The Seattle Seahawks clawed their way back into Thursday night’s game against the Denver Broncos, only to watch it slip away on one throw. Sam Darnold did not try to dress it up afterward.

“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, that one sucked,” Darnold said after the game. Seattle fell 17-14 in overtime at Empower Field at Mile High, dropping the defending Super Bowl champions to 3-3 on the season.

The Seahawks trailed 14-3 in the fourth quarter before mounting a comeback. George Holani punched in a rushing touchdown, and Rashid Shaheed caught the two-point conversion to make it a three-point game. A field goal then tied it at 14 and sent the game to overtime.

Seattle received the ball first in overtime, but the possession went sideways almost immediately. A holding penalty on the kickoff return pushed the Seahawks back to their own 11-yard line. On a third-and-7, Darnold threw an interception to Broncos cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian, handing Denver the ball at the Seattle 43.

The Broncos did little with the short field, but they did not need to. Wil Lutz drilled a 53-yard field goal to end it.

The timing made it especially painful. Seattle had just erased an 11-point deficit on the road, and one throw turned a potential statement win into a loss.

It was Darnold’s second interception of the night. Kris Abrams-Draine also picked him off late in regulation. Darnold finished 27-of-51 passing for 278 yards, and he struggled badly early, completing just seven of 15 attempts for 52 yards in the first half.

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Denver’s defense was relentless throughout, finishing with five sacks and three takeaways despite playing without star cornerback Patrick Surtain II and safety Talanoa Hufanga.

The loss stings for a team coming off a championship. Darnold led Seattle to a Super Bowl LX title in February, beating the New England Patriots 29-13, and the Seahawks opened this season with a 13-10 win over New England in a rematch.

Now Seattle sits at .500 and will need its quarterback to bounce back quickly. Darnold’s blunt assessment suggests he knows exactly how costly the mistake was, and he did not hide from it. His 51 pass attempts also show how heavily Seattle leaned on him to carry the offense in Denver.