SEATTLE (AP) — For the first time in nearly two years, the Seattle Seahawks lost a game by double digits.
Now sitting at 4-4, there's a level of concern for the defending Super Bowl champions after a 34-17 drubbing by the Chicago Bears on Monday night.
“The sense of urgency for us to improve right now is high," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said.
Particularly on offense, after the Seahawks finished with 252 yards. Seattle went 1 for 11 on third down.
“I always think it starts with first and second down efficiency,” Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold said.
Last week, Seattle had a promising 20-3 win over the previously unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs. The Seahawks then bolstered their offense with the addition of three-time All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson in a trade with the Indianapolis Colts and the long-awaited return of running backs Jadarian Price and Zach Charbonnet from injuries.
With an improvised offensive line adding Nelson, the entire offense looked out of sync, which was also without tackle Charles Cross because of injury. Those issues were only amplified by facing newly acquired defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons that Chicago traded for last week. He had a sack, added another tackle for loss and finished with six tackles and a pass defensed.
“We came off of last week feeling good, and then we have some change up in our offensive line," Macdonald said.
Darnold was 17 of 34 for 188 yards and two touchdowns, along with an interception that set up Bears running back D’Andre Swift’s third touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter.
It was Seattle's largest margin of defeat under Darnold, who has 10 touchdown passes and nine interceptions this season.
“I feel like there were opportunities to get the ball out, and I just didn’t,” said Darnold, who was sacked three times.
Since the start of last season, Darnold leads the league with 29 turnovers. Monday, however, was just the third time the Seahawks lost a game when Darnold had one or fewer turnovers.
"We didn’t do the things on offense that we need to be able to do to play Seahawk football," Macdonald said.
Jaxon-Smith Njigba continues to be Seattle's most reliable offensive playmaker. The reigning AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year added to his league-leading receiving yardage totals by catching six passes for 118 yards, including a wide-open 43-yard score late in the first half. Through Week 8, he leads the NFL with 985 yards and nine touchdowns.
Smith-Njigba topped 100 yards for the seventh time this season.
Despite making a significant addition to its offensive line with the trade for Nelson and return of both Price and Charbonnet, Seattle's run game wasn't a big factor. They combined for 52 yards on 16 carries.
“We’ve got to improve very quickly in the run game,” Grey Zabel said, who was moved from left guard to right guard after Nelson was acquired. “Got to get back to running the ball, take the pressure off our quarterback and wide receivers and our play-caller. Got to be able to move the line of scrimmage.”
For the first time since Week 4, a receiver other than Smith-Njigba caught a TD pass. Cooper Kupp grabbed a 7-yard touchdown — his only catch — that cut the deficit to 20-17 in the fourth quarter.
Seahawks kicker Jason Myers missed a pair of kicks against the Bears. He pulled an extra-point attempt left and his 33-yard field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter was blocked.
Seattle defensive tackle Leonard Williams suffered a stinger in the fourth quarter and did not return.
30 — Seattle had gone 30 straight games in the regular season and playoffs without losing by more than four points before its loss to Chicago on Monday. The Seahawks fell to the Green Bay Packers 30-13 on Dec. 15, 2024.
The Seahawks host the Arizona Cardinals (3-5) on Sunday.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Chicago Bears defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, right, tries to get to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, left, as guard Grey Zabel tries to stop him during the second half of an NFL football game, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) reacts during the second half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff was reelected Tuesday to a second term, holding a key seat for Democrats by defeating Republican Rep. Mike Collins in a race that catapulted the Senate’s youngest member to the forefront of his party’s national stars as it looks to stymie President Donald Trump in his final White House years.
Ossoff, 39, began the cycle as a top Republican target and the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a state Trump carried in 2024. But from the start, the senator ran as an aggressive Trump critic, with blistering critiques of “a failed president” that became a staple of voters’ social media feeds across the country.
He became a fundraising juggernaut, pulling in more than $100 million and sparking speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid to succeed the man he said has used the Oval Office to enrich himself and damage the U.S. political and economic system.
