Imagine being offered a delicious meal with the one condition being you had to drink spoiled milk with it. Imagine a great massage from one person while another stabs you with tiny needles. Seahawks fans do not need to imagine this fusion of joy and pain. It flows through us like The Force, providing the power to shake the earth or shed enough tears to end a drought. Seattle lost their fourth straight home game and fell to 0-2 in the NFC West. There were so many awful and inexcusable mistakes in this game to provide limitless fuel to anyone wants to see the exit of Geno Smith, John Schneider, Mike Macdonald, Ryan Grubb, etc. Part of the reason those mistakes were so painful was Seattle was the better team in all three phases for much of the game, something the Seahawks have rarely been able to say against a Sean McVay Rams team.
There are two ways to respond to a game like this, in the midst of a season like this. You can decide this is not the right coach, the right quarterback, the right general manager and call for them, or some combination, to be replaced. The evidence in favor of turning against Macdonald is that this team continues to play sloppy football nine weeks into the season, the defense he is known for has largely been bad, and they are losing at an alarming clip. The case against Smith is that he has made back-breaking mistakes at critical moments that cost his team the game yesterday and now has almost as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns (11). He is also 34-years-old, and coming up on the final year of his contract. John Schneider put a target on his back by brazenly saying interior offensive linemen are overpaid and overdrafted only to see the Seahawks offensive line be the one of the worst in football for the bazillionth straight season. He also has exited the draft with an inferior class to the Rams for two straight years and the 49ers this year.
The criticisms are fair and each man has practically been handing pitchforks to angry fans with some of their decisions and with the performances on the field. Here is where I am on each of those key decisions nine weeks into a 4-5 season.
Mike Macdonald
Macdonald was the coach I wanted before he was hired. I only gained more confidence and respect for him as I got to speak with him and understand his perspective on people and the sport. That game against the Bills, though, broke my spirit. It was the latest in what felt like an endless string of terrible defensive performances that involved non-existent run defense. Even the win over Atlanta included plenty of Falcons rushing success despite the final score.
I was dreading attending this game against McVay and Kyren Williams and a Rams offensive line that has done a good job of run blocking. Macdonald has been consistent in saying the run defense was like a puzzle and it was eventually going to fit together. The puzzle pieces felt so far apart and mangled that we might not see them come together until next year.
Then, this happened.
Seattle stifled the Rams run game. Where I had lowered my expectations to hope the could just hold them under 120 yards rushing as a sign of progress, they held Los Angeles to 68 yards, and 2.8 yards per carry. There were no runs of 10+ yards. Nearly 80% of the Rams rushing attempts when for 5 yards or less. Nearly 50% went for 1 yard or less.
There were no big mistakes or missed tackles. Seattle was not just acceptable against the run. They were dominant.
That combined nicely with some pressure calls Macdonald dialed up in the first half to get free rushers on Matthew Stafford and force incompletions.
The Rams had their full slate of skill players in the first half who helped them beat the Vikings at home in their previous game. Seattle held them scoreless on their first four possessions. One of those possessions started at midfield after an interception. No Pete Carroll defense had ever accomplished that against McVay. I doubt many defense have accomplished that against McVay.
Seattle forced seven three-and-out possessions for the game. Only one defense had managed to do that to McVay during his time with the Rams. In other words, it only happened 1 time in 115 games (0.87%) for the Rams. The last time the Seahawks forced that many three-and-out drives was in 2017, and they only did it twice between 2012 and 2023.
McVay was the one coordinator who seemed to get the better of Macdonald last year, even in a Rams loss to Baltimore. The inverse happened in this game.
The Seattle defense frustrated the Rams offense all day. The Seahawks special teams had a huge play with a blocked punt and some great coverage. The missed extra point was pivotal, but the overall performance was impressive.
The only way a Macdonald tenure will be successful is if he can produce a great defense. Early returns were mixed, but the arrow was pointed down. This game changed that trajectory. It is fair to point out there were not any sacks, but the pressure was there and the results were impressive.
Macdonald made the decision to hire almost all coaches he had not coached with before. Some of that was due to his youth and lack of time to build those relationships. Some of it was due to being hired so late in the off-season, and having less choice. Some of it was because his hiring coincided with Jim Harbaugh returning to the NFL and taking a lot of the Michigan staff with him. And some of it was many of his former staff getting hired as defensive coordinators elsewhere in the NFL.
The newness of this staff has to be contributing to the sloppiness. Ryan Grubb is coaching in the NFL for the first time, as is Scott Huff and Jay Harbaugh. There is a lot of adjusting going on. Carroll changed over part of his staff after his first season in Seattle, including his offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. It would not surprise me if Macdonald made some adjustments this offseason. Grubb is someone I continue to believe in, and do not see greener grass elsewhere. We might find that Macdonald and Grubb did not mix as well behind the scenes. That would be the only reason I could see a change being made.
Some fans like to compare Macdonald to Jim Mora Jr. That reflects poorly on the memories of those fans. Mora Jr. never had that team showing promise and never had the locker room. That 2009 squad lost their final four straight by a combined score of 123-37. The players gave up on him. There was nothing schematically interesting or evidence of progress.
If Macdonald oversees 3-4 more of those Buffalo games the rest of the season, than we can revisit this comparison. For now, it is baseless.
