Seahakws Mike Macdonald Monday press,    “Through, not around”

POOR TACKLING AND MENTAL ERRORS LEAD TO ANOTHER HOME LOSS

 While the Seahawks played hard and fought till the end, head coach Mike Macdonald was disappointed with the team’s 38-36 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Obviously, we’re not pleased, we’re disappointed in the outcome of the game. I thought the guys did play hard; we fought up to last second. It’s a good example of how the NFL works.

 After studying the tape of yet another home loss, Macdonald is steadfast in his belief in his team and the process being implemented by the coaching staff.

“We scoured through the tape, made a lot of corrections, and the guys are on board. Go through, not around, as we like to say around here. But what’s important is we learn from it, we go attack the heck out of this week, and we come back fresh on Wednesday. All eyes straight ahead, and get ready for Jacksonville.”

The  4-1 Jaguars  are coming off an impressive 31-28 win over the  Chiefs.

HOW YOU SHOW UP AFTER A LOSS IS THE SAME

Without question, the loss to the Buccaneers was  a missed opportunity for the Seahawks. A missed field goal in the Cardinals’ game could have resulted in an overtime loss.  Both games, a win and a loss, came down to a converted field goal. For  Macdonald, the messaging in wins and losses has to be consistent, true to the team’s growth process.

“I think you have to have a temperature for your team, what they need. Consistency is important. You’ve got to double down on what your principles are. If you start chasing all sorts of different things and going down all these different roads, if I’m a player, I’m like what’s expected around here, “ said Macdonald .”

 Hopefully we’re clear on what we’re chasing, put things in perspective, and tell the truth. The go through not around thing is real. It’s how do you want to handle adversity? How do you want to grow as a football team? Well, do you actually want to grow? Do you actually want to take next step, or do you just want to talk about it? We prefer to actually do it.”

TACKLING WAS AN ISSUE

 One area that will get immediate attention is tackling. The Seahawks were sloppy and lacked physicality at the point of attack, resulting in multiple missed tackles.

It’s the way we felt after the game, we missed too many, especially on the perimeter. It’s a technique thing and an all 11(players) type of thing. As a defense, we have to play better, we have to take better angle” said Macdonald. “ We need to practice it better. I know we train the heck out of it, but it’s not showing up on tape right now, so we’ve got to keep attacking it.”

When asked to elaborate  on what specifics  the team was lacking in its tackling, Macdonald was very clear

“Too much space. We missed tackles earlier in the year as well, but they didn’t show up as much because we had more guys at the point of attack. It’s a lot easier to take your shot when I’m next to you and I’ve got three guys behind me, ready to clean it up for me rather than just me versus you out in the open field.”

Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love  would  have improved    the tackling

Two players who could have helped the Seahawks’ tackling woes are Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love. Both missed the game along with DeMarcus Lawrence.

 “Spoon (Devon Witherspoon) and D-Law (DeMarcus Lawrence) this week, they’re going to try to practice in the middle of the week. So, no designation yet, but the plan is for them to practice at some point, middle to late in the week, and then we’ll take it from there said Macdonald.

NEXT MAN UP

 Complicating matters for the Seahawks was the in-game injury to  Riq Woolen. Woolen was diagnosed with a concussion and missed the last part of the game. Nehemiah Pritchett was called into the game and played 19 snaps at cornerback.

“Nehemiah (Pritchett) came in, he knew what to do. The long touchdown in the red zone was everybody included. I know Nehemiah seemed to be at the point of attack right there, but we need to play that play better, as a whole, as a secondary. Nehemiah has been practicing really well, he’s just got to go rip it when the lights come on, on Sundays and Shaq’s (Shaquill Griffin) doing the same thing. Shaq’s ready to go. He’s doing a great job, and he’ll continue to compete for playing time.”

COULD HAVE CALLED BETTER PLAYS

Macdonald’s assessment of how the team performed was not restricted to just the players. In his assessment of his playcalling and team preparedness, Macdonald identified areas that can be improved.

” We pride ourselves on having competition all the time. We’ll see how the plan comes into place throughout the course of the week. See how the guys are practicing, how we want to go into Sunday. I say this all the time, rush and coverage have to work together, and so you have to create these situations where they’re in drop back pass situations by playing early downs.

Then when they’re in play action passes and movements, it’s the whole group working together and recognizing play action pass and getting into conversions. All those things come into play and yesterday it wasn’t even close to how we want it to be. We’ve had some really good quarterback pressure games and yesterday was definitely not one of them. Those guys deserve some responsibility, how we designed it, which is my job and AD’s (Aden Durde) job, we can be better as well. Then the coverage portion as well, we gave them too many answers too early in the down.”

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