PITTSBURGH -- One of the staples of offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak's offense is getting his quarterback outside the pocket to make throws on the move. But on a key play in the Seattle Seahawks' 31-17 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, that happened out of necessity, not by design.
Leading 24-17 with less than seven minutes to go, Darnold and the Seahawks faced a third-and-9 from their own 28, needing to move the chains if they didn't want to give Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers solid field position for a potential tying drive.
Seattle got the shotgun snap off with one second left on the play clock but failed to pick up blitzing linebacker Patrick Queen.
With Queen closing in, Darnold spun out of pressure, scrambled to his left and floated a throw back across his body over linebacker Payton Wilson to tight end AJ Barner for a 19-yard gain. A would-be sack instead resulted in a first down that helped Seattle put the game away.
"That's the guy that shows up on tape," coach Mike Macdonald said. "He's done it his whole career, and he's doing it for us. And a really heads-up play. AJ understood to uncover and get in the scramble drill. I thought that was a tremendous play. It really changed the tide of the game."
On the next snap, Kubiak dialed up a deep shot to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and Seattle's No. 1 receiver hauled it in for a 43-yard gain. Three plays later, Kenneth Walker III sealed the win with a 19-yard touchdown run, getting the Seahawks back to even after their season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Darnold threw two touchdown passes against Pittsburgh, but the scramble throw on third down was the quarterback's best play from Seattle's comeback win -- and perhaps the finest moment of his first two games as a Seahawk.
"It was a critical play in the game," Macdonald said. "But that's the Sam we know and love."
And that was more like the offense that Macdonald, Kubiak and the Seahawks envisioned.
That unit had slogged its way through much of the opener, struggling on third down (3 of 10), finding marginal success in the run game (3.2 yards per carry) and getting next to nothing from their pass catchers not named Smith-Njigba. They were in position for a game-winning touchdown, but the only sack they allowed all day resulted in a Darnold fumble that the 49ers recovered.
Seattle's offense came alive Sunday, odd start and all.
The Seahawks trailed 14-7 at halftime despite outgaining Pittsburgh 188-69. Darnold was intercepted twice -- one came on a batted pass -- and a missed 36-yard field goal also contributed to the deficit.
"I feel like we were driving the football really well," Darnold said, "and there was just a couple of bad plays on my end that I'm obviously going to clean up, watch the tape and get better from, but I felt like there was a lot to go into the second half optimistic about."
Macdonald hired Kubiak to do what fired predecessor Ryan Grubb did not -- run the ball. That part of Seattle's offense emerged in the second half, with Walker gaining 34 yards on four carries to power a touchdown drive on their first possession of the third quarter. He ripped off a 20-yard run on a later field-goal drive, then called game when he found the end zone on a third-and-19 run.
Walker again shared the workload evenly with Zach Charbonnet in a backfield that has no clear-cut No. 1. This time, Walker was the more productive of the two, finishing with 118 yards on 14 touches after getting bottled up by San Francisco.
On Walker's late touchdown run, Darnold was hoping the running back would stay in bounds in order to bleed the clock as Seattle sent on the field goal unit.
"Sure enough, he breaks a couple tackles and I knew he had a chance," Darnold said. "But Ken's got a chance every single play he touches the rock. It was an incredible play by him and our offensive line."
Another significant change from the opener was how Darnold spread the ball around. Last week, Seattle got so little out of its pass catchers outside of Smith-Njigba's 124 yards on 13 targets that Macdonald challenged their other playmakers to step up so "it's not just the Jax show every snap."
Smith-Njigba delivered another big game vs. Pittsburgh, catching eight passes for 103 yards on 10 targets. But this time he had help. Cooper Kupp had 90 yards receiving on seven catches, including three that converted on third down. Rookie receiver Tory Horton scored a touchdown on his first NFL catch and Barner also found the end zone in addition to his chain-moving catch on the Darnold scramble. Rookie tight end Elijah Arroyo (two catches, 31 yards) chipped in as well.
"This offense is designed to get the ball to everybody," Macdonald said, "and I felt like it did that today."
The excitement that had slowly built among Seahawks fans over the summer with Kubiak's offense turned into disappointment last week, with the coordinator coming under fire for a game plan that featured next to no play action.
Fans got more of what they wanted against Pittsburgh. One play after Darnold's scramble throw to Barner, he faked a handoff to Charbonnet and found Smith-Njigba for the 43-yard gain over cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
Darnold finished 22 of 33 for 295 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, as Seattle racked up 395 yards in all.
"The guy's stone cold out there and just keeps playing," Macdonald said. "When we finally close it out there at the end, you saw the emotion, saw the excitement. He deserves it. He played a really good game."
Through two weeks, it's clear what the Seahawks have on defense -- a top-10 unit from last season that is poised to take a jump this year. Seattle held Rodgers and the Steelers to 267 yards despite a short-handed secondary that was without Devon Witherspoon and Nick Emmanwori. That was after holding San Francisco down for much of the opener until two bad plays on the 49ers game-winning drive by Riq Woolen, who was much better against Pittsburgh.
"Best in the league," Smith-Njigba said of Seattle's defense. "We know that they have our backs, and that feels really going into a game ... We know they're ready and we know they're the best in the world."
The Seahawks return home to host the New Orleans Saints next week with a 1-1 record, a stingy defense and an offense that has by turns looked ineffective and outstanding over the first two games.
"We're committed to what we do and what we've done all camp and what we've built systematically," Macdonald said. "I thought our game plan was great. I thought Klint called a great game, deserves a lot of credit. Honestly, I'm most excited about where we're going. I've seen us execute throughout the offseason. I saw us be disappointed last week, and I've seen us have resolve and bounce back ...
"It's easy to kind of lose hope after you get that initial feedback that it might not be working, but our guys are trusting the process and we're sticking to it."