BROCK AND SALK

Why Macdonald feels Seahawks are ready to turn corner

Nov 4, 2024, 12:36 PM

The trajectory of the first season of the Mike Macdonald era has changed dramatically over the past six weeks for the Seattle Seahawks.

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The Seahawks were once 3-0 and alone atop of the NFC West with a two-game lead. But after winning just one of their past six games, they’re 4-5 and in last place in the division.

Seattle, however, is still very much in the thick of the chase, as all four teams in the NFC West are within one game of each other.

Unfortunately for the Seahawks, a number of mistakes and missed opportunities in Sunday’s overtime loss against the Los Angeles Rams is the difference between being tied for first and alone in last place.

The home defeat to the Rams is one that stings particularly due to how winnable of a game it was, but there were still positives to take away from an inconsistent overall performance by the team.

On Monday morning during The Mike Macdonald Show on Seattle Sports, the first-year head coach expressed his confidence in the direction the team is going in as its heads into a much-needed Week 10 bye.

“We took a step as a football team this week I feel like in our approach, our mentality, what it takes to win the game, and we got to keep building on that. We have to,” Macdonald said. “The players are going to be off for the majority of this week, but we have a lot of work to do as coaches to really streamline this thing and spearhead it so we can hit the ground (next) Monday absolutely just flying down the runway and ramping into the the second half of the season.”

‘Continuity’ building

On a day when the offense had an array of struggles, Seattle’s defense stepped up and delivered one of its best performances of the season.

The unit allowed just 13 points (one Rams touchdown came on a pick-six) in regulation and held an opposing team under 100 yards rushing for the first time since Week 3. That last number was particularly big to see for the a squad that had surrendered at least 155 yards on the ground in each of its past four contests.

“I feel like the continuity really helped us. So just another week playing next to one another, the guys were locked in throughout the week on the calls,” Macdonald said. “I think we were able to narrow our menu earlier in the week, which is really helpful. … If it’s ruled out and it’s clean and it’s tight throughout the week, you can get a lot of great reps and you can feel the confidence build over the course of the week. So our guys were locked in.”

The word “continuity” came up again when Macdonald spoke about how the team narrowed its playbook to try and focus on its strengths.

“That’s a function of our coaches getting used to what we’re good at and us kind of declaring what we’re good at, and having some continuity in the back where we know who’s going to be out there and what those guys can do, what they’re comfortable with, and then seeing how it’s going to work throughout practice and making sure we’re repping the right plays,” he said. “All that kind of stuff goes into it, so hopefully we’ll keep building on that.”

While Macdonald saw reasons to be encouraged despite coming up short against Los Angeles, it wasn’t lost on him that there was still quite a bit to clean up in a game that featured three turnovers, 12 penalties and other miscues by his team.

“A lot of the things that we did to hurt ourselves in that game, we have to be able to eliminate those things,” he said. “It’s not just one thing. I mean, it’s operation on offense, it’s some explosives on defense, it’s our field goal protection on special teams. … I would be frustrated if I was a fan sitting next to me watching the tape this morning because there were so many opportunities we should have been able to take advantage of.”

Listen to the full conversation with Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald at this link or watch the video in this story. Tune in to the Mike Macdonald show at 9:30 a.m. on the day after Seahawks games.

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