The Seahawks’ locker room was something it rarely is. Something it hasn’t been in almost a full year.

Quiet.

For the first time inside a Seahawks locker room post-game in 10 months, you could hear players talking to players, and yourself think, on Sunday evening in suburban Washington, D.C. None of the usual, booming bass music that makes the walls shake, that makes interviews nearly impossible.

You could hear Demarcus Lawrence declare this rare loss, 33-31 to the previously winless Commanders amid three turnovers on offense, mistakes on defense and shoddy play on special teams that the defending Super Bowl champions are not worried about their first loss since November 2025.

“We’re the ‘Darkside Defense.’ Trust me, we aren’t goin’ nowhere,” Lawrence, the 13-year veteran outside linebacker, said on the Seahawks’ way home from Maryland to Seattle.

“They played a good game, you know,” he said of the Commanders. “But at the end of the day, it’s all about us.

“They played a great game. We played a bad game.”

Fellow Pro Bowl veteran and defensive lineman Leonard Williams posted on social media Monday about the loss: “Ain’t nothing but a little fuel to the (with a fire emoji).”

That’s what a Super Bowl win inside a franchise-record 12-game winning streak that ended Sunday brings: Confidence to the edge of bravado.

Despite the offense handing Washington 21 points with three uncharacteristic turnovers, despite the defense allowing 33 points and failing to get the stop on third downs late that would have given Seattle a final chance to win at Washington, despite the 2-1 Seahawks falling behind the 3-0 49ers early in the NFC West, they are just fine.

“I’m proud of the mentality that we’ve had today,” coach Mike Macdonald said Monday upon the team’s return from D.C. and film review of the game heading toward the next one, Sunday against the 0-3 Los Angeles Chargers at Lumen Field. “The guys have been … you can tell that they’re upset, which they should be. But you can feel the resolve. You can feel the eagerness to get back at it (at practice) on Wednesday.

“Kind of sounds weird coming off a loss: Our effort, I’m proud of our effort.

“The way our guys played, our mentality, I really … I love our group.”

Jadarian Price’s next

The Seahawks out-gained the Commanders 457 to 258. Seattle’s three turnovers — rookie running back Jadarian Price’s second fumble in two games that got him benched plus quarterback Sam Darnold’s two interceptions — were what turnovers almost always are: the great equalizer.

Macdonald said Monday that Price knows he must secure the ball.

The first-round pick said after the game he needs to focus more on that and less on fighting for extra yards at the end of plays, as he did losing the ball to gift the Commanders the game’s first score Sunday.

“I made a mistake early on,” Price said inside an unusually hushed Seahawks locker room in Maryland. “So just got to deal with the consequences that come with that.”

Price said his focus this week in practices is “just being more focused on the situations instead of trying to make the big play.

“Just trying to get every yard I can,” Price said. “But I’ve just got to focus on keeping the ball.

“A mindset thing.”

His head coach said Monday it’s a (hard) lesson learned, and that Price will be back at tailback Sunday against the Chargers.

“With JD, he understands what’s going on. He needs to take care of the ball,” Macdonald said. “There’s some things fundamentally where we can focus on.

“And we’re going to continue to give him the ball. We trust him.

“We know that he’s going to work hard to do his part, as well.”

Defense falters on 2 key plays late

Following the loss to veteran backup quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Commanders, Lawrence and Macdonald mentioned two plays in particular on defense that they regret. Darnold, who threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns in his return from the strained glute he got early in the opener Sept. 9 against New England, and Seattle’s offense had just brought the team within 33-31. Two minutes remained. Washington had a third and 9.

Macdonald called a blitz because he expected Mariota and Washington to pass. He sent weakside linebacker Drake Thomas on another of his many blitzes. Mariota noticed Thomas showing blitz and changed the play at the line from a called pass to a run, a stretch play around the edge Thomas was blitzing from. Running back Rachaad White ran into the open space Thomas blitzed from, for 19 yards and a first down.

Thomas told The News Tribune in the locker room after the game he has to recognize the veteran Mariota changing the play and not dart inside on the blitz to the quarterback.

“I’ve got to set the edge, honestly, (against the run) at the end of the day,” Thomas said. “We were expecting a pass. And I was trying to shorten the edge to get to the quarterback quick. But I’ve got to recognize what they’re doing and know that it’s going to be a run play.

“I’m the edge of the defense right there. So I’ve got to set it.”

Macdonald called that “a good check” against a zero blitz. That forced Seattle to use its remaining timeouts on defense.

On the game’s final third down, the Seahawks defense’s final chance to get Darnold and the offense the ball back to win, Mariota kept the ball and ran around end on a run-pass option. Lawrence said the defense had prepared for Mariota to do that all week, but the veteran QB didn’t do it until the end.

“It’s about us being on our details,” the 34-year-old Lawrence said.

“They ran their first RPO of the game on the last play.”

Monday, Macdonald had the Seahawks’ attention. It’s a refocus on the champions’ process, a return to their constant quest to perfect it, before back-to-back home games against the Chargers and 49ers the next two Sundays.

“It was a great learning experience for everybody,” the coach said of the loss at Washington.

“How we get to solutions throughout games.”

Julian Love, safety situations

Pro Bowl veteran safety Julian Love missed the Washington game. So did fellow starter Ty Okada. The replacement for departed (in free agency this spring, to Chicago) Coby Bryant has missed the first three games with a hamstring injury

Macdonald said Love’s calf tightened in practice Thursday. Okada emerged last season and started 11 games, including while Love was out two months with an injured hamstring.

Macdonald indicated Monday Love could play this weekend against the Chargers.

“It’s a day-to-day thing right now. We’ll see how that shakes out,” the head coach said. “He did some extensive work (Monday) morning and it went well. We’ll see how that translates to Wednesday and move forward.”

AJ Finley and Rodney Thomas started for Love and Okada at Washington. Both began this season on the practice squad. The team elevated Maxen Hook from the practice squad for depth at safety against the Commanders.

“Guys played good football. They communicated,” Macdonald said of Finley and Thomas. “There are some opportunities out there that I think both would say we’d like to be able to take advantage next time.”

More Nick Emmanwori more places?

Nick Emmanwori is listed as a safety but continued to play at the line of scrimmage more like a strong-side, “Sam” linebacker at Washington. Emmanwori mostly did it in coverage on slot receivers rather than rushing. He played 52% of Seattle’s defensive snaps against the Commanders, 36 of 69 plays. That was one week after Emmanwori played nine snaps in his season debut at Arizona, his first game following arthroscopic ankle surgery in July.

“I thought Nick had a good game. There were some really great plays, and he’ll continue to get better,” Macdonald said. “I think he should be really proud of how he approached last week mentally.”

The coach and designer of the defense hinted Emmanwori might start playing multiple positions in the front, middle and back of the defense, as he did in his wondrous rookie season last year. That would make Seattle’s defense more dangerous, like it was last season when it allowed the fewest points in the NFL.

“I think that’s one of the things that’s something that we want to discuss as a staff of what the process is every week, of how, where and how often he plays so he can have a really focused game plan,” Macdonald said.

“Where he plays really affects the position group around him because he’s playing out of really three position groups. That’s something we’ll continue to think about and make better.”