BROCK AND SALK

Macdonald: Where Seahawks are at with schemes on offense, defense

Oct 28, 2024, 6:20 PM

Seattle Seahawks Mike Macdonald...

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald during an Oct. 6, 2024 game. (Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

(Rio Giancarlo/Getty Images)

The Seattle Seahawks have experienced highs and lows through the first half of the NFL season.

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The Seahawks started the year with three straight wins and were among the more interesting teams in the league early on, but they’ve lost four of their past five games to drop to .500. A victory on the road against Atlanta last week reignited some of the early-season excitement, but a punchless performance in Sunday’s 31-10 loss to the Bills brought it all crashing down again.

Despite the rollercoaster that’s been the first eight weeks of the season, the team is still in a three-way tie for first place in the NFC West with nine games to go, including five of their games against divisional opponents.

But if the Seahawks are going to truly contend for a playoff spot this season, they have plenty to improve on over their final nine games, which starts with an important NFC West clash against the 3-5 Los Angeles Rams this Sunday.

NFL Standings

During his weekly appearance on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, head coach Mike Macdonald was asked if the focus moving forward will be to build on what the team is already doing well, or try to address the weaknesses its shown.

“I think you gotta start making some decisions on where to narrow it down. You can’t focus on everything,” he said. “So taking out the stuff that we feel like is kind of sunk costs at this point, maybe trying to trim that and then really focusing on and honing in on the stuff that we want to go excel at. That’s stuff that I feel like (there) may be opportunities that we haven’t been able to take advantage of at this point. And stuff that we do feel like we’re doing well, we can try to build on that a little.”

Seattle Sports’ Mike Salk asked Macdonald if that meant simplifying what the team is doing schematically on offense and defense, but the first-year head coach doesn’t feel the team is doing anything too complicated. In fact, he revealed that his squad hasn’t installed its full playbook on offense or defense at this point.

“The reason is because … we haven’t executed the things well enough and created the situations where we want to be able to get to everything,” Macdonald said. “… You have some things that would help schematically, but the answer at the end of the day isn’t the X’s and O’s. It’s really not.”

YouTube video

He went on to explain that everyone in what’s commonly referred to as a “copy-cat league” is running similar schemes.

“It’s just, at this point in the season, it’s how well you can do it,” he said.

The strengths Macdonald has seen from Seahawks

Macdonald was asked what he feels the strengths are for his team through eight games. He started by addressing the defense.

“I think situationally we’ve done some good things. It’s just been too inconsistent,” he said. “We’ve had some great red-zone and third-down days, and those are the situations that win you football games. And we’re chasing the run game right now and it’s not where we want it, but if you can get it stopped and then excel in those other situations, now you’ll have a consistent chance to win the games.”

As for the offense:

“I know we want to run the ball better on offense, but we have been forced to pass,” he said. “I mean, if they know you’re going to pass and you can still pass it, that’s good. If they know you’re going to run it and you can still run it, that’s good. Right now, we’re not very effective in the run game when they know we’re going to run it or when when we want to, it’s not on our terms. But in the pass game … I think we’ve been efficient. I think (quarterback) Geno (Smith) had a great first half of the season. I think our offensive line is improving and it’ll be better if we can keep them out of this consistent pass rush types of opportunities.”

Hear the full conversation with Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald at this link or in the audio player in this story. The Mike Macdonald Show airs live at 9:30 a.m. the day after Seahawks games. 

More on the Seattle Seahawks

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• Tempers flare between Seahawks’ Derick Hall, Jarran Reed
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