ATLANTA -- The Seattle Seahawks didn't have much to laugh about during the three-game losing streak that followed their 3-0 start, but after getting back above .500 with a convincing win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Geno Smith cracked a joke about Kenneth Walker III and his under-the-weather performance.
How sick was Seattle's running back?
"Yeah, he was sick today, man," the quarterback said. "Two touchdowns on his birthday, that was sick."
Walker was legitimately unwell to the point that the Seahawks added him to their injury report Saturday, calling him questionable to play against Atlanta. Under normal circumstances, he might have remembered his performance in Seattle's 34-14 win for how it came on the same day he turned 24 years old. But he came down with a flu-like illness over the weekend, forcing him to fight through fatigue as he racked up 93 total yards and the two scores on 16 touches.
"I thought he did a great job," Smith said. "Obviously, he was under the weather. A little bit of his flu game today on his birthday. I think that's spectacular. It might be the first time that's ever happened, but he's a guy we rely on. The way that he fought and battled it out, I know he wasn't feeling his best, but to come out and do what he did on his birthday, I thought that was excellent."
Walker, clearing his throat multiple times throughout a brief postgame news conference, said he felt tired during the game and praised Seattle's training staff for helping him stay hydrated.
The third-year running back appeared to be too gassed to celebrate his first touchdown, a 20-yard rushing score in the second quarter that gave Seattle a 10-0 lead. Walker got tripped up as he crossed the goal line, waited for teammates to help him off the ground, then slowly made his way back to the sideline without much fanfare.
"I felt like just everything was kind of hard, being sick and everything," he said. "But we got the dub, so it's all good."
Walker's second touchdown came on a 17-yard catch late in the third quarter, which extended Seattle's lead to 24-14. With Atlanta doubling DK Metcalf out of the slot, Walker got a one-on-one with Kaden Elliss and beat the linebacker on a wheel route.
"He had a different route, but we figured why not take a shot there, and he did a great job setting it up," said Smith, who audibled the play. "I thought the protection allowed me that half a second I needed to get it off, and he made a great catch."
This time, Walker celebrated, hitting the "Dirty Bird" dance popularized by former Falcons star Jamal Anderson in the late 1990s. Seattle running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu had mentioned the dance earlier this week, only to learn that neither Walker nor backup Zach Charbonnet knew what it was. After he showed them the move, Walker said he'd pull it off Sunday, then delivered on the promise once he had the energy to celebrate.
"I know he wasn't feeling well," coach Mike Macdonald said of Walker, who rushed 14 times for 69 yards and caught two passes for 24 yards. "Tried to get fluids in him. I thought he played incredibly hard. For what was blocked on the touchdown run, the cutback, and then the touchdown catch was just a dynamite play. It was a heck of a throw by Geno as well, but it was two guys working together on that one."
Tight end Noah Fant said Walker "kind of went into his own zone before the game."
"You knew that he wasn't feeling well, but he was going to put all that aside and get into his own place before the game," Fant said. "It was kind of one of those things that was like, step back and let him work. It was really cool to see."
The Seahawks had the NFL's lowest designed rushing rate over the first six weeks at 28.7%, having abandoned their run game several times while chasing large deficits. But a double-digit halftime lead that grew over the final two quarters led to a more balanced attack, with 22 designed runs on 56 offensive plays.
Smith finished 18-of-28 for 207 yards, two touchdown passes, no interceptions and only one sack despite Seattle's already-overmatched offensive line starting its fourth option at right tackle in rookie Michael Jerrell.
Defensively, the Seahawks forced three turnovers, including a Boye Mafe strip sack that resulted in Derick Hall's 64-yard scoop-and-score touchdown. Seattle managed only one takeaway over its previous five games and finished minus-three in turnover differential last week in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers that dropped the Seahawks to 3-3.
Walker's flu game and San Francisco's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday put the Seahawks back atop the NFC West.
"It was huge," Walker said of Seattle's win. "It was huge. We needed that."