Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald credits analyst for timeout usage

Published 8:30 am Monday, December 15, 2025

Mike Macdonald hands out game balls in the locker room following Seahawks wins.

The players usually have a good idea who’s going to get them. It’s typically the obvious stars on offense and/or defense in the game.

This roaring Seattle season, Jaxon Smith-Njigba has been collecting them while becoming the NFL’s leading receiver. Rookie Nick Emmanwori’s gotten one for his dynamic play all over Macdonald’s defense.

Sunday, Macdonald surprised his players. As the players’ roars rocked the home locker room at Lumen Field minutes after Jason Myers kicked a 56-yard field goal sent the Seahawks to 11-3 with an 18-16 escape past the Indianapolis Colts, the head coach announced he was handing out the latest game ball to…

The team’s top spreadsheet and numbers cruncher?

That’s Brian Eayrs. The Seahawks’ head research analyst got what has to be a career first, for what he convinced Macdonald to do late in Sunday afternoon’s game.

It all happened after 44-year-old Grandpa quarterback Philip Rivers completed a third-down pass to get his Colts past midfield with 1:12 remaining. Seattle was clinging to a 15-13 lead.

Even though the Colts were not in conventional range for a field goal, Eayrs rightly assumed Indianapolis coach Shane Steichen would begin playing for one. Eayrs nailed that Steichen would run the ball to attempt to burn the final 72 seconds, with the intent to deprive the Seahawks a final chance to respond on offense.

Eayrs told Macdonald through his coaching headset on the sideline to begin using all three of Seattle’s timeouts on defense. Yes, with the ball still at midfield, about 15 yards before most coaches would have begun calling their timeouts on defense.

“It’s a function of like, ‘Hey, as this (game) declares as the last possession, even though they still had three timeouts, you’re trying to figure out a way if it doesn’t go your way, you have a chance to come back and win it,’” Macdonald said.

Sure enough, the Colts ran Jonathan Taylor on first down from the Seattle 40, for no gain. Emmanwori stopped the NFL’s leading rusher.

Timeout number one for the Seahawks, with 1:07 remaining.

On second down, Rivers threw like he did all day, short and quickly. It was a 3-yard pass to tight end Tyler Warren, with Devon Witherspoon on the immediate tackle.

Timeout number two for Seattle, with 1:01 to go.

On third and 7 from the Seahawks 46-yard line, Steichen had Rivers conservatively hand the ball to Taylor up the middle — just as Eayrs predicted he would. The play gained 4 yards.

The third timeout for the Seahawks came after that play, with 52 seconds remaining.

Blake Grupe then stunned the Lumen Field crowd by drilling a 60-yard field goal that would have been good from almost 65. The Colts led 16-15. “That was actually deeper than we anticipated,” Macdonald said of the Colts even trying a kick from 60 yards there. “So he made a heck of a kick. We thought it was beyond his line.”

Yet because of what Eayrs had Macdonald do, quarterback Sam Darnold and Seattle’s offense still had 47 seconds to answer.

“You would rather have 50 seconds with no timeouts than 20, 15 or 20 seconds and all three timeouts, or maybe two or one timeout,” Darnold said. “So I thought we handled that situation perfectly.”

Rashid Shaheed, who had his biggest game since the Seahawks traded with New Orleans for him in October, returned the Colts’ ensuing kickoff to the Seattle 37.

Darnold then completed a strike to Shaheed on a deep in route to the middle left of the field for 17 yards. Suddenly, the Seahawks had the ball at the Colts 46. Darnold ran the offense to the ball to spike it to stop the clock with 29 seconds to play. Macdonald using the timeouts on defense saved Darnold and the offense enough time to complete passes in the middle of the field and still run up to spike it to conserve time.

Darnold then completed another pass to Shaheed for 8 more yards. Jason Myers came out for a 56-yard field goal. The snap from Chris Stoll and hold from Michael Dickson weren’t as good as Myers’ perfect kick. His team-record sixth field goal with 18 seconds left led to the 18-16 win.

And the Seahawks moved to the same 11-3 record the Rams have before Seattle hosts Los Angeles for the NFC West lead Thursday night.

“Brian Eayrs did a phenomenal job managing it,” Macdonald said, “and he was really decisive.

“I gave him a lot of the credit. He got a game ball in the locker room, because he really put us in position to go still have a chance to win the game.”