Mike Macdonald previews Seahawks’ Week 2 matchup vs Patriots

Sep 13, 2024, 8:05 AM | Updated: 8:09 am

Seattle Seahawks Zach Charbonnet touchdown Denver Broncos 2024...

Seattle Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet scores on a receiving touchdown against Denver on Sunday. (Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)

(Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)

BY CAMERON VAN TIL

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots spent the 2010s as two of the NFL’s premier franchises.

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New England was the class of the NFL that decade, posting a league-best .781 win percentage while winning three Super Bowls and five AFC championships between 2010 and 2019. Seattle also was among the juggernauts of that era, capturing a Super Bowl title and back-to-back NFC championships.

And of course, their paths crossed on that fateful February night in 2015 – when Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception of Russell Wilson snatched a repeat Super Bowl bid away from Seattle and delivered one of the most crushing defeats in American sports history.

The two proud franchises meet again Sunday in Foxborough, but it will look a bit different without Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick roaming the sidelines. Both teams replaced their legendary head coaches this past offseason, with Seattle hiring defensive guru Mike Macdonald and New England promoting former Patriots linebacker and Belichick assistant Jerod Mayo.

Yet while the six-time Super Bowl-winning Belichick is no longer coaching in New England, Macdonald said his impact still appears very prevalent. Macdonald equated Belichick’s impact on Mayo to the role the Harbaugh brothers had in shaping him during his combined 10 seasons under their tutelage.

“I think coach Belichick’s fingerprints are all over this football team,” Macdonald told Steve Raible during Friday morning’s Mike Macdonald Preview on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. “I mean, coach Mayo has been with with Bill for a long time. And just the way I feel about John and Jim Harbaugh, you can’t help but having that as who you are if you’re there for such a long time. So it’s obvious on tape now, this is a tough, physical football team.”

Macdonald said there are some schematic differences under new Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who was the Cleveland Browns’ OC for the previous four seasons.

“Schematically, with the offensive coordinator coming in from Cleveland, you can see a little bit the stuff they were doing in Cleveland,” Macdonald said. “The specifics are Cleveland, but the idea of how they’re playing is the New England Patriot football that we’ve seen for the last 20 years or so. So that’s the team that we’re expecting. That’s the team that’s been on tape.”

Macdonald and Mayo both opened their head-coaching careers in winning fashion this past Sunday, with Seattle beating the Denver Broncos 26-20 and New England upsetting the Cincinnati Bengals 16-10.

Both victories came with a combination of strong defense and a successful rushing attack.

Playing in Macdonald’s cutting-edge scheme, the Seahawks’ defense allowed just 231 total yards and 3.3 yards per play while keeping Denver out of the end zone for the game’s first 57 minutes. And after a mistake-filled first half on offense, Seattle running back Kenneth Walker III keyed a second-half surge and finished with 103 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.

The Patriots, meanwhile, held Cincinnati’s dangerous offense scoreless for the game’s first 43 minutes and surrendered just 224 total yards. And on the other side of the ball, New England running back Rhamondre Stevenson rushed for 120 yards and a TD on 25 carries.

“It’s tried and true in the NFL,” Macdonald said of playing well defensively and in the run game. “Points are gonna ultimately win games, but you have to play complementary football. You have to be able to control the line of scrimmage.

“These are old-school principles that have tried to test the time and over and over and over again are the things that decide games in the NFL – along with great situational football, smart football, all those things. Those are the things that we pride ourselves on.”

This will be the first 10 a.m. Pacific start of Macdonald’s tenure. Carroll had great success with the Seahawks in early kickoffs, guiding them to a 28-19 record in those games.

“We have to maximize our preparation between now and Sunday,” Macdonald said. “We’ve got to be ready to play at 10 a.m. our time on the East Coast. We didn’t start the game the right way this past game. You can’t afford to do that consistently and be able to win games. So our focus right now is on our preparation.”