We spent seven years wishing Carroll could find some way to slow down McVay. He never did. Macdonald did it in his first game against him in the midst of a season when his defense was in a tailspin. That is a coach I want to see get many more chances, including a full offseason, before reaching for a pink slip.
Geno Smith
Smith is a person I root for and respect. I wear his jersey to games with pride. He showed once again how unshakeable his will to win is by driving the team down the field to tie the game in regulation.
He also made mistakes you simply cannot make in this game. His arm was hit on the interception return for touchdown and A.J. Barner was held on the second red zone interception. He was under pressure a season-high 59.1% of the time, per Next Gen Stats. The run game still was not helpful enough in big moments.
Still, Smith’s internal decision-making process is too skewed toward taking risks. He held the ball longer in this game. He tried to eek out every millisecond to let a play develop despite almost instant pressure snap-after-snap.
He needs to take fewer chances when under pressure. He needs to throw the ball away more. He needs to take a few yards on a check-down or even just take the sack more often. The same unbending confidence that allows him to respond to adversity and make miraculous throws is working against him on these turnovers. There needs to be a higher priority put on protecting the ball, even if it comes at the expense of points.
Many fans are ready to see Sam Howell. That would be a mistake. The locker room knows how much better Smith is than Howell and most NFL quarterbacks. Macdonald needs to let the season play out. If Smith continues to turn the ball over multiple times each game, the decision will make itself.
The Seahawks are unlikely to offer Smith an extension after this season if his play remains this erratic and turnover-prone. He could hold out, but ultimately, Seattle could force him to play the final year of his deal and even consider a franchise-tag the following year if they do not feel there is a successor ready.
He is someone I continue to believe is capable of far superior play if he could ever play behind a line that is not the worst in the game. You will not hear me calling for Howell or being eager to see Smith’s time here come to an end.
John Schneider
The state of the offensive line is the one part of this picture that is truly inexcusable. Schneider has struggled to scout and assemble a good offensive line for his entire tenure. If he is stubborn about sticking to his guns about interior offensive line play, the Seahawks need a new general manager.
I think he will change his approach. Macdonald, Grubb, and Huff will have something to do with that. Schneider should also be given credit for going against his tendencies in recent years and improving his picks in the first round. Macdonald may have foreshadowed that changes could be coming sooner than the offseason in his postgame press conference when asked about the play of the offensive line.
“We’re not there yet by any stretch of the imagination,” Macdonald said. “I thought the guys
played hard. We’ve been playing hard up front. But that’s going to be part of what we’re looking
at over the next week.”
That sounds like a coach who has decided they do not have the right players. Saying they are playing hard while calling out how far off they are seems like a capability indictment. There could be another trade made. It does not seem like lineup changes make much sense, but they should not be ruled out. There are generally reasons players are lower on the depth chart, so be careful about calling for guys you have not seen.
Abe Lucas will be need to be activated after the bye week or he will revert to IR for the rest of the season. Even if he is activated, he may not play for a while.
This team will never get close to where they want to go until this unit is addressed. It is holding back the quarterback, the run game, the receivers and the defense. Schneider should have the chance to mesh with these new coaches and prove that he has changed his perspective on addressing the interior offensive line.
Odds and ends
You need look no further than Jaxon Smith-Njigba for evidence that fan ire is often not based in fact. Smith-Njigba was being panned by many who thought he was not showing enough to be worthy of his draft status. He was leading the Seahawks in receptions heading into this game, and is now tied with D.K. Metcalf for the lead in receiving yards after a stellar 180-yard game. He could have had over 250 yards receiving if not for two big plays being called back, the first one on a phantom holding call.
Smith-Njigba is not going to be your #1 receiver. He is not going to wow you with speed or strength. He will get open often, make tough catches, and be creative after the catch. At just 22-years-old, folks need to understand that he is well ahead of the development curve at the position.
Cody White had a terrific game as well in his first shot up from the practice squad. He took almost all of Jake Bobo’s snaps and may have pushed Bobo down the depth chart with how he played.
Devon Witherspoon felt like he played his best game in a while. His run fits were so much better and his coverage was solid. Many are hating on Riq Woolen. I thought he played a very good game until the last drive. Even then, he was exactly where he should be to make the interception and made an understandable, if not good, decision to wait for the ball to come right to him. One of his best plays was on a swing pass where he tracked the receiver all the way across the field and brought him down for a short gain. People who think Woolen is the problem have not seen corner play elsewhere. This team is better for having Woolen on it, and the potential for him and Witherspoon and Julian Love to grow together is still something to be excited about.
Coby Bryant deserves a callout for a really nice game and Kam Chancellor-esque hit to break up a pass at the end of regulation.
What’s next
Macdonald and crew get a bye week to lick their wounds and decide how they want to approach the stretch run. Success will be less about wins and losses, and more about whether he can build on the defensive performance we saw against the Rams. This offensive line feels pretty hopeless. Once Lucas comes back, he should help, but we do not know when that will be.
The maddening part is that this team is capable of winning every game left on their schedule with just mediocre line play. They will get Metcalf back. Ernest Jones and the defense will have more time to get in sync.
There is a path toward an encouraging end to the season. There is also a path where things fall apart beyond repair. I expect it to be the former.
