Macdonald’s first ‘9-0’ blitz call finishes Bears

Published 10:37 am Friday, December 27, 2024

CHICAGO — Mike Macdonald called time out. In the huddle near the sideline, Ernest Jones heard his coach’s play call.

He couldn’t believe it.

Finally!

“Oh, we were waiting on it!” Jones, the Seahawks’ middle linebacker, said later.

Twenty seconds remained in this slog Thursday night at Soldier Field. Seattle led the Bears 6-3 in the lowest-scoring NFL game this season. Chicago had moved from its end of the field to a fourth and 10 at the Seahawks 40-yard line. A 58-yard field goal was too long, the Bears surmised.

Besides, who wants to play overtime the night after Christmas when you are a 4-11 team that’s lost nine straight games?

So the Bears went for it.

So did Macdonald.

Seattle’s rookie head coach who lives for scheming defensive plays called up one he first installed at a Seahawks practice two weeks ago. A “nine-zero” blitz. Nine men lined up menacingly along the line of scrimmage. From safety Coby Bryant outside the right tight end to cornerback Devon Witherspoon outside the left tackle, it looked like nine Seahawks were blitzing.

The zero? Zero pass-coverage men in the middle of the field.

Macdonald’s players have been clamoring to call the “nine-zero” for those two weeks they’ve been practicing it. Witherspoon, the team’s irascible, second-year stud, has been wearing out Macdonald to use it in a game.

With what the coach said was “the season on the line,” he finally did.

Jones was as excited as he’d been in his two months with the Seahawks.

“Man, because that’s what I live for, to have the opportunity for the defense to go out and close the game,” Jones, who arrived from Tennessee in an October trade and has transformed Seattle’s defense, said.

“It was fourth and 10. We were in 9-0 blitz. The game is going to be over,” Jones said,

“They either are going to win it, or we are going to go out and get a stop.”

At the snap, seven Seahawks rushed initially. Then defensive tackle Jarran Reed and outside linebacker Dre’Mont Jones dropped into short, zone pass coverage. Bryant, fellow safety Julian Love, Jones, fellow linebacker Tyrice Knight and end Leonard Williams kept coming into Chicago’s backfield.

It was a jailbreak.

The Bears offensive line, besieged all season and more Thursday night allowing seven sacks, was overwhelmed. Bryant stormed in on quarterback Caleb Williams untouched. The rookie first-overall pick had as good a chance as you did of completing his shot-put of a desperation heave toward Bears receiver DJ Moore down the middle of the field.

Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen jumped in front of Moore and easily intercepted it. Woolen ran to the south end zone of Soldier Field to celebrate like Michael Jordan’s Bulls used to in this city.

Game over. Season lives on.

Coby Byrant, blitz-clincher

“To be able to seal the game by blitzing, knowing the defense is counting on me, I’ve got to show up and make the play,” Bryant said.

“I was excited, man. You know, blitzing on the final play? It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Bryant has become a Macdonald favorite for his work ethic and perfection in practices to the point he won a starting job midseason. He said he was so jacked by the call he had to settle down before the snap.

“I had to be calm. I couldn’t give it away too fast,” Bryant said. “I know he is elusive in the pocket, so I had to come in under control — and just make the play.”

Williams was asked after the Bears fell to 4-12 what his answer was on Seattle’s all-out blitz.

“My answer is where I tried to throw it is to DJ knowing they’re bringing the house,” the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner at USC said. “We put as many guys as we could to block, and they just had one more guy to the back.

“I tried to fade away and throw it to the DJ on the runaway — one of our fastest guys, if not our fastest guy— and missed. Got hit, or however it happened.”

On the sideline after the final, winning play, Seahawks players and his assistant coaches slapped Macdonald on the back and shoulders. They kept congratulating him on his daring, winning call.

The head coach smiled with the satisfaction of the perfect call at the most critical time.

“It’s something that we’ve been practicing, and we haven’t really called it in situations like that,” Macdonald said. “We’ve had versions of blitz that we’ve called, but not that particular version. So something we’ve had and we’ve been preparing for. Our guys were excited about getting to that particular call.

“Man, I mean, you just call something you haven’t executed and it’s basically the season is on the line, and just shows, ‘Hey, our guys can handle it.’ They’ve earned that confidence to call those types of high-leverage plays.”