RENTON—Want to get already intense Mike Macdonald really angry?
Don’t run to the ball on a play. Any play.
Seattle’s new coach and defensive maestro was watching from the sideline last month as his team was scrimmaging the Tennessee Titans in the first of two joint practices in Nashville. Tennessee ran a sweep play to the defense’s left. The Seahawks’ right cornerback, rookie D.J. James, wasn’t exactly hustling from across the field to get to the end of the play.
Then again, it was 40 yards to his left.
It was a minimal gain, a positive play for his defense.
So what. Macdonald was irate. He ripped James.
“YOU aren’t like anyone else out here!” Macdonald yelled at the cornerback. “YOU are the only guy not running to the ball!”
A draft choice a few months earlier, James got cut two weeks later.
The new coach demands. The new coach gets results.
Last weekend, his Seahawks — the ones who ran to the ball, survived roster cuts and made the team — had one of the best tackling games early in a Seattle season in years.
The Denver Broncos played conservatively with a rookie quarterback in his NFL debut. Coach Sean Payton had Bo Nix throwing 2- and 3-yard routes most of the game. Almost all the plays were in front of Seahawks defense in the season opener.
The defenders made almost all those plays. Seattle held Denver to 132 yards passing and one touchdown in a six-point win to begin the season.
On the second play of the season for Seattle’s offense, Geno Smith got hit from pressure up the middle. he threw an interception inside his own red zone.
On the first play of the season for the Seahawks defense, it appeared Denver running back Javonte Williams could break off left tackle for a touchdown from 20 yards out. Jenkins flew up from deep safety near the goal line, dived and tackled Williams to the ground by the legs at the 11-yard line.
Instead of a stunning, quick touchdown, the Broncos settled for a field goal. A win for Seattle’s defense.
“I feel like we just did what we do every single day, which is run to the ball, we give relentless effort. We tackle well,” Jenkins said Thursday.
“We practice tackling, I mean, I want to say almost every day we are out there.”
It’s been that was since Macdonald’s first practices with the team, organized team activities in May.
“(Every day), we’ve got some form of tackling circuit or tackling drills,” Jenkins said.
“So I don’t think anything is really a surprise.”
It’s not.
For the NFL’s youngest head coach, it’s a design.
Each day in practice — from spring OTAs through the dragging days of training camp in August to practices this week to play the Patriots in New England Sunday (10 a.m., channel 13) — the 37-year-old Macdonald drills tackling. The coach has all defensive players from all positions go through a three-station rotation.
One station is form tackling from the side. Another is open-field tackling straight on. The third is wrapping a ball carrier from behind and punching at the ball from the top with a downward strike of a fist.
Derick Hall is in his second season after the Seahawks drafted him out of Auburn in the second round last year. The outside linebacker said he’s never had a coach — not last year under Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, not in college, not at Gulfport High School in his native Mississippi — drill these tackling fundamentals every day they are on the field, from spring through fall.
“No, not every day. And not every position doing the same drill,” Hall, the team’s new starting outside linebacker with Uchenna Nwosu out with a knee injury, said at his locker before practice Thursday.
“(On his other teams) DBs will work something different than the linebackers, and then the D-line works something different than the DBs (defensive backs).
“You can see the emphasis we put on the ball.”
Macdonald’s fumble drills pay off
Not only were Hall, Pro Bowl safety Julian Love and their Seahawks teammates all running to the ball to be in position to make their sure tackles against the Broncos. They forced two fumbles doing the drill that is one of those three daily tackling stations.
On the first play of the second quarter Love punched out the ball from Denver rookie running back Audric Estime’s arms. Tight end Adam Trautman dived on the loose ball and the Broncos retained possession.
Love did something Hall of Famers Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed never did: Love had 10 solo tackles against Denver.
“No way,” the disbelieving Love said when The News Tribune told him that this week.
In the third quarter last weekend, Denver’s Jaleel McLaughlin caught a swing pass in the left flat on third and long. Jenkins zoomed up from the back of the defense to the running back. When he reached McLaughlin, Jenkins punched with his left hand in the open field. The ball came free and Seahawks linebacker Jerome Baker recovered the fumble at the Denver 47.
Seattle converted Wallace’s play, straight off Macdonald’s practice field, into a field goal for a 19-13 lead.
“We had a couple of punch outs there last week,” Hall said. “So just being able to see the translation carry over enough to be able to continue to work on the things that we feel like give us the edge on our opponents is really, really huge.”
Hall said he felt this emphasis on running to the ball and tackling from the first day Macdonald spoke to the defense back in April, during offseason meetings.
“For sure,” Hall said. “I believe since day one that we’ve been in here with this new staff and Coach (Chris) Partridge, CP (Macdonald’s new outside linebackers coach), they put an emphasis on being able to tackle, working on our leverage and the way that we go about hitting the ball carrier — maybe to give us that advantage.”
All this daily drilling on tackling fundamentals is making it second nature on Seahawks players.
“A lot of times (in games) it’s so instinctive that you don’t even realize it,” Hall said. “Like, ‘Dang! Previously, I don’t feel like I would have been able to be in position to make that tackle!’ Now that I am, I can see it sustaining and working out really, really well.”
New England a different test
Denver presented finesse offense, with a spotty running game and quick passing.
This Sunday, New England is going to bring big, 227-pound running back Rhamondre Stevenson plowing right at the Seahawks’ defense. And he is going to sternly test Seattle’s tackling skills. Stevenson ran for 120 yards last weekend in the Patriots’ 16-10 upset win at Cincinnati — with 118 of those yards after contact.
The Patriots with veteran journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett ran 39 times for 170 yards to control the game and pound the Bengals.
They run a duo-concept rushing attack: gap-scheme blocking with double-team blocks inside on defensive linemen. The Patriots are going to run Stevenson downhill to read Seahawks inside linebackers Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker for where to run past those duo blocks.
The Seahawks are likely to counter by playing 335-pound Johnathan Hankins far more in New England than the 17 snaps he played against Denver. He’s the only true nose tackle on Seattle’s roster.
“Oh, man, the head coach (for New England, first-year coach Jerod Mayo) ain’t shy about it. He let everybody know. Not that we don’t know,” that the Patriots are going to run the ball, Hankins said.
“Definitely a challenge.”
This is why Hankins signed with the Seahawks from Dallas this offseason, for this kind of game Sunday.
“No doubt. No doubt,” Hankins said.
“First day we got in the meeting (this week), coaches said, ‘They are running duo. They are running it, all types of ways.’
“It’s just a New England team. That aren’t doing anything outside the box. They are doing what they are good at. And they wait to see if you can stop it, then they do something else.
“It’s going to be a good game. I’m excited for this.”
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