JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Having thrown a combined six interceptions in his last two starts in Jacksonville, Sam Darnold refused to get greedy this time around.<\/p>\n
He played it safe and ended up with a turnover-free performance.<\/p>\n
Darnold threw for 295 yards, with touchdown passes to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Cooper Kupp, and Seattle dominated both lines of scrimmage on its way to a 20-12 victory against the Jaguars on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told myself I was going to take what they give me, and if they give me a checkdown, take it,\u201d said Darnold, whose late interception last week proved costly against Tampa Bay. \u201cI felt like I did a pretty good job of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith-Njigba finished with eight catches for 162 yards as the Seahawks (4-2) rebounded from a last-second loss to the Buccaneers and improved to 22-6 over the last decade in 1 p.m. kickoffs on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
The Jaguars (4-2), meanwhile, looked every bit like a team that spent the week reveling in a Monday night victory against three-time AFC champion Kansas City. Jacksonville\u2019s first three snaps set the tone: a sack, a holding penalty and a 3-yard loss.<\/p>\n
The Jags were penalized 10 times for 76 yards. Trevor Lawrence was sacked a season-high seven times. Travis Etienne was held to 27 yards on 12 carries. Brian Thomas Jr. dropped a third-down pass late with no defenders on him. And the Jaguars had a 54-yard TD pass from Lawrence to Thomas nullified because rookie Travis Hunter lined up offsides.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an undisciplined operation at the moment,\u201d coach Liam Coen said. \u201cWhat\u2019s standing in our way? Right now, it\u2019s us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacksonville still made it close in the fourth quarter following Lawrence\u2019s 26-yard TD pass to Tim Patrick. It helped that Seattle went 1 for 11 on third downs.<\/p>\n
But the Seahawks sealed it by forcing three punts in the fourth and then Darnold connected with tight end AJ Barner for a 61-yarder, which allowed them to run out the clock after another penalty on Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously didn\u2019t play our best ball,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cA lot of mistakes. A lot of self-inflicted wounds like we\u2019ve talked about in the past. We\u2019ve got to clean it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first time this season that the Jaguars failed to notch a takeaway. They entered the week leading the league with 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was critical,\u201d Seattle coach Mike Macdonald said. \u201cWe knew they would do that going into the game. They\u2019re an opportunistic team. The numbers speak for themselves. I thought our ball security was tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newsome burned on his first snap with Jacksonville<\/strong><\/p>\n Newly acquired Jaguars cornerback Greg Newsome made a less-than-ideal first impression. Smith-Njigba torched Newsome for a 61-yard TD reception on Newsome\u2019s first snap with Jacksonville.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew (Newsome was in the game),\u201d Smith-Njigba said. \u201cBut that was good to take advantage of that look and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n The Jaguars traded cornerback Tyson Campbell for Newsome on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Wesley Hines-Allen serves as an honorary captain<\/strong><\/p>\n Jaguars defensive end and team captain Josh Hines-Allen had a special helper for the coin toss.<\/p>\n Hines-Allen brought his 8-year-old son, Wesley, to midfield as part of the NFL\u2019s \u201cCrucial Catch\u201d program, which is dedicated to fighting cancer and saving lives. Wesley was an honorary captain two months after completing treatment for pediatric cancer.<\/p>\n Wesley was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia in December and underwent chemotherapy for six months.<\/p>\n Key injuries<\/strong><\/p>\n Seahawks: DT Jarran Reed injured his left leg in the fourth quarter. The Seahawks played without three starting defensive backs: S Julian Love and CBs Devon Witherspoon and CB Tariq Woolen.<\/p>\n Jaguars: LB Devin Lloyd felt \u201ca little tight,\u201d but the team never reported an injury and later said he was on the bench because of a coaches\u2019 decision. DE Travon Walker was active less than two weeks after having wrist surgery. He played mostly on passing downs while wearing a club on his left hand.<\/p>\n Up next<\/strong><\/p>\n The Seahawks stay in the AFC South and host Houston next Monday night.<\/p>\n The Jaguars \u201chost\u201d the Los Angeles Rams at Wembley Stadium in London next Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE \u2014 Having thrown a combined six interceptions in his last two starts in Jacksonville, Sam Darnold refused…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":298857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,135906,3188,723,89449,7310,8013,66702,2087,152220,50647,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,3355],"class_list":{"0":"post-298856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-darnold","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-interception","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-jaguars","15":"tag-penalties","16":"tag-seahawks","17":"tag-smith-njigba","18":"tag-touchdown","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-victory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115364632211052091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}