SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Leonard Williams didn’t want to leave the smoke-filled visitor’s locker room at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday night, even as the Seattle Seahawks were winding down a raucous celebration after securing one of their biggest wins in recent memory.
“The victory cigars were pretty awesome,” said Williams, a Pro Bowl defensive lineman. “I couldn’t really breathe in there at one point, but it didn’t really matter. … It was just beautiful to see my team celebrating.”
With the NFC West title and the conference’s No. 1 seed on the line, Williams’ defense led Seattle to a 13-3 win against the division rival San Francisco 49ers. The Seahawks rode their emerging running game and got just enough from quarterback Sam Darnold to win their seventh straight, earning a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.
With Levi’s Stadium hosting Super Bowl LX, Mike Macdonald’s team is hoping to return in five weeks.
“All the things that we’ve been working at since we walked in the door, especially this year, are coming to life,” Macdonald said. “I’m just incredibly proud of them. They played incredibly hard, they played together, they played complementary football. Each phase picked the other up.”
With the win, the Seahawks finish the regular season with a franchise-best 14-3 record in Year 2 under Macdonald, who replaced Pete Carroll after the 2023 season. Darnold, who also went 14-3 last year with the Minnesota Vikings, joined Tom Brady (2003 and ’04) as the only quarterbacks to win at least 14 games in consecutive seasons.
But this was a game won by Seattle’s defense and run game.
Macodnald’s unit entered Week 18 allowing the second-fewest points in the NFL, but they were facing a tough test against the league’s hottest offense. The 49ers scored at least 37 points in each of their three previous games, and Brock Purdy had totaled 10 touchdowns over the past two.
In a performance that would make the Legion of Boom proud, the Seahawks kept San Francisco out of the end zone and allowed only 173 total yards, the 49ers’ fewest in any regular-season game since Kyle Shanahan became their head coach in 2017. Three points was their fewest since that season’s opener, according to ESPN Research.
“The 49ers have been scoring at will. They haven’t been punting,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “We know our style of play. Let’s just go out there, play how we know how to play and let’s just see what happens, let’s see what they have. And for us to come out and hold them to three points, that’s huge.”
The Seahawks sacked Purdy three times and intercepted him on a pivotal play in the fourth quarter. With over 10 minutes to go, the 49ers were putting together one of their better drives of the night, marching toward the end zone with a chance to cut into Seattle’s 13-3 lead.
But on a second-down play from Seattle’s 6-yard line, outside linebacker Boye Mafe tipped Purdy’s throw at the line of scrimmage. It went off of running back Christian McCaffrey in the flat and right to linebacker Drake Thomas, who ended the 49ers’ scoring threat with his first career interception.
“I’m one on one,” said Thomas, an undrafted free agent in 2023 who has been one of the unsung heroes of Macdonald’s defense in his first season as a starter. “I know he’s got an option route on me, and honestly, he probably beats me to the corner, but I think Mafe might have gotten a piece of the ball … and kind of changed the direction of it. It hit off his back shoulder and popped right into my hands. God is good.”
The Seahawks, who entered Week 18 allowing a league-low 3.7 yards per carry, held McCaffrey to 23 yards on eight carries. They’ve gone 26 straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
And now they’ve finally gotten their own running game going.
What had been a slog for much of the season has turned into a strength, just in time for the playoffs. After Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet traded 100-plus-yard games over the past two weeks, Walker went for 97 yards on 16 attempts. He picked up 19 on a third-and-17 play in the third quarter, extending a drive that ended with a field goal to give Seattle a 13-3 lead.
Charbonnet scored the game’s only touchdown, finding the end zone on a 27-yard run in the first quarter. He finished 74 yards on 17 attempts.
Charbonnet was open in the flat for a would-be touchdown on Seattle’s opening drive, but Darnold instead took a sack for an 11-yard loss, and the Seahawks came away with no points after San Francisco stopped them on fourth down.
Darnold was in this position a year ago with the Vikings, needing a win in the regular-season finale to earn the No. 1 seed. But he struggled in a blowout loss to the Detroit Lions, completing only 18 of 41 attempts. Darnold went 14-3 with Minnesota and made the Pro Bowl, but his breakthrough season came to an end a week later when he was sacked nine times in a wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams, fueling questions about his big-game ability.
The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million deal in March after trading Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders. Darnold made his second straight Pro Bowl despite committing an NFL-high 20 turnovers through the first 17 weeks.
In one of the biggest games of his career Saturday night, Darnold did just enough — and he took care of the ball. Seattle’s quarterback completed 20 of 26 attempts for 198 yards and no turnovers.
The game was as close as it was thanks to Seattle missing out at least scoring opportunities. In addition to the turnover on downs at the start on the first possession, the usually reliable Jason Myers missed a 47-yard field goal in the first half and a chip-shot in the fourth quarter that would have given Seattle a 13-point lead. Darnold converted a third-and-10 on an extended play before Myers’ final miss.
The Seahawks went 6-of-13 on third down and 0-for-3 in the red zone.
“That was an incredible game, and kind of a weird game,” Darnold said. “As an offense, we didn’t execute the way that we wanted to in the red zone and at the end of drives. But out defense, they step up time after time. … It was an incredible win. I’m so proud of the guys in that locker room. We’re going to celebrate this one, but we know that we have a lot of work to do.”
Darnold earned another $1 million in contract incentives by finishing with over 4,000 passing yards (4,048) and a completion rate of over 67.5% (67.7%). He already secured at least $500,000 with the Seahawks making the playoffs and will get another $500,000 as long as they finish the regular season in the top 10 in total offense.
With six catches for 84 yards, Jaxon Smith-Njigba finishes with an NFL-best and franchise-record 1,793 yards. That’s the eighth-highest single-season total in league history.
In the first quarter, Smith-Njigba drew a pass interference penalty on 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, who said earlier this week that he was hoping to shadow Seattle’s star receiver.
“I definitely heard it,” Smith-Njigba said. “It’s hard to respond back to all my fans, but I knew that we were going to see him today and take care of business.”
With their win, the Seahawks improved to an NFL-best 15-2 on the road in two seasons under Macdonald, including 8-1 this year. Now, they won’t have to leave home for the playoffs unless it’s a return trip to Levi’s Stadium to try to claim the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy.
“It’s huge to be able to play in front of the 12s,” Darnold said. “It’s unlike any other stadium that I’ve ever played in in terms of how loud it can be and how tough it could be and for another offense to operate.”
The Seahawks expect to have left tackle Charles Cross (hamstring) and safety Coby Bryant (knee) back for the divisional round after those starters missed three and two games, respectively.
In the meantime, they can celebrate one of the biggest regular-season wins in their franchise’s 50-year history.
“I don’t want today to end, honestly,” said Williams, who is in his 11th season. “I was hanging out in that locker room for a long time. It’s probably why I’m the last one here right now. But it’s incredible. I’ve been playing for a really long lime. This is the closest team I’ve ever been on, the most winning season I’ve ever been on.
“Overall, the job’s not done. That’s another thing I love about this team so much. People are celebrating, but in the middle of the celebrations, you’re hearing people say, we’ve got more work to do.”
