Brock and Salk: Seahawks have embraced Macdonald’s message

As many coaches do, Mike Macdonald has mantras he implements that are essential to the program he runs.

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That doesn’t always mean the players will buy in, but the Seattle Seahawks have shown they’ve done just that under their second-year head coach.

The way the Seahawks have bought into their coach’s messaging was on full display during their 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship, according to Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. Co-hosts Brock Huard and Mike Salk discussed the way Seattle has gotten behind its coach’s words on Monday.

“We spent a lot of time this year talking to Mike Macdonald and learning about the sayings that are important to him because he repeats them over and over again,” Salk said. “And what do you always tell me about that?”

“When a coach repeats something to us, I can promise you it is in that locker room (times 10),” Huard responded.

Salk said the two Macdonald mantras he saw shine through during the NFC Championship were the “12 as one” philosophy Macdonald referenced multiple times postgame and the “M.O.B.” mentality that has become a popular saying with players.

“Those two really jumped out to me during that game,” Salk said. “The 12 as one, that was a complete team win with all three phases and everyone on the roster and everyone on the coaching staff all contributing, and I think that’s really been the case for the last two weeks. That 12 as one element I thought was very much on display.”

Salk acknowledged that there was one glaring moment where the M.O.B. mentality wasn’t followed, when cornerback Riq Woolen was called for a potentially catastrophic taunting penalty on a third-down stop, which allowed the Rams to keep driving and score a touchdown to pull within 31-27 in the third quarter.

“But other than that, they found ways to refocus,” he said. “I thought that they didn’t care about the noise, they didn’t care about the other team. They cared about themselves. They bounced back from bad plays and made good ones. Those two mantras were very much on display last night.”

Huard agreed and added how the team has gotten some key contributions from unlikely sources down the stretch, pointing out third-string tackle Amari Kight’s play in the NFC Divisional Round against San Francisco and running back George Holani coming back from injured reserve in the NFC Championship to help fill the void left by a season-ending injury to Zach Charbonnet.

Another example of the Seahawks’ buy-in to Huard was the way cornerback Devon Witherspoon bounced back to make big plays late against Los Angeles. After getting burned in the passing game early, Witherspoon broke up consecutive throws by Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in the end zone to force a turnover on downs during the Rams’ best chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter.

“You don’t do what Devon Witherspoon does without that buy-in, without truly having faith and belief in what Mike has talked about of stacking plays and it’s on to the next one,” Huard said. “That secondary had never been – even in the game where (the Rams) had 590 yards the last time they were in there (in Week 16), it was much more of a middle-of-the-field (attack), Puka (Nacua) beating zone, there’s no-look passes (from Stafford).

“Yesterday was like (Josh) Jobe (getting beat) twice, Woolen (getting beat) twice, Spoon (getting beat) three times. It was shots and explosives at them on the perimeter, we’re going at you with the one-on-one. And (it would have) been really easy for Spoon to just be like, not my day, man.”

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