Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold went toe-to-toe with Baker Mayfield for almost all of Sunday’s matchup between Seattle and Tampa Bay.
But what ended up being Darnold’s last play of the day was a significant mistake.
Darnold was looking to throw the ball over the middle when his pass deflected off the helmet of a defender and went into the waiting arms of linebacker Lavonte David for an interception.
A few plays later, Chase McLaughlin hit a 39-yard field goal as time expired to give the Bucs a 38-35 win.
“[T]he last turnover, definitely on me,” Darnold said in his postgame press conference. “I was just trying to throw it away. I think it might have deflected off a helmet. Once I saw it was going to be hot to my left, I just tried to throw it away, and I think it deflected off somebody’s helmet. At the end of the day, I got to protect the football in that situation and can’t give them a short field to put the game away like that.
“I feel like that was bad quarterback play on that last snap.”
Part of that is because Darnold said he could have changed the protection call at the line.
“I had a good answer to that side, and I think Tory [Horton] was open as well on the right side,” Darnold said. “So, I just got to be a lot better there pre-snap.”
Darnold finished the contest 28-of-34 for 341 yards with four touchdowns and an interception. Through five games this season, Darnold has completed 73.1 percent of his passes for 1,246 yards with nine touchdowns and three picks.