“Corruption in American politics runs a lot deeper than Donald Trump,” Ossoff said during the campaign. “It’s not just the money that’s corrupted our politics. It is a moral corruption, the cynical indifference of powerful people.”
For Trump, Ossoff’s victory is a notably bitter confirmation of his decline toward lame duck status. Trump endorsed Collins for the Republican nomination in a state where the president anchored his false claims that his 2020 defeat was rigged.
But the two-term congressman, first elected echoing Trump’s election lies, never found momentum. He struggled to raise money, navigate his alliance with the president and defend against his ties to white nationalists and an unresolved House ethics investigation.
Collins told supporters Tuesday night that it had been an honor to serve under Trump, who he called the best president of his lifetime. “The results may not be what we wanted tonight, but y’all that’s OK,” he said.
It had been a blistering campaign with Ossoff hammering Collins repeatedly as a “bigot,” emphasizing the congressman’s past social media posts, his onetime chief of staff’s communications with white supremacists and white nationalist advocacy from Collins’ son-in-law.
“If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club,” the senator said, referring to the late civil rights icon’s role in Bloody Sunday and the Voting Rights March in 1965.
Collins insisted he had always denounced racism and antisemitism, but the onslaught left him largely unable to land counterattacks that Ossoff was too liberal for Georgia.
“No one has ever asked or held Jon Ossoff accountable for any of his votes,” Collins said, accusing the senator of supporting open borders, allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports, and voting “100% of the time with Bernie Sanders,” the democratic socialist senator from Vermont.
Most Georgia voters, about two-thirds, say Ossoff is not “too extreme,” according to The AP Voter Poll. That included most independents and about 3 in 10 Republicans.
Ossoff was first elected in 2020, defeating Republican Sen. David Perdue in a runoff held the day before Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol with hopes of stopping Democrat Joe Biden’s certification as president-elect. Ossoff’s fellow Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, won a special election at the same time, both breaking historical barriers: Warnock as Georgia’s first Black senator, Ossoff as its first Jewish senator.
Warnock won reelection in 2022 with a campaign targeted more at Georgia’s moderate swing voters, reflecting the difference for a Democratic senator running for reelection with Biden in the White House as opposed to Trump. Still, Ossoff’s unabashedly aggressive approach initially struck some Democrats as a gamble. It quickly became a model, with Ossoff holding carefully produced rallies where he delivered his withering critiques of the president as young aides quickly cut video clips that were distributed online in real time.
Ossoff mocked “Prince Don Jr.,” Eric Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s sons and son-in-law, for their international business deals. The senator called for ending the Iran war, rolling back many of Trump’s tax cuts, and blasted the president’s tariffs. He highlighted his stalled legislative proposal to bar members of Congress from trading individual stocks and pitched a constitutional amendment to limit corporate money in campaigns.
The senator also carefully navigated the politics of Israel, saying he values Israel’s security and “the lives of innocent Palestinians.” He has voted for some U.S. military aid to Israel and against other munitions grants. Ossoff said the Israeli military has violated international standards of warfare in Gaza but avoided the question of whether Israel is committing genocide — a charge levied by some on the Democrats’ left flank. Ossoff said that’s a matter for the International Criminal Court to decide.
Ossoff also leveraged the work he’s done for constituents in Georgia, earning endorsements from some local Republican officials in the historically conservative state who said he’s been an effective advocate for hurricane relief, infrastructure investments and other federal funding.
“This is what small men like Donald Trump and Mike Collins will never understand,” Ossoff said as he campaigned, “that our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas and our aspirations and our care for one another.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens speaks during an election night event for Democratic Senate candidate Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
People watch election results come in at an election night event for Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins speaks to members of the media during a campaign event on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
A supporter of Democratic candidate U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff holds a sign during a campaign event on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Douglasville, Georgia. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Georgia U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Mike Collins speaks to members of the media during a campaign event on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Democratic candidate U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff speaks during a campaign event on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Douglasville, Georgia. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
