 28-yard touchdown into his hands. Ten-nothing, 1:44 before the break.

Another 28-yard Darnold-to-Smith-Njigba hookup put Seattle at the doorstep in the closing seconds, but Darnold forced a throw into the back of the end zone and Nohl Williams picked it off, returning it 65 yards. Harrison Butker's 58-yard attempt at the gun came up short.

Seattle opened the third quarter with a 13-play, 6:51 grind that ended in a 35-yard Myers field goal for 13-0. The Chiefs finally put together a real drive, reaching the Seattle 30 before Mahomes put the ball on the turf on third down, and Butker salvaged a 50-yarder.

JSN Is Playing a Different Sport

Smith-Njigba entered as the league's leading receiver and reigning Offensive Player of the Year, and he played like it. He had 129 yards on six catches by halftime, per the Seahawks, and finished with 150 on 12 targets. It was his sixth 100-yard game in seven tries. He now leads the NFL with 867 receiving yards and eight touchdown catches, and per NFL Research he joins his own teammate, Cooper Kupp (2021 with the Rams), as a player with at least 800 receiving yards and eight receiving scores through seven games. Somewhere a defensive coordinator is drawing double coverage on a napkin and crying a little.

Darnold, who threw two picks in the overtime loss at Denver, was crisp: 20 of 28 for 257 yards and a touchdown, plus two scrambles that moved the chains on third-and-long. Wilson carried the load with Zach Charbonnet ruled out, needing 24 carries for his 100 yards in what the team called his best game as a Seahawk.

On defense, Ernest Jones IV led everybody with nine tackles, Tyrice Knight added eight, and Derick Hall got the night's only sack. Walker had been averaging 6.3 yards per carry and 133 yards per game coming in. He left at 2.6 a pop.

The Kick That Wasn't

It turned early in the fourth quarter. Down 13-3, the Chiefs moved 60 yards in 11 plays, with Mahomes finding Travis Kelce for 19. A field goal makes it 13-6, a one-score game with more than eight minutes to play. Butker pushed a 45-yarder wide right.

Seattle took the reprieve and ran a nine-play, 65-yard drive, and Wilson finished it with a 21-yard touchdown run with 3:47 left. The Chiefs' next possession died on downs. After that, AJ Barner's short-yardage sneak on fourth down let Seattle run out the clock.

Butker finished 1 of 3, and the AP noted he has missed 10 field goals since the start of last season. "He's off a bit. Got to fix it," Andy Reid said.

Numbers That Tell on the Chiefs

• 0 red-zone trips for Kansas City, the first time that has happened in 153 Mahomes starts, postseason included, per the Seahawks.
• 213 yards and 11 first downs, both the fewest for the Chiefs in a Mahomes start, while the 3 points tied the low.
• 36 straight games, postseason included, without allowing a 100-yard rusher, a franchise record for Seattle and the league's longest current streak.
• 11 of 16 on third down for Seattle, the club's best rate with at least 15 attempts since play-by-play tracking began in 1991, per NFL Research.
• 1,104 career catches for Kelce after four grabs, moving him past Marvin Harrison and Cris Carter into fifth in NFL history.

The Champs Remember Who They Are

"You know, we saw it as a playoff game," Smith-Njigba said, and the Seahawks played like it: 410 yards, 24 first downs, 69 snaps to Kansas City's 50.

The flaw is obvious, and Mike Macdonald named it himself. Seattle went 0 for 3 in the red zone, turning three trips into six points, and both of its touchdowns came from outside the 20. "I think this game reminds the guys what we're capable of," Macdonald said, then pointed to procedural stuff, negative plays and the red zone as fixable things the team can control. Winning by 17 while leaving that many points on the field is either terrifying or maddening, depending on which sideline you stand on.

Two things to monitor: Rashid Shaheed left early in the second half with a knee injury and did not return, and tackle Charles Cross exited in the fourth with an ankle injury. Seattle hosts the Chicago Bears on Monday, Nov. 2.

Kansas City played without Rashee Rice for a third straight game and without starting tackle Jaylon Moore. "Listen, all three phases we struggled, so we've got to do better, and that's my responsibility," he said. The Chiefs visit Denver next Sunday, and the first item on the agenda should be a long talk with the kicking net.

That's Just Them

Kansas City showed up with the NFL's leading rusher and left with 50 rushing yards as a team and zero trips inside the 20. Ernest Jones IV summed it up in two sentences that belong on a T-shirt: "We know what kind of running back was coming in here, but we don't allow people to run through our defense," he said. "That's just us."

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press; additional notes from Seahawks.com.