‘Ridiculous,’ ‘Terrible Announcer’ — NFL World Rips Kirk Herbstreit for Blaming Seahawks WR for Sam Darnold’s ‘Horrible’ Play

Saino Zachariah Fri, October 16, 2026 at 7:07 AM UTC

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‘Ridiculous,’ 'Terrible Announcer' -- NFL World Rips Kirk Herbstreit for Blaming Seahawks WR for Sam Darnold’s ‘Horrible’ Play

Sam Darnold threw two interceptions in the Seattle Seahawks’ 17-14 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 6 on Thursday night, the first coming late in the fourth quarter with Seattle down 14-11.

However, that first pick also put Kirk Herbstreit, Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” analyst, under fire on X after he blamed the receiver’s route rather than the Seahawks quarterback.

NFL World Slams Kirk Herbstreit for Shifting Blame Away from Sam Darnold

Broncos cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine made that interception with 1:31 left in regulation, on a throw that was meant for Seahawks receiver Tory Horton.

Seattle still forced overtime on Jason Myers’ 34-yard field goal in the final seconds, but Ja’Quan McMillian picked off Darnold in the extra period, and Wil Lutz won it with a 53-yard field goal.

“(Tory Horton)’s just lazy on the route, and it allows 31 to undercut it. It’s easy to put that on Sam Darnold… but the route doesn’t help him,” Herbstreit said, moments after the interception and viewers were quick to react.

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Action Network’s Ian called it “ridiculous” to blame the receiver for the route, then took aim at both the quarterback and Herbstreit: “Darnold was so late seeing the separation that the receiver had to slow or sprint out of bounds. Terrible announcer.”

Mitchell Schwartz, a Super Bowl 54 champion with the Kansas City Chiefs, also objected to Herbstreit’s commentary, “Kirk is putting that on the WR and not Darnold??”

Yahoo football analyst Matt Harmon, who created the Reception Perception method for evaluating wide receivers, replied to Schwartz’s post with “Man, insane.”

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Stephen Andress took it a step further, writing that “Kirk Herbstreit blaming that INT on the WR and not Sam Darnold is brain-dead stuff.”

Darnold now has the most turnovers since the start of the 2025 season with 27, followed by Justin Herbert’s 24.

One fan complained about quarterbacks getting covered for and wrote that “Kirk Herbstreit should be ashamed of himself. It was a horrible throw and decision by Darnold.”

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Schwartz also fired off another post: “Yes Kirk we remember the last time Darnold threw the ball and that it was an awful interception.”

The interceptions came on a night when Seattle completed 27 of 51 passes and turned the ball over three times, while Darnold was sacked five times.

PFN’s NFL QB Impact Score had ranked Darnold 20th with a 72 grade through Week 5. He finished Week 6 with a 68.9 grade.

Seattle has now fallen to 3-3 and will next host the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs on October 25 at Lumen Field.

This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.

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Source: “AOL Sports”