Instant Reaction: Seahawks roll in blowout win over Saints

The Seattle Seahawks did not give the New Orleans Saints’ Kellen Moore a warm welcome in his first game in his home state as an NFL head coach.

The Seahawks rolled to a 44-13 blowout win over New Orleans at Lumen Field on Sunday after jumping out to a commanding 38-3 lead in the first half.

Seattle Seahawks win: Observations | Recap | Box score

With the win, the Seahawks improved to 2-1 while getting the chance to rest their regulars in the second half ahead of a Thursday night meeting with NFC West rival Arizona. The Saints, who are coming off a 5-12 season in 2024, fell to 0-3 in their first year under Moore, a former standout quarterback for Prosser High School and Boise State.

Check out the instant reactions to the game from the voices of Seattle Sports in this post, including Seahawks Radio Network analyst Dave Wyman’s thoughts in the video at the top.

Mike Salk – Brock and Salk (6-10 a.m. weekdays)

The Seahawks look like a good team. The Saints appear to be a very bad one. And on this day, that played out exactly as you might have hoped it would. Utter and complete dominance for the Seahawks in a way we haven’t seen in years.

Stacy Rost: There’s important context to Seahawks’ runaway win

There are plenty of flowers to be handed out after one like this, but I would offer my top game ball to the scouts because this game was won in many ways by the players on the outside margin of the roster. D’Anthony Bell, Chazz Surratt, Derion Kendrick, Josh Jobe, Eric Saubert and Dareke Young all made significant contributions that helped put this one away early.

That speaks to the depth of the roster, the way this coaching staff prepares everyone, and the eagle eye of the scouting department in finding some diamonds in the rough.

Bob Stelton – Wyman and Bob (2-7 p.m. weekdays)

It was hard to tell in this one if the Seahawks are very good or the Saints are a disaster. I think the truth is that it’s a little of both.

It’s hard to find something that didn’t go right for the Seahawks today. The stats were not huge but the score was, and they got there by being incredibly efficient. I loved that the Seahawks were aggressive out of the gate and jumped on a team that clearly was involved in a mismatch.

The Seahawks did not punt until the third quarter. Sam Darnold looked very sharp with some nice pinpoint throws moving this team up and down the field. Special teams came up huge with Tory Horton and his 95-yard punt return for a touchdown, a blocked punt, and giving this team good field position to work with throughout the majority of the game.

The defense going shorthanded today was still absolutely dominant despite playing without Devon Witherspoon, Julian love, and Nick Emmanwori. They forced Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler into his first interception of the season and basically shut down anything the Saints attempted to do with the run or pass.

If you want to nitpick to find something that didn’t go well for the Hawks, the run game would be what I think most would point to. They had very little luck in terms of leaning on the rushing attack to eat up clock and pile up yardage, yet Kenneth Walker III had two short-yardage touchdowns and got a bit more effective in the second half.

Overall, this was a win they needed on a short week, and they were able to get it done without some crucial starters and even getting to rest some starters in the fourth quarter.

Brock Huard – Brock and Salk

Mike Macdonald wanted his Seahawks to play complementary ball – that was a master’s class of it.

Horton, Darnold, JSN: Spectacular.

Byron Murphy II, Josh Jobe, Derion Kendrick: Awesome.

The Seahawks’ special teams have been the best in the game, and not having to expend a ton of personnel and snaps in the second half is big deal with the quick turnaround to a Thursday night game this week.

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Mike Lefko – Wyman and Bob

A thoroughly impressive win and exactly what you wanted to see against an inferior opponent.

For the second straight week, special teams came up with key plays, setting the tone for the Seahawks to bury the Saints before they could even settle into the game. That comfortable margin also allowed the defense to be aggressive, and it’s reassuring they were able to get key contributions from the entire unit with Julian Love and Devon Witherspoon out.

The Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba connection continues to grow, and it seems like JSN is well on his way to establishing himself as one of the best receivers in the NFL and certainly a bona fide No. 1 WR on a team.

An all-around good win and exactly what you need heading into a short week and a divisional game on Thursday night.

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