Seahawks 18, Colts 16
SAM DARNOLD: All right, never a doubt, right? No, it was, again, I think for us we just got start faster as an offense, finish in the red zone. I feel like it's becoming a theme the next few weeks, and we got get it figured out. I feel like our defense is playing really, really good football.
But, yeah next we just got step it up a little bit as an offense. You know, that starts with me. But we just got to play better.
You know, like I said, we got to be better on third downs, better in the red zone, you know, and we will be better. We'll look at the tape and get better.
It's a quick turnaround for Thursday night against LA that we'll be ready for.
Q. Does it show you something there though that twice you guys need to go down and score late in the game and were able to do so both times?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, you know, it's great to be able to get in these situations where you got to have a two-minute drive or late drive to put us in this position to be able to win the game and we get it done. Those are the situations that we practice throughout the week.
You know, it's good to have those drives when we need it.
Q. What did you feel like started working a little better in the second half though? Obviously you got it going a little more.
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, I think it was great. First of all great adjustments by our coaches, by us as players being able to take those adjustments and run with it and execute it.
And I think that was it.
Q. What did you see in the first half in the way they -- seemed like they were able to successfully get rushers back into the pocket and force you to move up quite a bit early on. And then as the game progressed, second half, seemed like that stopped for the most part.
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah.
Q. What did you see them effectively doing in terms of creating problems for you guys with your pass protection calls?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, I thought they did some really good stuff defensively. Again, we just got watch the tape and grow from it, get better that way.
I think, again, the other thing, too, some of the protection stuff, I think that was on me a lot of times just holding on to the football. Thought I could have got the ball out a couple times early in the first half.
Q. What did you think of having Jalen back at center and how that worked after being without him for a month or so?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, it was great. I think obviously Olu did a really good job when he was in there. Having Jalen back and just for him to be able to get a really good week of practice in, and I felt like we didn't miss a beat with the way that he was able to get in there and do his job today.
Q. You mentioned about the slow starts in the first half the last three games.
SAM DARNOLD: Yep.
Q. Is there anything you can pinpoint, a thing or two? I mean, you mentioned some things, but that you look back in hindsight and say, we could have done this better?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, I think it's just about going out there and executing. I mean, it sounds cliche but it's true. We got to do a better of all 11 doing our job, and again, like I said, that starts with me.
Q. You obviously would rather Jason Myers doesn't have to kick a bunch of field goals, but what can you say about him? Six field goals, 56-yarder.
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, J-My has been incredible all year, you know, again, like I keep saying, hopefully we don't need to use him as much as we are. Hopefully they're PATs and not field goals, but he's been doing great job for us.
Q. ...couple moments during the final drive, is that the product of just having the time with him that you had since he arrived?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, for sure. I think having 'Shid and him being able to -- me and him getting on the same page with certain things and being ready to go when his number is called, that's been a theme since he got here. Whether it's in the punt return game, kick return game, or as a receiver. He's been doing great job for us.
Q. From what you saw out there on the field, why do you think the run game struggled to find some footing today?
SAM DARNOLD: Say that first part again.
Q. From what you saw out there and feeling it on the field, what do you think led to the run game struggles today?
SAM DARNOLD: First of all that's a great defense. They did a really good job. Again, we got watch the tape and kind of see what they did or how they affected us in the run game and go from there.
Q. Was Shaheed the primary on the last drive there?
SAM DARNOLD: On which one?
Q. Well, the bigger one, the first one.
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, when I threw him the ball it was a play that we've been practicing for a long time. Yeah, it was just coverage kind of dictated that I should have thrown the ball and I did and it was a big play.
He run a really good route, got open, and, yeah, we kind of took are of the rest there.
Q. Cooper talked about JSN, the way he competed in this game, that maybe early on that ball finding him and making some big plays. What did you see out of Jaxon today?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, he's a competitor. He's one of those guys that he's not going to shut down or anything when he doesn't get the ball. He knows that when his number is called he's going step up and make a big play.
Again, he's not going to try to force it or anything. It's very natural with him and he knows the ball is going to find him eventually when we need it the most. I felt like he stepped up in a really big way today just continuing to be a really good leader for this team and really good receiver.
Q. You still control your fate for the final games. How valuable is that this time of the year?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, it's huge. We know what these games, these upcoming games mean for us as a team. We're just going continue to do our process and go from there, but with the understanding that this does mean a lot.
Q. I know you said you've gone through this a lot with the two-minute drills, but as Mike is calling the timeouts, so you know there might be time on the clock there, what are you thinking there before that?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, when Indy was kind of going on their second to last drive there it was just understanding that a field goal puts them up, and we might be in a position to where we need to get a couple big plays to put us in field goal position.
Like I mentioned before, 'Shid did a really good job in the kick return and getting north and getting those yards that were crucial. Then the two plays that he made as a receiver, too, were important as well.
So he's been doing great job for us. Yeah, that was what was going through my head at that point.
Q. Were you surprised? They were barely across midfield when they started using their timeouts? Did that surprise you?
SAM DARNOLD: When who started?
Q. When Indianapolis just got across? Midfield and started using the defensive timeouts?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, I mean, it's just the situational stuff that we practice that obviously Coach Mike and our entire staff, they all practice it so much, they talk about all these situations so much so we're always ready for that.
Q. Is there an advantage to one or the other where you have 50 seconds but no timeouts or say like 30 seconds but you have two or three timeouts?
SAM DARNOLD: Yeah, I think in that position I think we handled it perfectly because, you know, you don't want them to try to burn the -- because you would rather have 50 seconds with no timeouts than 20, 15 or 20 seconds and all three timeouts or maybe two or one timeout.
So I thought we handled that situation perfectly.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports