Macdonald explains strategy behind game-winning decision vs Colts

The Seattle Seahawks escaped with a narrow victory over the Indianapolis Colts on a field goal with just 18 seconds left on Sunday.

The way the Seahawks handled the clock towards the end of the game played a huge role in giving kicker Jason Myers the opportunity to win the game.

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After Myers made his fifth field goal of the game to put the Seahawks up 15-13 with 2:27 left on the clock, the Colts began creeping into range for a go-ahead field goal of their own.

As Indianapolis neared the fringes of kicker Blake Grupe’s range with under 1:30 to go, Seattle burned all three of its timeouts to save time, and the defense got the third-down stop it needed to force a long field goal and guarantee the offense another possession.

The decision left the Seahawks without any timeouts, but it proved to be the right one. Grupe made his 60-yarder with 47 seconds left to put the Colts ahead, and Seattle had enough time to respond with a quick 25-yard drive to set up Myers for a 56-yard game-winner.

During his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk, head coach Mike Macdonald explained the decision-making process of calling the timeouts when they did.

“The rule of thumb is, if you can manage it so if it goes sour for you and they kick the field goal, you get a chance to get the ball back,” Macdonald said of calling all three timeouts while on defense. “The downside of it is obviously if they get the first down, they’re basically in four-minute mode and trying to kick the field goal to end it. But you can’t take the timeouts with you to your grave.”

After Myers hit the game-winner, the Seahawks did end up giving the Colts the ball back with 18 seconds left and a chance to get in range for another go-ahead field goal try, a risk they were willing to take and one that ultimately had no impact on the final result.

“At some point you gotta take calculated risks, and that’s what we did,” Macdonald said.

Macdonald gave credit for the decision to call the timeouts to Seahawks head research analyst Brian Eayrs, who he called a “star of the game.” Eayrs even received a game ball afterwards.

“He’s just very decisive in those moments and we stick to it. He manages the game for us and tells us all about the fourth-down model. You name it, Brian’s pretty much handling it.”

Shaheed’s set up

The drive to set up Myers’ game-winning field goal included a couple of big catches from Rashid Shaheed. The fourth-year wide receiver accounted for all 25 yards on the drive with a 17-yard grab on the first play and an 8-yard catch that got the Seahawks into field-goal range.

As Macdonald pointed out, it wasn’t just Shaheed’s two big catches that keyed the score. It was also his 28-yard kickoff return to give Seattle the ball at its own 37-yard line. On the return, Shaheed decided to field a kick that was heading towards the sideline and was able to keep his momentum from carrying him out of bounds, which would have put the Seahawks in major hole to start the drive and could have changed the outcome of the game.

“That’s how you gotta set things up,” Macdonald said. “They put the ball over there in the corner and Rasheed’s going to make a decision in real time in a high-leverage situation on, do I field the (kick)? What direction do I go? If he catches it and he runs out of bounds, that’s not going to be good, which happens all the time now on some of those sideline kicks.”

Hear the full conversation in the video at the top of this story. The Mike Macdonald Show airs at 9:30 a.m. during Brock and Salk the day after Seahawks games. 

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