Mike Macdonald was too emotional to watch film on the flight home. Instead, the first-year head coach walked around and chatted with players about the game while his staff put together a tape for him to watch later.
When he finally sat down to review the 23-20 overtime road victory over the New England Patriots, what Macdonald saw was a team that that scratched and clawed its way to a second straight victory to start a new era of Seahawks football. Seattle remains unbeaten heading into a Week 3 matchup with the Miami Dolphins (1-1) largely because of a characteristic required of any successful team: resilience.
Those were some well-earned game balls today.
“You want a resilient football team,” Macdonald said Monday. “You want a together football team, a confident team that’s composed, poised, tough. There’s been some things in the first couple games that haven’t gone our way, whether it’s self-inflicted or the other team is doing good stuff at the time. We’ve been adaptable and steadfast in the vision of how we need to go win the game.
“All those things are great. It’s great to be 2-0. That’s a great win, going across the country. If you ask any of our guys in the locker room, not one would be complacent or feel like we’ve made it by any stretch of the imagination, because there’s a lot of plays out there that we should be able to convert and put ourselves in better position as the game goes forward.”
Here are some of the other reasons Seattle has started strong.
Seattle’s starting cornerback trio of Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon and Tre Brown aspire to be the best in the league. They’re off to a good start, albeit against two opponents with underwhelming receiving corps. Seattle has allowed just 141 yards to wide receivers, which is one of the best marks in the league (all stats are provided by TruMedia unless stated otherwise). And when the Seahawks do give up catches, the receivers aren’t going anywhere; Seattle has been the best in the league at limiting yards after the catch to wideouts.
According to Next Gen Stats, Woolen has been targeted 10 times as the nearest defender and allowed just four catches for 31 yards. He picked off Denver’s Bo Nix in Week 1 and has allowed a passer rating of just 8.8. Witherspoon has one pass breakup on 10 targets and has given up just 25 yards on five receptions with an opponent passer rating of 56.3. Brown has surrendered three catches for 35 yards on six targets and recorded one pass breakup; opponent passer rating when targeting him is 68.1.
On Sunday, Jacoby Brissett completed three passes for 19 yards to his receivers, including a 5-yard touchdown to Ja’Lynn Polk in the first half (safeties K’Von Wallace and Julian Love were the nearest defenders on that play).
“I thought we covered our butts off yesterday,” Macdonald said. “The corners, in particular, deserve a ton of credit on how sticky they were on their wideouts.”
The Dolphins have one of the league’s best receiving duos in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Last season they combined for 2,813 yards and 17 touchdowns on 191 catches while averaging over 5.5 yards after the catch (the league average was 4.4 yards). Hill and Waddle have combined for 304 yards and 19 catches this season. Hill has the only touchdown between them, an 80-yarder in Week 1.
That combo will likely be Seattle’s toughest matchup of the season even though they are likely to be without quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is in the concussion protocol because of a head injury suffered in Week 2. Miami’s starter in Seattle will be Skylar Thompson, who has appeared in a handful of games for the Dolphins since being selected in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. For his career, Thompson is 25 of 35 for 233 yards with two interceptions and zero touchdowns when targeting Waddle and Hill. Quarterback situation aside, though, Waddle and Hill will be a better gauge of whether Seattle’s cornerback room can live up to its own expectations this season.
Left tackle Charles Cross has played 76 snaps in pass protection without allowing a quarterback pressure, one of only three tackles to play at least 40 pass-blocking snaps without allowing pressure this season. Quarterback Geno Smith ranks among the top 10 in pressure rate, which is a problem that will need to be addressed, but Cross’s steady presence has prevented the offensive line from being a complete liability through two games.
When Seattle couldn’t run the ball against the Patriots — Zach Charbonnet had just 38 yards on 14 attempts — offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb put the game in the hands of Smith and the passing game. Smith dropped back 48 times and threw for 327 yards while leading a game-tying drive to end regulation and a game-winning drive in overtime. Smith was able to do that despite a rotation at right guard and a third stringer at right tackle, in part because he and Grubb could trust that the left side would be taken care of.
Cross came into this season wanting to take a Year 3 leap and enter the All-Pro conversation; he’s on track through two games.
The Seahawks have an underwhelming sack rate (6.8 percent) through two games, but they’ve been among the best in the league at generating pressure. And they’ve done it while blitzing at a rate that ranks below the league average. They’re causing problems for quarterbacks and hitting them as often as anyone in the league other than the Vikings and Cowboys, they just haven’t been able to get quarterbacks to the ground. But even without generating sacks the defense is top five in EPA per dropback.
Leading the charge has been third-year outside linebacker Boye Mafe, whose pressure rate of 23.8 percent ranks top 10 among defenders with at least 25 snaps rushing the passer. Not far behind is defensive tackle Leonard Williams, who has a pressure rate of 19 percent (the league average is around 10 percent). Mafe and Williams have accounted for 13 quarterback hits and 3.5 of Seattle’s five sacks. Mafe is one of the players Macdonald praised after watching Sunday’s game tape.
“The numbers didn’t support how well he’s playing right now; he’s doing a really good job,” Macdonald said Monday on his KIRO-AM radio show. “But he needs to finish some sacks, man.”
Consistent pressure should eventually lead to sacks, so it’s probably a matter of time before the Seahawks have a big day rushing the quarterback. In Week 3 last season, for example, the Seahawks had a pressure rate of 43.5 percent but had only three sacks to show for it. The next week their pressure rate was only slightly higher (46.2) but they recorded 11 sacks in a win over the Giants.
Smith has completed 73.9 percent of his passes; he ranks top-20 in EPA per dropback and has done a good job of limiting negative plays despite being pressured at a high rate. In the postgame locker room Sunday, Grubb received the game ball on behalf of the entire offense, but it easily could have gone to Smith, who according to Macdonald played a “tremendous” game.
“That was a heck of a performance, man,” Macdonald said. “Geno has a little chip on his shoulder (and) I like it. They just keep sleeping on this guy. He played at a super-high level. He deserves all the credit that he’s getting right now. He’s playing his tail off.”
The Seahawks don’t want to make a habit of Smith dropping back over 45 times while getting virtually nothing from the running game, but Macdonald is learning in real time that his quarterback can occasionally be trusted to put the offense on his shoulders. The Seahawks may need more of that if they continue to be without right tackle George Fant (knee) and running back Ken Walker III (oblique) while shuffling between Anthony Bradford and Christian Haynes at right guard.
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