The Seattle Seahawks are still holding serve, as the defending champions. While the Los Angeles Rams got all of the hype, the Hawks are the team that is forcing the talking heads to keep them at the head of the pack after Week 1. Not just them, but a deluge of online analysts as well. Want to survey the landscape with me? Get ready for all of the hyperlinks.
Let’s start with a guy who had the Rams at No. 1 going into the first week. Stephen A. Smith acknowledges that, “Mike Macdonald has these boys
playing like rough riders.”
Macdonald’s defense led the league by allowing 17.2 points per game last year… but the scary thing is that the “Dark Side” is still reaching new heights.
How did they rack up three interceptions and three sacks in the 4th quarter alone? It was the first time that’s been done by a Seahawks team since Earl Thomas III and Richard Sherman posted three INTs of their own back in 2016 (against the New York Jets, according to John Boyle).
I mean, this is a Super Bowl team he’s doing this to. Jon Gruden reminds us that in the Super Bowl, heading into the 4th quarter, the Patriots “had 7 punts and 8 completed passes.”
Macdonald has exhibited a continued defensive masterclass of confusion at the cutting edge of modern NFL tactics.
Have you seen the explosion of tape-watchers on X/Twitter/Bluesky/TikTok/Instagram/EVEN Facebook recently? There are a lot of breakdowns centered on the Seattle Seahawks. Want to see some interesting ones Mike Macdonald apparently attacks protections. As the man nicknamed Nino confirms later.
And this example, that shows the relationship of pass rush and coverage in defensive structure. Even Richard Sherman, who frustratingly championed the rival 49ers over the last few years, has been alight with delight over Mike Mac’s vision for x’s and o’s.
We’ve also seen the import of certain Macdonald-type defensive play from other teams. Macdonald has scheme, but also belief in his group of players.
Ernest Jones thinks this defense is just getting started.
Coach Macdonald agrees. Mike Macdonald called Wednesday, “a special night to be a Seahawk.” He then went on to state that, “we can get so much better very quickly.”
In a lot of his media availability sessions, Macdonald takes time to praise both his staff and his roster of players for how they make scheme come to life. He mentioned that, “Nehemiah Pritchett played a dynamite game.”
He’s inspired spotlights of his own.
Macdonald also talked about his coaches. “Our player leadership and our coaches — of finding solutions, of how to adjust our rush plan to in real time based off of the things that we’re seeing and how we want to adjust our coverages in real time is some high-powered stuff. You know, that’s our staff. That’s our players doing those things.”
Coach Mike iterates that, “Our coaching staff has a tremendous amount of respect for our players. What we’re asking them to do is not easy. How they do it, their approach, their mentality, how they treat each other.” His players might truly have a hand in the readings as well.
This is not a game. He is the youngest coach in NFL history to win 11 in a row. The Seahawks have now gone 29-straight games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
Seattle will need to continue to ride this wave, with an uncertain timeline surrounding the return of starting signal caller, Sam Darnold. Up next: an Arizona Cardinals team who shocked the world and will give it another go with their speckled rivalry jersey aura.
