Takeaways from Seattle Seahawks 26-20 victory over Broncos
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 08: Julian Love #20 of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates after an interception during the second quarter against the Denver Broncos at Lumen Field on September 08, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Jane Gershovich / Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Mike Macdonald has his first victory as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks as his team weathered some early struggles before finding their footing in a 26-20 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
Macdonald's defense looked sharp and well-connected, bailing out an offense that seemed unable to do much of anything right until after halftime. Geno Smith had the longest run of his NFL career for a 34-yard touchdown, and Ken Walker III posted the 7th 100-yard rushing game of his career with a touchdown as well to carry the team to the first win of the the Macdonald era.
"Shoot, it was awesome. Electric. The fans were incredible," Macdonald said. "I mean, they were loud. They were going no huddle on third down, so our communication I thought for the most part was great. What an awesome atmosphere. It was something special I'll tell you that. That was really, really cool."
The Seahawks certainly benefited from Denver starting a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix, who was incapable of taking advantage of any mistakes Seattle's defense did make. Nix threw 42 passes in the game as a Seattle rush defense that has been putrid the last two seasons looked vastly improved. Nix had several off-target throws and forced a pair of balls downfield that found their way into the hands of safety Julian Love and cornerback Riq Woolen for turnovers.
It was an ugly first half of football for both teams. However, the Seahawks found far more answers in the second half, and Tyler Lockett's one-handed catch for a key first down late allowed Seattle to run out the clock to open the season 1-0.
"Proud of our guys and the effort and the attitude, togetherness," Macdonald said. "I thought they played really, really hard, so I'm proud of the guys. There are a lot of things that obviously we're going to want to attack over the next week getting ready for New England, and we'll do that. Hopefully we will make a huge jump from Game 1 to Game 2."
Here are the takeaways from the victory over the Broncos:
– A brilliant debut for Mike Macdonald's defense
The Seahawks came very close to keeping their opponent out of the end zone entirely in Macdonald's first game as head coach. A late Bo Nix touchdown run with 2:09 left to play was the only touchdown of the contest for Denver, despite Seattle miscues granting the Broncos several short-field opportunities.
A Geno Smith interception on the opening drive, and a muffed punt from Dee Williams for a turnover twice put Seattle's back against the wall with the defense holding Denver to field goals instead.
"It's a certain mentality you have to have in the red zone," Macdonald said. "Execution, things happen faster. Like I said, for our whole football team including the defense, nobody batted an eye and stayed poised and did our thing down there. We got to keep the red zone defense rolling."
Seattle held Denver's top two rushers – Javonte Williams and Jaleel McLaughlin – to just 50 yards on 18 carries, which is just 2.8 yards per attempt. Nix completed 26-of-42 passes for 138 yards with two interceptions. Overall, the Broncos managed just 3.3 yards per offensive play on the day.
"We just swarmed to the ball," cornerback Devon Witherspoon said. "We stayed collected as a defense. We faced some challenges early, we had to go back out there, quick turnarounds. We stayed poised, we stayed communicating out there, and we just played football. Defense, shout out to my dogs. It took all 11, and we (are) all collective with it."
The defense looked very well-connected as the pass rush and coverage units were timed up well and able to put the Denver offense under duress.
Macdonald was particularly impressed by Woolen's interception of Nix, which saw him track Courtland Sutton all the way across the field in man coverage to undercut the throw.
"He's one of the few people on this planet that can make that play," Macdonald said.
– The offensive line was a disaster in the first half.
The strength of Seattle's offensive line has been the biggest question mark for the team all offseason, and the first half of Sunday's game was an extremely bad first impression.
George Fant left early with a knee injury. Anthony Bradford had a pair of holding penalties, one of which resulted in a safety. Laken Tomlinson got beat cleanly by Zach Allen backed up against Seattle's goal line for a second Denver safety, and Stone Forsythe – playing in place of Fant – whiffed on numerous block attempts.
"Didn't expect the game to start the way it did, but it did," Macdonald said. "You got to keep moving forward. We got great guys on the O-line. First game, moving around, adjusting to a different style of defense. Definitely not how we wanted to start. We'll be better moving forward."
And they did get better.
Seattle changed some of their run emphasis in the second half, which started to free up the ground game for success. Some ground game success then allowed the passing game to start finding its footing as well.
"Honestly, you know, everything that could have happened that first half happened. But I'm so proud of the guys to be aware, everyone kept their composure, all the players," Tomlinson said. "Geno taking the offense and talking to the offense. All the coaches keeping their composure. I'm real proud of everyone cause the way we responded as well. We came out there in the second half and we were rolling."
Both Tomlinson and wide receiver Tyler Lockett said they just need to experience some success to get things kick started, and once that happened, they would be OK.
"That's the message that Geno gave to us," Tomlinson said. "He brought the offense together that first half. He was like, ‘look if we all just execute on an individual level, nobody can mess with us, and we know what kind of players we have in this locker room, and all we have to do is go out there, execute and just trust the process.’"
The significance of Fant's knee injury isn't clear. He needed assistance off the field and did not return to the game.
"Not sure what's going on. We'll figure that out," Macdonald said.
With Abe Lucas on the PUP list for at least four weeks, an absence for Fant will likely put Forsythe or rookie tackle Mike Jerrell into Seattle's starting lineup.
– Ken Walker III shines.
Once the offensive line managed to level out a little bit, Walker started to carry Seattle's offense.
Walker finished with 103 yards on 20 carries with a 23-yard touchdown run that Walker capped off with a swan dive across the goal line.
"Everybody was locked in," Walker said. "We were poised, everything doesn’t go as planned, as you saw in the first half. After those adjustments, I felt like we just played as a team better."
Walker was listed as questionable to return late in the game due to an abdominal issue as Zach Charbonnet took the closing snaps of the game for Seattle. Walker insisted he was good after the game with Macdonald saying it was a muscle strain for Walker and that they were optimistic.
"We tried to find what worked against their defense, and we were able to find some ground there and get K9 some good runs. So, it worked out well," tight end Noah Fant said.
– Macdonald expresses faith in Dee Williams after punt return gaffe.
Rookie punt returner Dee Williams had a second quarter punt go off his facemask and botched an attempt to recover it himself for a turnover that setup a Denver field goal that extended their lead to 8-3.
It was at a point where almost nothing seemed to be going right for Seattle as well.
After that, Williams let a catch-able punt go that was downed at the 1-yard line as well to pile on that little bit more.
Macdonald backed up Williams after the game and expressed their belief in his ability as a returner.
"A lot of those decisions we felt like the were the right decisions in those decisions based on where he thought he was at least," Macdonald said. "We're going to visit what the philosophy is in those situations, but we're happy with the decision-making. Just got to catch the ball. We got faith in Dee. Going to do a great job for us."