Usually when teams win in this league, the head coach comes to the podium afterwards and gives a glowing review. Not Seattle Seahawks' top man Mike Macdonald, at least not after his team's 30-23 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Seattle defended home turf in a game that was nowhere near as competitive as the final score would suggest. The Seahawks had built a 27-6 lead to begin the third quarter and the Chargers never truly threatened to actually close the gap. They had dug themselves too deep a hole. However, the "equalizer" to keep them hanging around far longer than they should have was the fact the Seahawks were penalized 14 times for 150 yards! Of those 14, seven were personal fouls.
Now, in fairness, the Chargers weren't much better. They
were flagged 16 times for 130 yards, so their own miscues sort of negated Seattle giving away a free football field-and-a-half in extra yardage. But that didn't matter to Mike Macdonald, who was visibly frustrated during the postgame press conference. Macdonald was appreciative of the win, and acknowledged how challenging it is do to so in the NFL. Macdonald addressed it head on in his opening statement:
"Obviously penalties are something we need to address. We have a spectrum around here on how we ascribe penalties. One is cost of doing business. In terms of playing style, we want to play hard. Sometimes we make mistakes. And on the other side of the spectrum, we call them selfish penalties. This is going to be a through not around next 24 to 48 hours on how we address the penalties."
You could tell during the game how irate (to say the least) Macdonald was, especially when second year safety Nick Emmanwori was responsible for one of these "selfish penalties."
Seahawks Nick Emmanwori headbutts a Charger’s player and gets a flag:
— Polymarket Football (@PolymarketBlitz) October 4, 2026
Mike McDonald: “G—D— it, Nick! F—ing A—.” And a lot more expletives. pic.twitter.com/bMiRcADeiT
Macdonald spent the majority of the press conference talking about the penalties, drawing every answer back to them in some capacity. He called the seven personal fouls "unacceptable on any level." He even reiterated "That's not how we're going to do business. That's not how we're going to play. It's unacceptable."
I think what stood out the most to me was this particular quote:
"We want to win games, but we want to be 'The Seahawks' and the division of how we want to play. So when we're not that, then that's why we feel the way we feel, you know? Again, we're grateful for wins. It's frigging hard to win, which is awesome, but it's also that we're not there yet."
"We want to be the Seahawks." That says it all, in my opinion. Mike Macdonald has helped build a stellar culture here in the Pacific Northwest. A culture that's foundation is smart, disciplined play. Going off the rails like this harkened back to some of the Legion of Boom days, and while they were fun, those teams weren't the most disciplined. Seattle is forging something new, and a day when the Seahawks are flagged 14 times is so beyond the norm for this squad.
The Seahawks will have to figure this out in a hurry, because giving up 150 yards in penalties to the 49ers is going to result only in disaster.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald on Seattle's penalties: 'unacceptable on any level'
