RENTON — Mike Macdonald has an all-new challenge.
Motivate his Seahawks to play in a game that ultimately doesn’t matter.
For one of the few times in Seattle the last two decades, the Seahawks are eliminated from playoff contention going into the final week of the regular season.
Last January, when the team also didn’t make the playoffs for only the third time in a dozen years, Seattle stayed in contention until the season’s final day.
The Seahawks (9-7) finish the 2024 season Sunday at the Los Angeles Rams (10-6) in Inglewood, California (1:25 p.m., Channel 13). The Rams have already won the NFC West. That’s the result of their 13-9 win over Arizona Saturday night, then four teams they’ve beaten this season winning this past weekend. Those four wins by others gave them the decisive, strength-of-victory tiebreaker advantage over Seattle to win the division — no matter what happens in Seahawks-Rams on Sunday.
“Yeah, it wasn’t optimum, obviously,” Macdonald said on Monday, a usual Seahawks practice day in Renton coming off their win at Chicago on Thursday.
“But just like we talked about, it’s out of your control. So it’s disappointing, but you got to make the best of it for the rest of the week.”
Even if the Seahawks beat the Rams to finish the regular season with an identical 10-7 record, Los Angeles wins the division and gets the home playoff game. Again, because of that strength-of-victory tiebreaker.
Seattle is also eliminated from wild-card playoff contention. That’s because of the three teams in the NFC North with 10 or more wins — Detroit, Minnesota and Green Bay — all beating the Seahawks this season, plus the Washington Commanders having 11 wins.
This is the first time since Mike Holmgren’s final season coaching the team in 2008 and Jim Mora’s only one leading the Seahawks in ‘09 they’ve missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
Macdonald has been forced into adjusting his Seahawks’ goals for this week.
“The first thing is, it’s an opportunity for us to go get to 10 wins. And that’s important right now,” he said.
Seattle reached 10 or more wins eight times in nine seasons from 2012 through 2020. The Seahawks haven’t gotten to 10 since that 2020 season, under previous coach Pete Carroll.
“There’s a standard here of what we’re trying to establish and show off our football character of what type of team we are, what type of people we are, and how we’re going to play,” Macdonald said. “The situation has changed. But the situation really hasn’t changed to a certain extent, as well. We’re going to play a good football team that won our division, and we want to get to 10 wins.
“Yeah, we are going to go play to win the game.”
To that end, the 37-year-old youngest head man in the NFL said all Seahawks who are not at the risk of further injury are going to play at Los Angeles.
Why Seahawks didn’t make playoffs
Macdonald wasn’t in the mood Monday to assess why the Seahawks aren’t going to the postseason.
“Right now is not the time to diagnose all that type of stuff. Right now is the time to, let’s go to work this week. Let’s make the best of this opportunity,” he said. “We’ve got one more opportunity to keep taking the field as a team. Put our best foot forward. Get to 10 wins. Let’s focus on that.
“And then once the season’s over, which is going to happen earlier than we want, we’ll digest all that stuff and make the proper conclusions and all that type of thing.”
Yet there is one statistic, the defining one of games and seasons, Macdonald couldn’t put off Monday.
The Seahawks have been near the bottom of the league in turnover margin all season. The are 27th in the 32-team NFL now, at minus-7.
Geno Smith is tied with Baker Mayfield for the NFL’s second-most interceptions this season, with 15 in 16 games. That’s one behind Kirk Cousins, whom Atlanta has benched for rookie Michael Penix Jr.
Particularly damning — Smith leads the NFL in red-zone interceptions with five. Those are five times Seattle gave away three and often six points inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. Smith threw two interceptions in the red zone Nov. 3 in what became an overtime loss to the Rams at Lumen Field. Los Angeles returned one of those 103 yards for a touchdown and 14-point swing in a game Seattle lost 26-20.
If the Seahawks had won that one, Sunday’s game would be for the NFC West title.
“Anything you see that goes wrong, put it on me,” Smith said following the two interceptions he threw in the team’s 27-24 home loss to Minnesota two games ago.
That was another narrow Seahawks defeat that, had it been a win, would have kept them in playoff contention through this week.
“Anything that don’t look right, put it on me,” Smith said.
Seahawks defense and turnovers
Seattle’s defense that surged over the latter half of this season, that beat Chicago 6-3, isn’t without blame for the poor turnover margin. They have taken the ball away from foes just 17 times in 16 games.
When Macdonald was defensive coordinator of Baltimore’s No. 1-ranked defense last season, his Ravens led the league with 31 takeaways. That’s why his Ravens led the NFL with a turnover margin of plus-12.
How important is turnover margin to having a successful season, to avoiding what the Seahawks are going through this week for one of the only times in decades?
The top eight teams in turnover differential this season — Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Detroit — are playoff teams.
The bottom eight teams in turnover margin — Cleveland, Tennessee, Las Vegas, Jacksonville, New England, Seattle, the New York Giants and Dallas — are missing the postseason.
“The turnover margin is not where it needs to be moving forward,” Macdonald said. “So again, that’s something we’ll look at in the offseason and go attack the heck out of it. But that stat exists for a reason on positive turnover margin. And the best teams have a high turnover margin, and so that’s something we’re going to be chasing.”
Into the offseason.
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