This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/seahawks as Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba make Saints pay for stupid penalty.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold escapes pressure from the New Orleans Saints and delivers a dime to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 29 yards at Lumen Field.

He went to San Clemente High School down the highway from Dana Point. He was a baseball and basketball player for San Clemente High, and a football wide receiver and linebacker initially. His high school basketball coach once said Darnold could have played college basketball in the then-Pac-12 or Mountain West Conference, “at worst.”

Sam Darnold finished 16 of 23 for a modest 150 yards in the Seahawks’ 17-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. But his lone turnover came at the worst time.

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold overcame a pair of turnovers to make some key plays in Seattle’s Week 2 win in Pittsburgh.

For the second week in a row, no Seattle Seahawks players were fined for game infractions (whether called or uncalled). Sam Darnold’s first touchdown pass as Seahawks quarterback, however, should’ve had a flag thrown at the time and did cost a Pittsburgh Steelers star some money.

As much as the Seattle Seahawks struggled to run the ball or spread it around through the air in a season-opening loss to San Francisco, they had no such challenges in Week 2. The Seahawks

Darnold went just 16-for-23 with 150 yards as the Seahawks mustered a measly 13 points in the loss, and it already has people wondering if Seattle made a mistake in signing Darnold to a three-year, $100.5 million contract in free agency.

It took about seven and a half quarters, but the Seattle Seahawks finally got to see flashes of the Sam Darnold that the Minnesota Vikings got last year when he was their starter. On a third and nine, Darnold made a near-impossible escape and completed as pass to AJ Barner to keep the drive alive.