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Game Week
Seattle Has to Beat Its Own Super Bowl Coaches in Las Vegas
Sunday’s opponent is coached by the man who called Seattle’s plays all the way to a Super Bowl nine months ago. Klint Kubiak, last season’s offensive coordinator, runs the Raiders now, and he packed company: Las Vegas offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko was Seattle’s quarterbacks coach in 2025, and offensive line coach Rick Dennison was our run game coordinator. Per Raiders.com, Seattle scored 33.6 points a game in last season’s playoffs with Kubiak calling it.
33.6
Points per game Seattle averaged in last season’s playoffs with Klint Kubiak as offensive coordinator, per Raiders.com.
Mike Macdonald isn’t pretending otherwise. “It feels like the first divisional game of the season,” he said, per National Football Post. “We know each other, but we also know that we are different.” Kubiak spent a year watching Macdonald’s defense in practice every single day, and Macdonald spent that year watching Kubiak’s offense try to solve it. Sunday is two guys who’ve read each other’s diaries.
The twist is who’s holding the pen. Las Vegas traded Kirk Cousins on deadline day, so No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza starts with 10 NFL snaps to his name. Kubiak says Mendoza has exceeded everything asked of him in practice, then said of the Cousins months, “we had the right role model.” Had. The role model lives in Minnesota now.
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Sunday is two guys who’ve read each other’s diaries.
Seattle’s front has noticed. “We can get after this guy,” Byron Murphy said Wednesday. The Raiders run for 71.3 yards a game, second-worst in the league, so pressure might be the entire plan. Kubiak knows where our blitzes come from. His quarterback doesn’t know where anything comes from yet. I like our side of that.
SOURCES →
Injuries
Shaheed Is Back. The Offensive Line Is Still in the Training Room.
Keep Reading ↓
Now the rest. Seven players sat out: Sam Darnold, Charles Cross, Quenton Nelson, Leonard Williams and Brandon Pili, plus Jarran Reed for a personal matter and Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a rest day, per Seattle Sports. Anthony Bradford, the guard who lost his job to Nelson, was limited with a knee. So the backup plan at guard is on the injury report too.
Drew Lock was limited again, as he has been on every report since Week 6, and Macdonald said he’s “making good progress,” per ESPN. The Raiders listed four players. Four. Seattle opened as a 6.5-point favorite anyway, which tells you how the desert feels about rookie debuts.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Seattle is 3-0 against first-round rookie quarterbacks making their first NFL start, per Tim Booth. Mendoza makes it four Sunday. I’m not superstitious, but nobody touch anything. Yahoo Sports
Derick Hall, born at 23 weeks with a 1% chance to survive, is partnering with Huggies ahead of World Prematurity Day: $1 to his One Percent Foundation for every qualifying post tagging @NICULittleFighters through year’s end. The one item today I won’t roast. Go post. Heavy
The last Seahawks-Raiders game was a 40-34 overtime loss in November 2022. Four years later, their head coach, offensive coordinator and line coach all used to cash Seattle paychecks. Revenge has never been this awkward. Wikipedia
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
NINERS
Kyle Shanahan spent part of Wednesday’s press conference on the challenges of acclimating to Mexico City’s altitude before the 49ers’ trip south. That trip lands the week before Seattle visits on Nov. 29, so San Francisco gets thin air, a flight home and then us, fresh off a bye. I’d say breathe deep, fellas, but apparently that’s the problem.
CARDINALS
Arizona lost top receiver Michael Wilson for the season with a fractured vertebra in his neck, so Carson Beck’s first NFL start comes without his No. 1 target. Beck’s summary of getting the job: “It’s kind of short notice, boom, you’re in. Cool.” He gets the Rams’ pass rush Sunday. Get well soon, Michael. Good luck, Carson. Cool is a very brave word.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Seattle took this West Virginia pass rusher 15th overall in 2012, and after parts of three seasons with the Raiders he came back to Seattle in 2020. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Bruce Irvin. He’s played for both sides of Sunday’s game, which makes him the only person allowed to feel nothing about it.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2023
November 12, 2023
Myers Walks Off Washington
Jason Myers hit a 43-yard field goal as time expired and Seattle beat the Commanders 29-26 at Lumen Field. Three years later he’s still our kicker, and after the missed extra point against Chicago, he could use a memory like this one.
Got a Take for The Rooster?
Fire Fleury, trust Lock, pay Darnold, panic about the guard depth? Drop it in the comments on our posts and you might get answered in the Mailbag. Spelling optional. Passion mandatory.
Know your enemy. Ours used to sit down the hall. — The Rooster