The Washington Commanders will host the Seattle Seahawks at Northwest Stadium for a Sunday Night Football matchup. Here are some quick hits on their opponent.

Overview
Week 8: BYE (Last game: Week 7 – Def. Texans, 27-19)

• Seattle has won five of its last six games since a loss in Week 1 to the 49ers.
• The Seahawks have won a franchise-record 9 straight road games (3-0 on road this season)
  • Seattle's last road loss was Week 4 last season (lost at Detroit, 42-29)
• Seattle is just 1-4 in first game off a bye since 2020, but that one win did come last season
• This is the fourth straight season the Seahawks have a winning record after seven games (5-2)
• Seattle is 2-2 this season vs. NFC opponents
• Seahawks head coach Mike MacDonald is 15-9 in his first 24 games as the Seahawks head coach. He needs to go 5-5 the rest of the regular season to finish with a season straight 10-win season.

In the history of this franchise (1st season was 1976), no head coach has ever had back-to-back 10-win seasons in their first two seasons with the team.

• Seattle has had a winning record in 12 of the last 13 seasons, the lone exception in this span coming in 2021 (7-10).
• This week begins a stretch in which six of Seattle's final 10 games will be on the road.

The Seahawks have already made two trips to the Eastern Time Zone this season – Week 2 at Pittsburgh, Week 6 at Jacksonville – and still has three more trips East this season – Sunday at Washington, Week 14 at Atlanta, Week 17 at Carolina.

Offense
Season Averages: Rushing (106.1 YPG); Passing (244.4 YPG), Total (350.6 YPG), Scoring (27.6 PPG)
Season Rankings: Rushing (21st), Passing (8th), Total (11th), Scoring (6th)

• The Seahawks enter Week 9 in the top 5 of the NFL in scoring (5th – 27.6 PPG). Seattle hasn't had a top-5 scoring offense since 2015, when it finished 4th.
• The Seahawks are also 11th in total yards (350.6 YPG). Seattle hasn't finished that high in NFL rankings in total yards since 2019 (8th).
• Seattle is coming off its second-lowest yardage output of the season in Week 7 vs. the Texans (316 total yards). Its season low is 230 yards back in its Week 1 loss to the 49ers.
• QB Sam Darnold leads the NFL in yards per pass attempt this season (9.1). He also ranks in the top 10 of the league in passing yards (1,754 – 10th) and passer rating (109.2 – 7th).
• Since the start of last season, Darnold's teams are 19-5 in games he starts , and he has thrown 47 TD passes since the start of last season.

The only other QBs in the league with 40 or more TD passes and five or fewer losses since the start of last season are Patrick Mahomes (saw him last week) and Jared Goff (will see him next week).

• Darnold leads the NFL in passer rating on pass attempts of 10 or more air yards (137.2), according to NFL's Next Generation Stats.
• WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba is having the best season of his career. He leads the NFL in receiving yards (819), receiving yards per game (117.0) and receptions of 20+ yards (14).
• The 14 receptions of 20+ yards by Smith-Njigba match his total for all of last season
• Smith-Njigba is trying to become the first player to average 100+ receiving YPG and 16 or more yards per reception since Julio Jones did it in 2016.
• Smith-Njigba has accounted for 46.3% of Seattle's receiving yards, the highest percentage of any player in the NFL.
• With at least 75 receiving yards in Week 9, Smith-Njigba can join Adam Thielen (2018), Antonio Brown (2014), & Michael Irvin (1995) as only players since 1985 w/ 75+ rec yds in the first his eight games.
• Smith-Njigba is already the youngest player with 75+ rec yds in each of his first 7 games in a season
• Mistakes have been a problem for Seattle this season. It is tied for the second-most turnovers this season with 12, with only the Titans (13) having more. (Note: six other teams also have 12 turnovers).
• In their Week 7 win over Houston, the Seahawks had four turnovers, the first time they won a game with four or more turnovers in nearly six seasons (Week 10, Nov. 11, 2019 at San Francisco).

Defense
Season Averages: Rushing (75.7 YPG); Passing (230.1 YPG), Total (305.9 YPG); Scoring (19.4)
Season Rankings: Rushing (1st), Passing (23rd), Total (10th), Scoring (7th)

• Seattle ranks in the top 10 in both scoring defense (7th) and total defense (10th). The last time they ranked in the top 10 in both categories was 2016 (3rd in scoring defense, 5th in total defense).
  • The leader of the Seahawks' defense that season? Bobby Wagner, who led the NFL with 167 tackles.
• Seattle has held six of seven opponents to 20 points or less. The only exception came in Week 5, when Tampa Bay scored 38 in a 38-35 win over the Seahawks.
• The last time the Seahawks allowed 20 or fewer points in six of their first seven games was 2012.
• The Seahawks have held five of their last six opponents under 300 total yards, the only exception coming in that Week 5 loss to the Bucs (season-high 426 yards allowed).
• Seattle is one of two teams (Patriots the other) that has four players with more than 20 pressures this season.
• Uchenna Nwosu (25), Byron Murphy II (25), DeMarcus Lawrence (22) and Boye Mafe (21)
• The Seahawks have the league's No. 1 rush defense, allowing just over 75 rushing yards a game (75.7).

Seattle is also leading the league in yards allowed per rush attempt (3.3) and rushing touchdowns allowed (2 – tied with the Rams).

• Only one opponent has rushed for 100 or more yards this season: 49ers in Week 1 (119)
• So since Week 1, Seattle has allowed just 411 rushing yards total over its last 7 games (68.5 rush YPG allowed)
• The Seahawks have eight takeaways this season, but seven of the eight came in the first four weeks of the season. Over their last three games, the Seahawks have forced just one turnover.