Seattle leads Denver 3-0 with 5:51 left in the first quarter of Thursday Night Football at Empower Field at Mile High. Jason Myers kicked a 55-yard field goal for the score. The Week 6 game opened with the Seahawks controlling the ball for 6:59 to Denver's 1:37. Total yardage is only 33 to 10, though, and Sam Darnold has been sacked twice for 12 yards.
Yahoo Sports framed the night around Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Sam Darnold taking on a short-handed Denver secondary. Another Yahoo item said cornerback Riley Moss had been reported earlier in the day as trending toward playing. He is on the field and has one tackle in the box score. The same item said Denver elevated cornerback Sam Fresch Jr. and safety Taylor Rapp. Rapp has one tackle so far. Our box score lists the kick returner as Sean Fresch, so the first name differs between sources. The Yahoo snippet breaks off at "With both Pat Surtain II and […]", so the full list of Denver absences isn't in what we have. Pat Surtain II does not appear among Denver's defensive stat lines so far.
Smith-Njigba has been Seattle's main target. Through five games he had 37 catches for 583 yards and seven touchdowns, including 155 yards and three touchdowns at Arizona and 128 yards and two scores at Washington. Last Sunday against San Francisco he caught five passes for 102 yards and a touchdown. Tonight he has two catches for 11 yards on three targets. Darnold had thrown for 755 yards at 7.7 yards per attempt in four games, completing 64.3 percent. He is 4 of 6 for 27 yards so far.
Yahoo also reported that the Seahawks declared seven players inactive. Another Yahoo item said running back Robert Henry is inactive again, despite recent struggles at the position. Per that item, Seattle took Henry off the Commanders' practice squad last week. Yahoo described the night as a "double throwback" game. Its feed summaries do not say what that means.
Halftime
Both clubs are 3-2. Seattle has lost two of its last three, 33-31 at Washington and 32-29 at home to the 49ers, who are 5-0 and lead the NFC West. Seattle beat the Chargers 30-23 in between. Denver beat the Chargers 23-17 on Sunday after losing 24-14 at San Francisco the week before. The Broncos have won four of five games, so a short-handed secondary stands out against a Seattle offense that has averaged more than 28 points in its last three.
The Seahawks host Kansas City on Sunday, Oct. 25. Denver plays at Arizona the same day.
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