RENTON — In his first months, Mike Macdonald was learning how to plan and train an entire team for the first time.
In his first training camp, he learned his new players.
Through the first games being a head coach for the first time at any level, Macdonald learned what his Seahawks are good at—and, more strikingly, what they’re bad at.
Learning time is over.
Eight games into a 17-game season, the NFL’s youngest head man says it’s time to act on the lessons he’s learned. He sounds tired of tinkering and experimenting with what can be with his 4-4 team that’s lost four its last five games after an inflating, 3-0 start.
“I think you’ve got to start making decisions on where to narrow it down,” Macdonald said Monday on his radio show the morning after the Seahawks’ alarming, 31-10 home loss to the Buffalo Bills dropped them out of first place in the NFC West. “You can’t focus on everything. So taking out the stuff that we feel like are kind of like sunk costs, at this point, maybe trying to trim that, and maybe really focusing in on and honing in on the stuff we want to go excel at.”
The idea, Macdonald said, is to focus more on “the stuff that we do feel like we are doing well. We can try to build off some of that stuff.
“Maybe less is more at this point, and just getting better at it,” he said.
Macdonald explained the execution on offense and defense has not been consistent enough, not been good enough, by the players to get to all that the coaches have in their playbooks.
“So it’s frustrating, you know. You know you have things that can help schematically,” the coach said.
“But the answer, at the end of the day, is not the Xs and Os. It’s really not.”
So by extension, that means: It’s the players. They have to play better.
Or, failing that, get better players.
He purposely didn’t name names.
Macdonald and general manager John Schneider have made four trades since the end of the preseason to fill gaping holes in Seattle’s run defense and in their defensive front. The latest was shipping out starting weakside linebacker Jerome Baker plus a fourth-round draft choice to Tennessee to get new middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV.
Jones had 15 tackles in his Seahawks debut Sunday against Buffalo. But many were far down the field after big gains by the Bills, or near the sideline to cover for mistakes in containing ball carriers by Seattle’s edge players as Buffalo rushed for 166 yards and gained its season high of 445 yards in all.
Thing is, Macdonald and Schneider cannot get enough better players on a wide enough scale before the league’s trading deadline Nov. 5. Those wholesale changes must come this offseason, and into the draft next spring.
What are the Seahawks good at?
Given what Macdonald said Monday morning, The News Tribune asked the coach Monday afternoon: What are those “sunk costs”? What are those consistently weak parts in Seattle’s play he’s considering giving up trying?
Concurrently, what are the areas of Seahawks football right now he’ll hone in on and seek to excel in, as he put it?
“To start with offense, I think one thing that gives us an edge is how we move and shift and formation and varied tempos,” Macdonald said of coordinator Ryan Grubb’s pre-snap movement and no-huddle packages. “And so I think that’s something that we need to double down on. And we’ll do that.”
So, expect more no huddle, perhaps beginning Sunday when the Seahawks host their NFC West-rival Los Angeles Rams (3-4) before their bye: Covering kickoff and punts.
Another strength Macdonald can now “hone in on”: Covering kickoffs and punts.
“Special teams, I think we’re a heck of a coverage team right now,” the coach said. “We’ve got some really good tape of guys making a lot of great plays in the coverage areas.”
That, by itself, is not going to win a lot of games, though.
The defense is helping losing them.
Tackling has been an issue since week two and Seattle’s rally to win in overtime at New England. The pass rush is consistent. The better teams the Seahawks have faced—the Lions, 49ers and Bills—have run over Seattle’s defensive front and ripped through the linebackers.
That’s why Jones is here, to replace Tyrel Dodson at middle linebacker against the run. Dodson has since the trade for Jones last week moved to weakside linebacker, where Baker failed before he got traded to Tennessee.
Macdonald has been counting on his secondary to be the strength of his defense. It’s been hurt, or ineffective and mistake-prone. Or all three.
Devon Witherspoon, a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie last season, is missing an alarming number of tackles in open fields, at both cornerback outside and nickel back in the slot.
Safety Rayshawn Jenkins has also missed tackles and is now on injured reserve. Riq Woolen missed the team’s win at Atlanta two games ago with a sprained ankle. He returned Sunday and gave up the Bills’ first touchdown because he didn’t turn his head to Allen’s pass as it arrived onto the top of his helmet. Buffalo rookie receiver Keon Coleman plucked the ball basically off Woolen’s head for the score.
Buffalo converted four of its six trips to the red zone, inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, into touchdowns. The Bills converted 8 of 15 third downs.
“Defensively, situationally, I think we have done some good things. It just does seem it’s a little hot and cold right now on a per-game basis,” Macdonald said. “The red-zone and third down stat’s last game (were bad), but on the whole I feel like we’ve made a jump in those areas.”
For the season Seattle’s defense is 21st in the league allowing third-down conversions at a rate of 39.1%. The red-zone defense is 14th in the NFL this season, allowing touchdowns 56.25% of the time.
The Seahawks’ offense is 23rd in the league in third-down conversions at 36.6%, and 12th in red-zone scoring at 57.9%.
“So there’s a lot of good stuff on tape,” Macdonald said Monday. “But you come off a loss like that and you get punched in the chin, you got to take it and you got to move forward.”
Running Kenneth Walker
Not surprisingly, Macdonald didn’t want to specify the Seahawks’ “sunk costs” the coach may soon stop trying to make work. He’s not about to give the Rams, 49ers after Seattle’s bye and future opponents a public blueprint on what they can ignore in preparing to play the Seahawks.
“I wouldn’t get any specifics right now. I probably can’t give them all to you,” Macdonald said. “But that’s something we’re going to be looking at.”
He said he does not view the team’s rushing offense as one of those “sunk costs” lost causes, despite evidence it’s becoming one.
Lead back Kenneth Walker and number-two Zach Charbonnet rushed 12 times for 17 yards against the Bills in a game that was 7-3 until Buffalo scored a gift touchdown with 18 seconds left in the first half. That was off Derick Hall’s bonehead roughing penalty on quarterback Josh Allen on third down to extend that drive.
Even adding in Geno Smith’s quarterback scrambles, the Seahawks rushed for a season-low 32 yards against Buffalo. That’s why the offense whose quarterback leads the NFL in passes (308), completions (212) and yards (2,197) had a season-low possession time of just 21:57.
“We start talking about fast. Two three-and-outs to start the game is unacceptable. That is not the standard,” Smith said. “Just the way in which started the second half, didn’t get points, had a turnover (his screen pass to a Bills defensive tackle), not the standard.
“And so when you talk about all the things we want to do well, I don’t think we did any of those (against Buffalo).
“We’ve got to look at ourselves, in the mirror, and take it from there.”
For the season, Seattle is 29th in the NFL at 89.3 yards rushing per game. Only the Jets, Raiders and Cowboys—all teams with losing records—are worse running the ball.
“I think the run game can come alive,” Macdonald said.
“We’re going to get it figured out. I mean, we’re going to be a good run team, going to have an efficient offense. I do feel like I’m a little bit of a broken record every week, but I do feel optimistic talking to the coaches and watching the tape.
“We’re going to get this thing rolling. I think once you complement getting the run game going with all the other mechanisms we have in our offense and our system and all of our skill guys and the way Geno’s throwing the ball, I think that could be a really potent attack.”
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