Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said Monday’s 34-17 loss to the Bears was frustrating but that Seattle needs to recapture its playing style, along with providing injury update hopes for several key players.
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Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said the team’s 34-17 loss to the Bears on Monday was frustrating, but he is not changing course or panicking after the defeat.
Macdonald described the loss as a “three-phase Seahawk loss,” noting that Seattle was in a 3-point game early in the fourth quarter before the contest got out of hand in the second half. “Frustrating's a good way to put it,” Macdonald said. “Like I said after the game, we lost the game, it was a three-phase Seahawk loss, and that's a tough pill to swallow. That's something where you're disappointed. The itch is to say, 'OK, how do we change it? How do we make it better? Where are we going?' But I think it's also prudent to say, 'OK let's take a deep breath, let's understand that the margins in our league are very small.' It was a 3-point game until the game got out of hand there in the second half with all the things that hadn't gone our way. Let's stay the course, let's go back to work. There are things that we need to improve on and we need to get better at that are in our control, and that's all you can do. That's where our focus needs to be.”
Macdonald said watching the tape showed the Seahawks were not playing up to their standard or in their preferred style, even though he did not see a lack of effort. “If we're going to go out, we want to go out in our way and our style, and that wasn't us, or the best version of us at least,” he said. “So that's why I think it's so tough.” He added that the team needs to focus on “recapturing us” when it studies game film, saying there were “too many times throughout that game where that wasn't us in terms of just our style of ball.”
On offense, Macdonald pointed to quarterback Sam Darnold’s toughness following the loss. He noted that after Darnold was not sacked the week before in a win over the Chiefs, he was sacked three times against the Bears and took multiple hard hits, including one that Macdonald described as debatable as Darnold slid on a third-down scramble. Despite the tougher outing, the quarterback finished 17 for 34 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. “Sam's a warrior, man,” Macdonald said. “Do we want Sam to play better? Yeah. Do we need Sam to play more efficient football? Yes. But he also freakin' battled his tail off after getting hit. I hope everybody understands the type of courage that takes, and the toughness that this guy has to be able to play through the things that he was able to play through. There's urgency to get better for sure, but I think we can respect what Sam is doing physically as well.”
Defensively, Macdonald said the Bears’ three short rushing touchdowns were “unacceptable.” He said Seattle limited the league’s leading running attack to a 3.6 yards-per-carry average, including a 39-yard screen pass that was counted as a run because it was a lateral pass. However, he said he was not satisfied with the way the Bears scored in the second half on runs of 1 yard, 5 yards and 5 yards after Leonard Williams left the game with a stinger. “It's unacceptable,” Macdonald said. “It's unacceptable. I don't know what else you want me to say. We've been running the same goal-line, red-zone defenses, series of defenses—nobody just reinvents red-zone defense. In the red zone you can only do X amount of things. There's limited space, and you have to have an identity about who you're going to be. Our identity here has always been, don't let them run it in, they have to throw the ball in the end zone. We have fallen short way too many times on that front, so it's unacceptable.”
As a bright spot, Macdonald highlighted Quenton Nelson’s debut after the All-Pro guard arrived via trade last week. He said Nelson had impressive blocks in both pass protection and the run game, adding, “It's great to have Quenton, we're psyched.” Macdonald credited Nelson with “a lot of really great plays where he's moving people and cutting people out and doing Quenton Nelson things.” He said the line and offense have room to grow, but described Nelson’s first game as encouraging. “We've got to make it all come together,” Macdonald said.
Macdonald also provided injury update hopes ahead of Seattle’s next game. He said defensive tackle Leonard Williams exited in the third quarter with a stinger, and that he did not have specific updates to share Tuesday, but that Williams has at least a chance to return this week. Macdonald added that left tackle Charles Cross, receiver Rashid Shaheed and outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu also have “a chance to come back this week,” though he said the report was “pretty vague.” He said the team will see for Seattle’s Week 9 game against the Cardinals. “I think those guys have a chance to come back this week, so we'll see,” Macdonald said.
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